Garrett v. Driver Harris Wire Co.
Garrett v. Driver Harris Wire Co.
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This is the defendant’s rule to show cause why the verdict of $536.44, obtained at Hudson Circuit, should not be set aside. It represents the balance of the contract price of $1,400 for the erection of a furnace for the annealing of wire at the defendant’s works in Harrison, N. J. The contract was with the Rockwell Engineering Company, whose assignee is the plaintiff. The preceding payments were made at the periods fixed by the contract, the balance being payable upon the “completion and successful operation” of the furnace.
The only ground of the application urged upon the argument was that the verdict was contrary to the weight of the evidence. The learned trial judge charged the jury that the legal effect of the contract necessary to be proved in order to support a recovery by the plaintiff was that the plaintiff’s assignor was to construct a furnace for the proper annealing of steel wire with coke 'fuel, which would be capable of being successfully operated by men exercising reasonable care and skill in the business. The furnace was built principally of brick, was about twenty-five feet long, six feet high and five feet wide. The firing chamber was at the end and in the upper portion were nine annealing chambers or tubes, made of firebrick, dovetailed and cemented, through which the wire is passed to be heated preparatory to its being drawn through the dies in order to reduce it to the necessary fineness. Counsel on both sides, in their briefs, have referred elaborately to the voluminous evidence in the eáuse. It is insisted for the defendant that the furnace failed to properly anneal wire as required by the contract (1) because flame would reach the annealing chambers and thereby a deposit of sulphur or other foreign substance would attach to the wire, and (2) because the heat in the annealing chambers would not be uni
After a careful reading of the testimony we are unable to say that it clearly appears that the verdict is against the weight of the evidence.
The same result is reached in Driver Harris Wire Co. v. Rockwell Engineering Co., which was an action for damages arising out of the same contract, the two cases having been tried together. In the latter case the jury rendered a verdict for the defendant, which was also brought up by rule to show cause. The two rules were argued together here. The result is that the rules to show cause in both eases will be discharged, with costs.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.