Stranahan Bros. Catering Co. v. Coit
Stranahan Bros. Catering Co. v. Coit
Opinion of the Court
The questions arising on the record are: 1. Whether or not Coit is liable for the acts of Miller which produced the injury? 2. Whether or not the plaintiff’s damages,in case the jury found it' sustained damages, could embrace all the injury arising from the adulterated character of the milk delivered? 3. Tf not, whether in any view the true rule is that, in case the jury found that the milk was adultered by Miller maliciously, to injure Coit, and was without Coit’s knowledge, so delivered to the factory adulterated, plaintiff was entitled to a rebate for the water, so that Coit would be liable only for the amount of the water delivered, because it was not milk ?
The inquiry involves, primarily, a consideration of the liability of the master, although reduced to its last analysis, it is an inquiry as to the proper rule of damages. Upon the face of things it is apparent that the question regarded as the controlling one, is, whether or not Coit is in any way responsible for the acts of Miller. ,
Let us first consider what result would follow if the case made is the same as though the claimed injury had arisen from Coit’s own negligent act. What, under such circumstances, would be the proper rule?
The petition alleged a contract. It was in the nature of a proposal and acceptance, Coit proposing and ag'reeing’ to deliver at the factory milk, which should be milk of first quality, meaning, at the very least, milk not adulterated, and the com
Inasmuch, therefore, as the evidence of plaintiff tended to sustain the allegations of the petition, the jury was justified in finding this contract. That is, a. contract by which Coit agreed to deliver milk of first class, or superior quality, i. e., pure milk and to further find that Coit had knowledge that the milk he delivered would be mixed with milk of other patrons, for the manufacture of butter and cheese in part, and in part skimmed for the cream, the product of which would be used by plaintiff in its business as caterers, etc.,'and in part sold in the market; and that the milk delivered was under this contract. Such a contract carries with it a warranty that the goods shall be, and are, what they are agreed to be, for no particular form of words is required to constitute a warranty. As held in Pasley v. Freeman, 3 T. R., 57: “An affirmation at the time of a sale is a warranty, provided it appear on evidence to have been so intended.” To which may be added, upon equally good authority, that “a positive affirmation of a material fact, intended
Under breach of such a contract it is manifest that the vendee’s damage should be at least compensation, and if the mixture of the impure milk with that which was pure, and its use in the factory, resulting in impairing the value of the product, it is equally manifest that compensation could not be awarded without taking that fact into the account.
Cases illustrative of the point are numerous. Wilcox v. McCoy, 21 Ohio St., 655, was based upon a claim for damages arising from a sale of sheep represented to be sound but which were affected by a disease known as the foot rot, whereby other sheep of the plaintiff were infected and injured. The claim was sustained. A number of similar cases are digested by Mr. Sedgwick in his work on Damages, sections 769, 765, 766 and 768, as follows: Where animals sold are warranted free of disease, loss through communication of disease to other animals of the purchaser may be recovered. Mullet v. Mason, L. R., 1 C. P., 559, and other cases. It is not necessary to the recovery of damages to show that the vendor knew that the diseased animal was to be placed with others belonging to plaintiff. Packard v. Slack, 32 Vt., 9. The defendant is presumed to anticipate that the animals he sells will be placed with others as a natural consequence of his act. Sherrod v. Langdon, 21 Iowa, 518. The expense of nursing and curing other animals, which contract disease
It is also well settled that where the injury results from the default of the contracting party himself, the motive which induces the act or the omission, unless the circumstances raise a claim for exemplary damages, is of no consequence. In such case, evidence of the defaulting party’s motives, or of anything which affects only the moral character of the transaction, can have no weig'ht, and is, therefore, inadmissible. Unless the intention belongs directly to the issue, it is not an element in the case. Compensation for breach of contract in relation to the payment of money, or in relation to property, ordinarily does
