Hazelwood v. McKenna
Hazelwood v. McKenna
Opinion of the Court
Opinion op the Court by
Affirming.
It is admitted by. the parties to this appeal that appellant Hazelwood sold and agreed to deliver to appellee, McKenna, a bunch of hogs averaging 200 pounds each, at the price of $10.00 per one hundred pounds. This contract was made in December, 1916, and the delivery of the hogs was to take place on the first of March, 1917, at which time the price was to be paid by McKenna to Hazelwood. The hogs were not delivered and Mc-Kenna brought this action against Hazelwood to recover damages for breach of contract in the sum of $850.00. A trial resulted in a verdict for the full amount prayed and Hazelwood appeals.
No question is made with reference to the instructions of the court; nor does counsel for appellee point out anjt error in the introduction of evidence, but a reversal of the judgment is sought solely upon the ground that the verdict is not sustained by sufficient evidence. In brief of counsel for appellee it is stated that the jury “seems to have taken the bull by the horn, so to speak, and decided it (the case) in favor of appellee (plaintiff).” We therefore need only briefly review the evidence to determine whether the verdict is sustained by sufficient evidence.
First. We may say the petition of appellee, Mc-Kenna, sets forth the contract in the following way: “In the fall of 1916, defendant, Perry Hazelwood, sold to plaintiff one hundred hogs on foot at $10.00 per 100 pounds, and promised and agreed with plaintiff to de
The first paragraph of the answer of Hazelwood traverses the allegations of the petition. The second paragraph of the answer admits that in December, 1916, he (Hazelwood) agreed to furnish plaintiff with eighty hogs to average 200 pounds each, to be delivered to said plaintiff at the scales near the farm of defendant; that said hogs should be weighed and delivered to plaintiff at said point on the first day of March, 1917, at six o ’clock a. m.; that the plaintiff failed to appear and receive and pay for said hogs at said time as he agreed to, and on or about the 5th day of March, when the plaintiff called or talked over the ’phone and inquired about said hogs, he did not make any demand for the delivery of same to him at that time or at any other time. The answer further avers that the timé of delivery was of the essence of the contract, and that the defendant informed the plaintiff that he needed the money on the 1st day of March in order to meet certain obligations for rent which he was to pay on that date; that the plaintiff violated and repudiated his agreement with defendant by failing to appear at the time and place of delivery to receive and pay for the hogs.
Excluding the plaintiff and defendant, there were just two other witnesses, one who testified for the plaintiff, and the other who testified for the defendant. The evidence is very brief. Aside from that given by plaintiff and defendant the evidence is largely collateral.
“Q. State the conversation you had with Hazelwood with reference to the hogs? A. Mr. Hazelwood asked me what hogs would be worth in March and says I have a hundred and I can make them weigh two hundred by the first of March, and asked me what I would give for them, and I said, I don’t know what they will be worth, but, I said, what will you take. And, then at that time I was paying eight and one-quarter cents for hogs, and Í said, I will take a chance on it and give you ten cents; he asked me ten for them and I said I would take a chance on them. . . Q. Then, as I understand you, . the price had to go up one and three-fourths cents before you could even break even with your contract? A. Yes, sir; and I bought the hogs as of the first of March, to weigh two hundred pounds and was to be one hundred hogs, and I said, do you want a contract or I will put up the money or either furnish you a bond to take the hogs, they may go up> or down, and he said, your word is all right, and I said, I will take them and it will be all right, and I said, I know they may go, up or down; and on two occasions I met him before the first of March and asked him how the hogs are doing and one day on Oheapside I 'asked him how they were and he said, 'Hell, they are all dying with the cholera,’ and I said mine is nqt dying, and he wouldn’t even talk to me about the hogs. . . . Q. Had hogs gone up' at that time? A. Yes, sir; one dollar a hundred then, and before the first day of March I tried to call Perrjr up and couldn’t and on the first day of Mai'ch between half past five axxd six o’clock I called up Perry’s house axxd got either his wife or daughter, I couldxx’t say which, axxd told them to tell him to come to the' ’phoxxe and said, I am ready to receive those hogs this mornixxg. . . . Q. That was in the morning between five and six o’clock on March 1st? A. Yes, sir;
In addition to the foregoing evidence McKenna further testified that hogs of the type he purchased were select heavies which at the Cincinnati market on the 1st of March, the time of delivery, were worth $13.65, and the Chicago market was $13.50 per 100 pounds for such hog’s; and that the price of hogs had commenced to go up long before the 1st of March. He was sustained in his evidence by S. S. Price, of Price & Company, who conducted a slaughterhouse in Lexington.
On the other side appellant Hazelwood testified that he sold the hogs to McKenna in December for delivery on the 1st of March, saying, “I sold Mr. McKenna 80 hogs to weigh 200 pounds each to go at ten cents the first morning of March ... 80. That is all I had. I sold him 80 to weigh 200 pounds at ten cents and taken on the first morning of March, and the first morning of March he never did come to get the hogs and never called up until the 4th of March at 9:30 o’clock.” The defendant was sustained in part by his son, James Hazel-wood, with reference to the conversation had at the bank with the plaintiff, but his evidence was very slight.
With the evidence of these four persons before the jury it determined that Hazelwood had sold and agreed to deliver at least 80 hogs, weighing 200 pounds each, to McKenna at the price of $10.00, the delivery to be made on March 1st, and that the price of hogs of that character had advanced from $10.00 in December to $13.50 on March 1st; that Hazelwood refused to deliver the hogs but sold them at a higher price to other buyers; that the difference between the contract price, $10.00
Judgment affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.