Iowa Mausoleum Co. v. Wright
Iowa Mausoleum Co. v. Wright
Opinion of the Court
The action is upon the following contract:
EXHIBIT “A”
The Iowa Mausoleum Company, Waterloo, Iowa.
Price of Compartments $150.00 each.
Shenandoah, Iowa, Nov. 16, 1910.
I, T. B. Wright, hereby subscribe for four compartments in the Grand Compartment Mausoleum to be constructed in the City of Shenandoah, Iowa, according to the plans drawn by the Iowa Mausoleum Company, on file at Ferguson’s office for which I agree to pay the Iowa Mausoleum Company, or order, the sum of Six hundred Dollars as follows: One-third when foundations are in; one-third when walls and compartments aré constructed to the square, and balance when roof is on and all work is completed. It is further agreed that above company will give a deed for the compartments herein subscribed when payment is made in full and building is dedicated. Payable at First National Bank, Shenandoah, Iowa.
T. B. Wright.
The Iowa Mausoleum Company,
By C. L. Langley, Special Representative.
Thereafter the defendant sent to the plaintiff the following letter:
Shenandoah, Iowa, July 24, 191Í.
Iowa Mausoleum Company, Waterloo, Iowa. Dear Sirs: November 16th, 1910, I subscribed for four compartments conditionally in a mausoleum to be erected in Shenandoah,*548 Iowa, on the verbal representations of your Mr. Langley. Recent investigation has revealed the fact that the building is to be built quite different from what I was led to expect and will not be a permanent and lasting building that one must be in order to have any value when it is to be used for such a purpose. For reasons given above I wish to withdraw my contract and will ask you to kindly cancel the same and return said contract to me at once. Respectfully,
T. B. Wright.
On the same day, but after the letter by defendant, as we understand it, — though the record is not clear as to this,— a committee of crypt holders, of which the defendant was a member, wrote to the plaintiff as follows:
exhibit “b”
(Omitting letter head.)
Shenandoah, Iowa, July 24, 1911.
Iowa Mausoleum Company, Waterloo, Iowa. Gentlemen: — On the 19th inst., your engineer, Mr. J. B. Balcomb, was in Shenandoah and called a meeting of the compartment or crypt holders in the mausoleum you are to build here in Shenandoah. The crypt holders insisted on being fully informed as to the plans and specifications for the proposed building, and asked that a committee from their number be allowed to inspect the plans and specifications and submit them to some competent engineer for his approval. Your Mr. Balcomb consented to this and the undersigned committee was appointed and the plans and specifications so far as Mr. Balcomb had the same were turned over to this committee. This committee selected a well known firm of consulting engineers and submitted the plans and specifications that had been turned over to it to the engineers. We have just received their report and are enclosing a copy herewith except that we are not giving the names of the engineers, preferring for the present to withhold the names. You will note that the engineers in their report state that no specifications what*549 ever were turned over to them and that they cannot make a full and complete report without full and complete plans and specifications. This committee turned over to the engineers everything they had received from your Mr. Balcomb, and supposed that they had the full and complete specifications and plans. The report of the engineers is virtually useless the way it stands, as you will admit.
We wish you would send us immediately the complete plans and specifications and all the data called for in the report of the engineers. As soon as we receive the full and complete plans and specifications we will turn them over to our engineer and get a report just as soon as possible. We feel sure that you do not want any delay in this matter and we certainly are anxious to have the information as soon as we can. Your Mr. Balcomb promised that no work would be begun on the mausoleum until our committee could consult an engineer, get his report' and submit the report to the crypt holders. Of course you will admit that this is only •fair. We mention this as we do not want any work commenced until we can get a full and complete report from our engineers and submit it to the crypt holders.
Trusting that we may hear from you with the proper plans and specifications at an early date, we are, very truly yours,
(Signed)
J. J. Cardwell,
T. B. Wright,
A. W. Murphy.
The plaintiff did not consent to the attempted rescission of the contract by defendant, but on July 26,1911, in response to defendant’s letter of the 24th, first above set out, in which plaintiff expressed surprise at the contents of defendant’s letter, stated that they expected to build the mausoleum in accordance with the agreement, and stating that they realized that influences had been at work adverse to the plaintiff and that an attempt had been made to injure it wherever possible by misrepresenting the facts; but that they expected to abide
On July 19, 1911, there was a meeting of the crypt holders, at which defendant was present, and he participated in the proceedings. The plans were discussed and questions were asked of the representative of the plaintiff company, who stated that the original plans had proved defective in some instances and that he had a better plan. At this meeting, the plaintiff’s engineer was asked if he cared if the plans were examined by someone else, and" he said there would be no objection. Thereupon, the names of the defendant, Mr. Cardwell and Mr. Murphy were suggested as a committee. It is shown that at this meeting the matter was thoroughly discussed regarding the building. The plans were submitted to architects at Omaha, Nebraska, who made two reports. In the last one, they suggested certain changes, and stated:
“The mausoleum constructed as planned and specified will be a credit to your city, and will endure for centuries, but rigid inspection is absolutely essential to achieve this result.”
