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Torts - Misrepresentation - Knowledge Of Falsity Unnecessary, Gerald D. Rapp

Michigan Law Review

Defendant, a real estate broker, while showing plaintiffs a house which they subsequently purchased told them that the walls of the house were of tile construction with imitation stone on the outside. Defendant reasonably believed this to be true, although the walls actually had been cleverly constructed of earth, clay, and straw with a plaster covering on the inside and a tarlike preparation on the outside covered with a thin veneer of imitation stone, completely concealing their true nature. Purchasers brought an action, on the theory of deceit, against the broker to recover damages. A jury verdict for plaintiffs was …