Winans v. Sierra Lumber Co.
Winans v. Sierra Lumber Co.
Opinion of the Court
The plaintiff sued the defendant for breach of a contract alleged to have been made between them in March, 1881, in respect to the manufacture Of lumber. The complaint charges that at the time stated the defendant was the owner of two steam sawmills, known as the Champion and Yellow Jacket mills, and of a large quantity of timber lands in the vicinity of the mills—all in Tehama county—together with a lumber yard and planing-mill, and also a water flume, extending from the Champion Mill to the lumber yard and planing-mill, and was also the owner of a large amount of other property, used in and about the manufacture of lumber. That on or about the 15th of March, 1881, defendant agreed to furnish to plaintiff, to be used by him during the lumbering season of 1881, in manufacturing lumber from the defendant’s lands, the aforesaid mills and flume, sixty head of oxen, six horses, all the trucks, chains, etc., pertaining to the mills, all the running.gear for necessary tram-cars, sufficient strap iron and nails to build a strap iron tramway from the
After trial there was a verdict and judgment for the plaintiff for $10,241, and costs. The appeal is by the defendant. Both sides agree that the engine furnished by the defendant would not work successfully on the tramway built by the plaintiff, but, why, was the question; defendant contending that it was because of the worthlessness of the tramway, and the plaintiff, that it was because the engine was not adapted to a tramway of that kind, and was not the kind of an engine defendant had agreed to furnish.
The court below instructed the jury:
“If the jury believe from the evidence that the engine furnished by defendant to plaintiff was not of the make and description it had contracted to furnish him, and that the plaintiff duly notified the defendant of the defects in said engine, and of its unfitness for the purposes of said contract, and afterward, without any default on his part, made every reasonable effort in good faith to accomplish the purposes of said contract, and to prevent loss or injury, but ultimately, by reason of defendant’s failure to furnish an engine of the kind and make agreed to be furnished, suffered damage, and was prevented from manufacturing lumber, which he otherwise would have manufactured, then the plaintiff is entitled to recover as damages the contract price for the lumber which he was so prevented from manufacturing, less the ex*225 pense he would have incurred in manufacturing said lumber, over and above the amount necessarily expended under the circumstances, in manufacturing the amount actually manufactured by him. ’ ’
We are unable to comprehend the rule of damages laid down by the court, and it is quite certain the jury could not have understood it. The instruction is clear enough down to the clause “over and above the amount necessarily expended under the circumstances in manufacturing the amount actually manufactured by him”; but the insertion of this clause rendered the instruction unintelligible.
Judgment and order reversed and cause remanded for a new trial.
We concur: McKinstry, J.; McKee, J.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- WINANS v. SIERRA LUMBER COMPANY
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Damages—Unintelligible Instruction.—In the trial of an action founded on the alleged breach of a contract, an instruction that sets forth the measure of damages in unintelligible language is error.