Bannister v. Weatherford
Bannister v. Weatherford
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
The variance between the contract as stated in the declaration, and as established by the plaintiff’s proof
The evidence conduced to prove, that after making the .contract with the plaintiff, and long before the time’for delivery, the defendant contracted to sell and deliver the same hogs to another person, but that the hogs remained in his possession on his farm until some time after the last day named for the delivery to the plaintiff, and were never delivered either to the first or second purchaser, but were in fact delivered to some other.
The Court instructed the jury, that if after selling to the plaintiff, and before the lime for delivery to him, the defendant again sold them to another, then no demand by the plaintiff was necessary.
If the second executory contract had deprived the defendant of the right or power of complying with the first, it would have dispensed with the necessity of a demand of such compliance. But as it did not so operate, the mere fact of making it, did not, in our opinion, constitute in itself, either a breach of the first contract or such unequivocal evidence of a determination not to perform it, as would authorize the plaintiff to sue for its breach without doing or tendering, on his part, such precedent or concurrent acts as by its terms were incumbent on him. The instruction above noticed is inconsistent with these views.
Wherefore, the judgment is reversed and the cause is remanded for a new trial.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.