Majestic Manufacturing Co. v. Pueblo Hardware Co.
Majestic Manufacturing Co. v. Pueblo Hardware Co.
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
Action by The Majestic Manufacturing Company against The Pueblo Hardware Company to recover $173.50, the value of goods, wares and merchandise sold by the plaintiff to the defendant. Defense, a contract between plaintiff and defendant that the defendant should have the exclusive building and sale, in the city of Pueblo, Colorado, of the plaintiff’s stoves and ranges for one year; and that plaintiff would not sell stoves and ranges to any other dealer in Pueblo during that time; which contract the plaintiff violated by selling" and delivering, within the year, large numbers of stoves and ranges to other dealers in Pueblo, so that defendant’s trade was injured and its business damaged in the sum of $150; also a sale by plaintiff to defendant of a range warranted to be perfect, but which was imperfect and useless, to the defendant’s further damage in the sum of $60.00; also a sale to defendant of a defective water-front, to its damage $10.00. There was a replication denying the averments of the answer.
The singular action of the court in constructing a judgment upon the verdict we do not find it necessary to comment upon. Defendant’s counsel says that the jury, in addition to their general verdict, made special findings that the damage on account of the imperfect range was $34.00, and of the defective water-front $8.00; and that the defendant had been damaged $150 by the plaintiff’s breach of its contract-giving the defendant the exclusive sale of its goods. These findings are not in the record, but we shall accept counsel’s statement, and assume that the general verdict was composed of the items he mentions.
Possibly there was enough of evidence to sustain the finding of damages on account of the defective range and waterfront, and therefore that finding will not be noticed. It was in the proof necessary to entitle it to the other damages that the defendant failed. There was no sufficient evidence that any such contract concerning the exclusive sale by the defendant of the plaintiff’s goods, as is alleged in the answer,
In saying that he had a contract, he merely stated an inference of his own. The facts from which he inferred the contract did not justify the inference. Whether there was a contract or not, was a question of law, to be determined upon the facts in evidence; and as those facts did not show a contract, the conclusion which the witness deduced from them is not to be regarded.
Mr. Gibbs, the defendant’s bookkeeper, was also a witness, and his testimony was of exactly the same character as that of Mr. Nash.
The verdict was not supported by the evidence and the judgment must be reversed.
Reversed-.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.