Stout v. Bolin
Stout v. Bolin
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
Bolin and Hopkins were doing business at Liberal, and the plaintiff, W. C. Stout, at Arkalon. Early in November, 1909, Mr- Bolin called on plaintiff to look at some cattle owned by the latter on his ranch, with the result that Bolin bargained for 100 of the 150 head at four and one-half cents a pound, the cattle to be selected on the following Wednesday, this being Saturday. On the next Tuesday Court Brown called at the plaintiff’s store with one Frank Griffith, a stranger, and asked to be connected by telephone with Mr. Bolin at Liberal. A long-distance conversation ensued, the effect of which was that Bolin, who had purchased seventy-five head from a Mr. Forbes, was to step from under both contracts, in favor of Griffith, in consideration of $100 profit on the two deals and a return of $500 he had paid on the Forbes cattle. Brown advised Stout that they had bought the Forbes cattle and his
The .jury were told, among other things, that if Griffith through Brown acted for the defendants in carrying out the terms of the contract between the plaintiff and the defendants, “or that he was a purchaser of the cattle from the defendants, and that the plaintiff was authorized and directed by the defendants, or either of them, through said Brown, to turn the said cattle over to the said Griffith instead of to them, and that the contract between the plaintiff and defendants was never abandoned or canceled, and that defendants were to be responsible to the plaintiff thereunder,” then the plaintiff was entitled to recover. Of course, if Griffith through Brown acted for the defendants in carrying out the terms of the contract they had made with Stout they would be bound, but if Griffith was a purchaser of the cattle from the defendants, and after-wards made a new contract with the plaintiff to take them by the head instead of taking them by weight, it is impossible to see how the contract between the plaintiff and defendants could fail to have been adandoned or how they were to be responsible to the plaintiff thereunder^ A subsequent proper instruction was that if a new contract was made between the plaintiff and Griffith, to whom the cattle were delivered for his benefit, then the plaintiff could not recover. The jury asked of the court the question:, “Does the fact of the turning of said cattle over for $40 per head through a third party, instead of delivering them for four and one-half cents per pound, as the contract calls for,
We think that in both quoted instructions there was a failure to state the law correctly as applied to the facts before the jury, and that in view of the evidence shown by the record it was highly essential that the points covered by the two instructions in question be clearly and properly covered.
The judgment is reversed and the cause remanded for further proceedings.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- W. C. Stout v. J. R. Bolin, doing business as Bolin & Hopkins
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- SYLLABUS BY THE COURT. 1. Sale — Cattle-—Contract Transferred by Purchaser — Original Contract Abandoned — Agency of Transferee Not Proven — • Erroneous Instructions. The defendants contracted with plaintiff for certain cattle by the pound, and shortly thereafter transferred their interest in the deal to another, who thereupon agreed with the plaintiff to take the cattle at so much a head, and upon the conclusion of such agreement, made the first payment towards their purchase price. The plaintiff claimed that such other party was acting as agent of the defendants, which was denied, the only evidence of agency, if any, being circumstantial or by way of inference, and not direct. The court charged, in substance, among other things, that if the contract between plaintiff and defendants was never abandoned or canceled and the defendants were to be responsible to the plaintiff thereunder, the plaintiff could recover. Held, to be misleading, and therefore error. 2. Same — Answer of Jury to Special Question — Instruction. In answer to a question by the jury whether turning over the cattle at a fixed price a head annulled the contract to take them by the pound, the court instructed, in effect, that a substantial compliance with the terms of the contract would be sufficient. Held, error, as the latter contract, if made, would of necessity annul the former.