Cite as: 516 U. S. 59 (1995)
Breyer, J., dissenting
cation was false, for Mans had transferred the inn at least a few days earlier. Still, the Bankruptcy Court asked whether that false implication had made any difference, i. e., whether the Fields, during the next few years, had relied upon this false implication in not accelerating the debt (and obtaining their money before Mans' bankruptcy). The judge very much doubted any actual reliance. But, in any event, Mr. Field had visited the property fairly regularly to check on the progress of the development, he had seen Mans there fairly often, and he had been told that De Felice had been on the premises, claiming to be "the new owner." And, that being so, the judge held that at some point over the course of the next 31/2 years—during which time Mr. Field was "accepting mortgage payments and looking at drawings and discussing the project with Mans"—Mr. Field should simply have asked Mans, "What's the deal here? Who owns this thing?" Id., at 42-43. (Or, the Fields could "have simply checked the title in the . . . County Registry of Deeds which Mr. Field has demonstrated he knows very well is up in North Haverhill." Id., at 42.)
To hold this is, in my view, to apply the commentators' "justifiable reliance" standard. The court focused upon the individual circumstances and capacity of the plaintiff, Mr. Field. See Prosser & Keeton § 108, at 751. The court found that Mr. Field should have looked into the matter, not because of any general "duty to investigate," but because, in the particular circumstances, he "discovered something which should serve as a warning that he [was] being deceived." Id., § 108, at 752. That is, the court did not use the "objective" test as an improper search for "contributory negligence"—i. e., to deny recovery to one also at fault for failing to exercise "the care of a reasonably prudent person for his own protection." Id., § 108, at 750. Rather, the court viewed the failure to investigate, in light of the clear warnings of deception, as a means of testing whether there was "some objective corroboration to plaintiff's claim that
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