The mausoleum in question was built in accordance with the plans as modified and suggested by the Omaha architects, and we are satisfied from the record that there was a substantial compliance therewith, and this was done without any further objection from the defendant. There is no evidence that the building as erected will not be a permanent and lasting building, as defendant claimed in his letter of the 24th it would be.
In Port Huron Machinery Co. v. Hurto, 154 Iowa 435, in speaking of the right to recover upon a contract for the sale of personal property, the court, at page 437, said:
“The authorities generally are not agreed on the question whether there can be a recovery of the contract price where the contract is not fully executed by the transfer of title; but it is the general holding that the mere retention of possession by the ven'dor is not material. There may be a little confusion in our own cases on the question whether the retention of title by the vendor necessarily remits him to an action for damages alone, because of language used in one or two opinions. But we think an examination of the cases will show that, where the issue was directly involved, we have never held that in such cases there cannot be a recovery of the contract price; while, on the contrary, we have directly held that such recovery can be had, although neither title nor possession have passed to the vendee. In McAlister v. Safley, 65 Iowa 719, a written order for a granite monument was given to the plaintiff’s assignors, Webster & Williams, by the defendant and accepted by said Webster & Williams. Before anything had been done by Webster & Williams to*553 ward completing the monument or delivering it, the defendant notified them that she would not receive it, and requested them not to complete it. It was also shown that at the time the contract was entered into, Webster & Williams, were the owners of the monument and had it in their possession, and that it was wholly completed except the cutting of the inscription that had been directed by the defendant. On the facts as above recited, this court said:
“ ‘On this state of facts, we think there can be no question of defendant’s liability for the contract price of the monument. It may be conceded that the contract was executory and that the property in the monument did not vest in defendant upon the execution and delivery of the written agreement. But neither of the parties reserved a right of rescission. Defendant’s undertaking to pay the stipulated price was contingent on the single condition that Webster & Williams would cut the inscription on the monument, deliver it at Traer, and set it up at the grave of her husband. She agreed absolutely that upon the happening of these conditions she would pay the price agreed upon at the stipulated time. There was no failure on their part to perform their undertaking. She, therefore, had no grounds for rescinding the contract. ’
“The law will not permit one party to an agreement to terminate it at his pleasure, unless the right to do so is reserved in the contract itself. ’ ’
Plaintiff did not consent to the attempted rescission, but insisted upon performance by defendant, and it performed its part and built the mausoleum according to the contract as modified by the defendant and his associates,.the other crypt holders. We do not understand the parties to dispute the proposition that defendant’s letter of July 24th would have been a breach of the contract and that plaintiff could have sued for the breach. It did not do this, but was insisting all the time upon performance. In this ease, no time was fixed
We think, under the evidence in this case, there was a change of mind on the part of defendant after his letter of July 24th. Thereafter, as one of the committee, he insisted upon certain concessions by plaintiff in the construction of the building. Changes in the plans were made, and thereafter plaintiff built the mausoleum in accordance with the plans as so changed, Avithout further objection on the part of defendant. Under such circumstances, after the building is completed, defendant may not now rely upon his attempted repudiation of the contract. This is the ground on which we affirm.
In Davis v. Bronson, 16 L. R. A. 655, the question was discussed. That was a case where, defendant having refused to perform a contract for the erection of a creamery by plaintiffs before they had entered upon the performance thereof, it Avas held that an action to recover the contract price would not lie, although plaintiffs had, notwithstanding defendant’s refusal to perform, completed the creamery according to contract; that the remedy -was for damages for breach of the contract. But in that ease, there was no evidence of the change of mind indicating a withdrawal of the objection by defendant to a performance of the contract. The cases cited in the opinion and note recognize the doctrine of repentance or change of mind.
Other errors are assigned, but defendant merely says in argument that, “While we will not discuss each of the errors assigned, it is not our intention to abandon any of them.” We think the exhibits were properly admitted in evidence.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.