Ross-Vaughan Tobacco Co. v. Lucas
Ross-Vaughan Tobacco Co. v. Lucas
Opinion of the Court
Opinion op the Court by
Affirming.
Tobacco was very high in the market in the fall of 1918, and many producers sold their crops before it was cut at a very high price, considering the
“I have this day sold to the Ross-Vaughan Tobacco Company, incorporated, my crop of tobacco' consisting of forty -acres Burley, now growing on my farm, and purchase, in Breckinridge county, Kentucky.
“$40.00 per hundred pounds for leaf.
“$40.00 per hundred pounds for lugs.
“$40.00 per hundred pounds for trash.
“I have received $3,500.00 on the purchase money, this amount to be a lien on the said crop of tobacco. I am to finish cultivating said tobacco and prepare it for the market in the usual way and am to deliver the same in good order and free from any material damage to the factory of the Ross-Vaughan Tobacco Company, incorporated, at Leitchfield, Grays on county, Kentucky, at which time I am to be paid the remainder of the purchase money, and the Ross-Vaughan Tobacco Company, incorporated, hereby agrees to receive said tobacco and to pay the above prices for same upon delivery. I have the right to contract and sell this entire crop of tobacco.
“This the 5th day of September 1918.
“Z. L. Lucas,
“Ed F. Wallace,
By J. H. Hardin.”
. This is admitted to be the contract of the company although signed by its agents and Lucas only. At the time of the making of the contract the tobacco was in the field and required further attention and cultivation. The company paid Lucas $3,500.00 in cash on the purchase, and this was to be a lien upon the tobacco. Before tobacco was ready for the market the price had materially declined, and, as we read this record, the company began to try to avoid taking the tobacco at the high price at which it had contracted to purchase it.
The appellee, plaintiff below, claims that he produced 58,037 pounds of hurley tobacco on the forty acres which he cultivated; that it was a fine quality and well pre
Tobacco was very much lower in the market at this time than it was when the written contract was made, and this of course made Lucas' anxious to enforce his contract, while appellant company was equally as anxious to avoid carrying it out because tobacco of like quality could be had at a much less price. At any rate appellee Lucas contends that he had to sell his stored tobacco in the warehouse in Leitehfield, amounting to 20,200 pounds, and that in his barn at home, amounting to more than 9,000 pounds, at a.very much less price than that which was mentioned in the written contract, or in the subsequent verbal contract, and suffered the loss of $9,000.00 for which he sues.
The evidence is long and conflicting. Lucas in substance says that after the company had violated its contract and refused to take his tobacco at forty cents per pound, he did enter into a verbal contract with the agents of the company whereby he was to receive thirty-five (35c) cents- per pound for all the tobacco- which he them had on his wagons in Leitehfield and all in the Yan-Nort barn, amounting to over 20,000 pounds, but when they unloaded the wagons next morning the agents of the company positively refused to accept other tobacco then on wagons ready to be unloaded and which came from his barn. He -could not get them to agree to take ft. The agents of the company informed Lucas that they would not accept any more of his tobacco. He then sought out other tobacco purchasers in Leitehfield and tried to sell his tobacco to them but could not. He then hired a man to prize his tobacco and to put it in hogsheads and he shipped it to a Louisville tobacco warehouse where he sold it for a little less than thirteen cents (13c) per pound, the greatest price obtainable. He testified and proved by competent witnesses that the tobacco was of high quality, well prepared and delivered without damage.
On the contrary, the agents of the company assert that the tobacco was very poorly prepared and was not ready for the market and was not worth the price they had agreed upon nor in the condition in which the contract required it to be on delivery. These facts were submitted to the jury by proper instructions, and the jury returned a verdict in favor of appellee Lucas in the
It is insisted by appellants that their motion for peremptory instruction should have been sustained by the trial count, but in the light of the evidence we can find no foundation for such contention.
Although the court permitted the plaintiff to file an amended petition, seeking to recover damages for a breach of the contract, on December 5, 1918, it did not violate the broad discretion reposed in trial judges with respect to the filing of amended or supplemental pleadings.
No error appearing to the substantial rights of appellant the judgment is affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.