Connor Electric Co. v. Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co.
Connor Electric Co. v. Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co.
Opinion of the Court
The plaintiff sues to recover the cost of connecting, fitting and putting together the various parts of a switchboard equipment installed at the Danvers State Hospital. The apparatus was furnished by the defendant. The trial judge refused to rule that the plaintiff purchased a “ switchboard, complete as a unit and not a collection of parts and apparatus from which a switchboard could be constructed,” which it was the duty of the defendant to deliver “ complete as one unit, with apparatus mounted thereon ”; or to rule that under the terms of their contract, it was the defendant’s duty to “ mount items of apparatus onto the panels,” and “ to affix and annex to the switchboard items of apparatus listed on the panel specifications.”
The facts are not now in dispute. The contract between the parties was made, up of a proposal of the defendant to furnish the purchaser (the plaintiff) f. o. b. cars at point of shipment, apparatus as specified below. Switchboard 1. “ Complete Switching Equipment in accordance with Specifications #1797”; a switchboard agreement sheet; a switchboard inquiry and data sheet; a panel specification for each of six panels; a page of conditions and agreements, and an acceptance by the plaintiff approved by the proper officer of the defendant. The equipment was made up of six slate panels, in all about eighteen or nineteen feet long and six feet high, to which were to be attached or connected various appliances, some of them designed to be placed upon and fastened to particular panels. Some pieces of the apparatus, designed ultimately to be fastened to a panel and to be supported by it, weighed as much as sixty or seventy pounds, and some were of extreme delicacy. Certain parts were not to be made in the defendant’s factory, but were to be sent to Danvers direct from the place of supply. In express words, the
The plaintiff contends that the word “ mounted,” which is used in various parts of the contract, (particularly in the “ panel specifications,” where it is stated, “ Upon each of these panels will be mounted the following apparatus,”) should be construed to impose on the defendant the obligation to affix, connect and put in working order upon the panels such equipment and apparatus as the contract contemplates is to be borne upon and supported by the panels when in position. The judge was right in not yielding to this contention. When dealing with the obligation' to do work in the manufacture, putting in position and final locating of the pieces which make up the “switchboard equipment,” the contract uses the words “ fabricate,” “ assemble ” and “ erect ” in their substantive, adjective or verb forms. It uses the word “mounted” in indicating the place where an object is to rest, and not in indicating the duty of placing it there, in the quality of an adjective rather than a verb. Any inference to the contrary is precluded by the use of words in the clause with reference to “ Fabrication, Assembly and Erection.” The defendant will “ assemble ” at its works apparatus which is to be “ mounted ” on the panels or a framework integral with the panel supports, but only so far as necessary to insure accuracy of workmanship and design. It may then “ dis
No question other than of interpretation and construction of the contract agreement is presented. The rulings were right and the findings are justified.
Exceptions overruled.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Connor Electric Co., Inc. v. Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company
- Status
- Published