Katogir v. Owen Joist Corp.
Katogir v. Owen Joist Corp.
Opinion of the Court
This is an action by Owen Joist Corporation against Michael Katogir, d/b/a M. K. Design & Development Company, for damages for the alleged breach of a contract dated October 28, 1969, for the manufacture and delivery to the plaintiff’s South Carolina plant of two "mid-web bending machines” for use in manufacuring steel joists. The complaint alleges a breach of the specific terms of the contract as well as implied warranties, and seeks damages in the amount paid to the defendant under the contract, $41,100, plus interest and court costs. The defendant filed a counterclaim for $27,400, the balance due on the $68,500 purchase price, plus interest and court costs. The trial of the case resulted in a verdict and judgment in favor of the plaintiff for $25,000. The defendant appeals from the overruling of his motion for a new trial on the general grounds and the plaintiff cross appeals from the overruling of its motion for judgment n.o.v.
The contract specified that the machines, designated as "A” and "B,” shall have certain performance specifications, including an approximate bend time of 10 seconds, and "will operate at least as effectively and efficiently as the mid-web bending machine previously demonstrated to buyer at seller’s plant.” The alleged breach of the contract arose out of the plaintiff buyer’s insistence upon a certain maximum tolerance of error in the machines, which was not provided for in the contract either specifically or by reference and not specifically made known to the defendant seller until about 3 (or 7) months after the contract was executed, but which, the buyer contends, should have been included under an implied warranty of fitness for the pur
Section XII of the contract provides: "This conditional sales agreement shall be considered as made and executed in the State of South Carolina construed under the laws of that state.” Certified copies of several relevant sections of
Under the evidence admitted, and the applicable law, there were several findings that the jury might have made. They could have found (1) that the defendant breached an implied warranty of fitness for the purpose intended; (2) that the defendant breached a provision of the contract which became incorporated therein by mutual understanding and course of performance; (3) that the plaintiff breached the contract by unreasonably rejecting one or both machines; (4) that the purported agreement was not an enforceable contract because there was no meeting of the minds with regard to the important and disputed matter of allowable pitch point variation tolerances; (5) that there was no meeting of the minds as to machine A, but that the plaintiff breached the contract as to machine B by not having the defendant proceed with its assembly and delivery; and (6) that there was no meeting of the minds as to machine A, but that the defendant breached the contract as to machine B by not assembling it for delivery.
While it is difficult, if not impossible, in this case to determine exactly how the jury arrived at the particular $25,000 verdict, the facts and the law would authorize finding (5) above, for example, so that the plaintiff would be entitled to the return of the $22,800 it had paid toward the purchase price of machine A, plus some incidental expense incurred, such as the cost of shipping the machine from the plaintiff’s plant back to the defendant’s shop.
Since the verdict was within the range of the evidence, it will not be overturned upon the general grounds of the motion for new trial, which motion was properly overruled.
With regard to the plaintiff’s cross appeal (Case No. 47225), since, as was held in Division 1 hereinabove, there were a number of possible findings which could have been made by the jury under the facts in evidence and the
For the above reasons, the trial judge did not err in overruling the defendant’s motion for new trial on the general grounds and the plaintiff’s motion for judgment n.o.v.
Judgments affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.