Bonds v. Thomas J. Lipton Co.
Bonds v. Thomas J. Lipton Co.
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
On March 4, 1903, J. O. Hood & Oo., a partnership composed of J. C. Hood and C. A. Bonds, doing a brokerage business at Jackson, Miss., closed a contract of purchase with the Thos. J. Lipton Company, meat dealers of Chicago, 111., for 50,000 pounds of bacon ribs, at a price named. The negotiations were conducted and the contract concluded by telegraphic communications, which were sent in a cipher in use by the parties. The final telegrams, consummating the contract of purchase, were as follows: One from Hood & Oo. to appellee in these words: “Book us subject to your confirmation 50,000 pounds bacon ribs, fiorty to forty-five average, at 11-10 buyer’s, option April.” On the same day the Lipton Company wired confirmation of the sale as follows: “Booked 50,000 lbs. bacon ribs 40 to 45 average 11 — 10 buyer’s option April.” During the month of April, J. O. Hood & Oo. failing to transmit shipping orders to appellee, several communications, both by letter and telegram, were sent by appellee to Hood & Co., requesting directions as to shipment and delivery. These were not responded to. After the expiration of the month of April, appellee wrote J. C. Hood & Co. that, as they had failed to receive any shipping instructions in reference to the 50,000 pounds of bacon ribs sold them, they had been, in accordance with established custom, placed in storage for the account of Hood & Co., and that the usual storage charge of 10 cents a month per 100 pounds would be charged. During the month of May the firm of J. C. Hood & Oo. dissolved, O. A. Bonds purchasing the interest,of J. O. Hood. From the date of this dissolution a great deal of correspondence was carried on between the individual members of the late firm of J. C. Hood & Go. and the appellee in reference to the meat purchased and then held in storage by the Lipton Company for Hood & Go. No definite conclusion was arrived at, and, the matter being unadjusted, on the 22d of June the Lipton Company, in open market, in the city of Chicago, sold the 50,000 pounds of meat which had been stored
It is said the contract is void under the statute of frauds, and that the cipher telegrams, interpreted as above shown, do not sufficiently show a sale. But the inescapable reply to this contention is that the letters which passed between appellee and J. O. Hood & Go. and- C. A. Bonds distinctly recognize the existence of a contract, and set forth with absolute certainty the details of the transaction. See letter of appellant “respecting two cars of ribs purchased by Mr. Hood” and asking to be kept advised. In addition to this, J. O. Hood, the member of the firm by whom the contract was made, admitted the contract and acknowledged the correctness of the cipher telegrams as transcribed; and this undisputed testimony, when considered in connection with the letters, clearly establishes the consummation of the contract.
It is next said that the appellee is not entitled to recover because the Lipton Company never made an effort to deliver the meat, and it is contended that it was the duty of the appellee to have the meat actually transported to the city of Jackson, and there tendered Hood & Go. . The reply to this is that the meaning of the technical phrase “buyer’s option April” is that it is for the buyer to give shipping orders if, and when, he desires the meat' to be actually delivered. This meaning is made
■ It is' next argued that appellee is not entitled to recover because the reselling of the meat, under the circumstances of this cáse, was a rescission of the contract, and it is urged that, in truth, there never had Been any actual sale of any specific lot of meat to Hood & Co.; that there had Been no segregation of this quantity of this particular class of meat By the appellee. "But here, again, the appellant is met by the uncontradioted statement of the agents and employes of the Lipton Company, who testified that there was in-fact an actual segregation and setting apart of the specific quantity of the particular class of meat sold to Hood & Co., and that from the date of the purchase, oh March 4th, to the date of the sale, June 22d, the Lipton Company had in its warehouse never less than the identical amount which Hood & Co. had purchased, and, when the supply of this special class of meat was reduced to the quantity which Hood & Co. had purchased, appellee’s offering list showed no offer to sell any meat of that special kind. It is suggested by appellant: Suppose the meat had been destroyed by fire or other casualty while in the warehouse in Chicago after March 4th, would the court have held the loss to have been entailed upon Hood & Co. ? Had the' loss occurred prior to the time when the buyer’s option 'expired, undoubtedly not, for the reason that the very term “buyer’s option April” permits the buyer to allow his meat to remain without risk or cost to him until the date of the expiration of the option given by the terms of the contract. If the loss had been after the meat was actually placed in storage for the benefit of Hood & Co., then the question of loss of the meat upon destruction by casualty would depend on the terms and condition of the storage, and cannot be answered with any degree of certainty from the facts detailed in this record. But it is said that the reselling of the meat under the circumstances
Lastly, it is urged that the copies of the telegrams offered in evidence were incompetent, and that no proper proof of the contract was made.' We have shown in our consideration of the first objection that the proof of contract does not depend upon the copies of the telegrams alone, but is also shown by the let.ters, the genuineness of which was not denied. We find it unnecessary to enter upon any extended discussion of the question as to the admissibility as evidence of copies of telegrams, for the reason that, even if in the instant case they were inadmissible, it could avail the appellant nothing, because, with them out of the record, the proof of the contract, in all of its terms and conditions, is specifically made, and, more than that, acknowledged by the member of the firm who made the contract, and who has not only acknowledged his liability for a proportionate part of the loss, but has promptly acquitted himself thereof by payment in full.
None of the assignments of error are tenable. The appellant has no cause to complain at the amount of the judgment. It is, in truth, something less than was warranted by the proof.
'Affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Clifford A. Bonds v. Thomas J. Lipton Company
- Cited By
- 3 cases
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- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. Sales. Ciphertelegrams. Letters. Evidence. Statute of frauds. Code 1893, § 4339. Where a contract for the sale of personal property is evidenced by letters between the parties, fully recognizing the existence and setting forth the terms of the contract, it is immaterial that precedent cipher telegrams do not sufficiently show a sale to take the case out of the statute of frauds. 3. Same. Rescission. Tender. Place. Where goods were bought with the understanding that they were to be shipped by the seller to the buyer when th'e buyer thereafter ordered, and the buyer recognized that the seller held the goods on his account, it is not necessary for the seller to tender the goods to the buyer at the latter’s place of business after he gives notice that he will not receive them if shipped, in order to hold th’e buyer liable for a breach of the contract. 3. Same. Breach of contract. Custom. Where the meat contracted for was “smoked meat,” it is immaterial that the meat sold upon breach of contract by the seller for the purchaser’s account was not smoked, it being shown that the meat was sold to be shipped on the buyer’s order, that “smoking” was a process to which meat is submitted, according to the custom of the trade, only immediately prior to shipment, and that the buyer failed to give shipping directions. 4. Same. Harmless error. Evidence. The erroneous admission in evidence of copies of telegrams is not ground for reversal of a judgment predicated of a contract which the copies were intended to establish, if the contract be otherwise fully proved by competent and undisputed evidence.