Was Coit liable for the consequences of Miller’s malicious acts? In pursuing’ this inquiry it is important that we keep constantly in mind two controlling facts; one that the relations of the plaintiff and defendant were contract relations, and those between the defendant and Miller were those of master and servant. The general rule undoubtedly is, although subject to notable exceptions, that the master is not liable for his servant’s malicious acts. As shown in Wright v. Wilcox, 19 Wend., 345, where it was sought to recover against a father for the act of his son, who while driving the father’s horses and wagon, and when about his father’s business, intentionally' whipped up the horses and ran over one of a number of boys who were trying to get into the wagon. The driver at the time saw the boy was between the wheels and thus likely to be injured. Cowan, J., in deciding the case, remarked that it was impossible to-sustain' the verdict against the father because the act of the son was done with the wilful intention to .throw the boy off; that while the son was in other respects in the service of his father, he was not in this, which was a plain trespass for which the master (the father) was no more liable than if his servant had committed any other assault and battery. A
The modern rule, and we believe it to be well established, is stated by Mr. Mechem, in his work on Agency, section 740, thus: “The tendency of modern cases, however, is to attach less importance to the intention of the agent and inore to the question whether the act was done within the scope of the agent’s employment; and it is believed that the true rule may be said to be that the principal is responsible for the wilful or malicious acts of his agent, if they are done in the course of his employment and within the scope of his authority; but that the principal is not liable for such acts, unless previously expressly authorized, or subsequently ratified, when they are done outside of the course of the agent’s employment, and beyond the scope of his authority, as where the agent steps aside from his employment to gratify some personal animosity, or to give vent to some private feeling of his own. The question of what
Mr. Justice Story, in his work on Agency, section 452, gives the rule in these words: “It is a general doctrine of the law, that, although the principal is not ordinarily liable (for he sometimes is) in a criminal suit, for the acts or misdeeds of his agent, unless, indeed, he has authorized or cooperated in those act or misdeeds; yet, he is held
It is important to observe a distinction between liability for the malicious acts of an agent with respect to one with whom the principal holds contractual relations, acts affecting the performance of the contract, and with respect to others who may have suffered injury by reason of the agent’s torts; as a failure to observe this distinction has resulted in apparent confusion of terms both in text books and decisions. The distinction referred to is made apparent in an old English case. A traveler employed a livery stable keeper to drive him safely to his destination. The driver purposely and needlessly, to gratify his own personal malice, went out of his way to collide with another carriage by which one riding therein was injured. The collision also injured the traveler. The action by the former against the master was predicated wholly on the claim 'that he was liable for
And, as to the latter proposition, Prof. Wharton, in his work on Agency and Agents, section 487, gives this terse rule: “Principal who contracts to do a particular thing is liable for agents’ torts which prevent the performance of the contract.”
One principle seems to be well settled by the later authorities, viz: That if the act of the servant which has occasioned the mischief is within the scope of the employment, the fact that it was maliciously done does not affect the question of the master’s liability under a proper rule of damages.
Coming now to the case at bar, were the acts of Miller, which caused the injury, in law the acts of his employer? That is, were they within the scope of his duties, or were they outside and beyond?And here we must not mistake the acts which caused the damage. At first blush it might seem that these acts were the watering of the milk, and those were not within any authority of the master. But not so. The putting of the water in the milk would have been quite innocuous, so far as plaintiff is concerned, had the compound not been delivered to the factory. It was the delivery there which produced the harm. In those acts of delivery Miller stood for and represented his master. Clearly those deliveries were done in the course of his employment, “in the execution of the service for which, he was engaged by the master.” Under such conditions why should the master not be liable ? He had contracted to deliver pure milk, and in trusting that duty to his servant, why had
This contract involved reciprocal duties, and gave corresponding legal rights. The defendant was to deliver pure milk; the plaintiff was to pay good money. Now suppose, instead of this action, there were a suit of the defendant against the plaintiff for his season’s milk, $1,150, and the company had plead payment. At the trial it appeared, that on the day the account was due the company had given the money to one of its employes with directions to go to the vendor and pay for the milk, and he had gone to the residence of the vendor and counted out as the vendor supposed, $1,150, and taken a receipt to the company. The next day when a deposit in the bank was attempted, it was found that a portion of the money was counterfeit. Suppose the testimony to further show that the employe, out of malice toward the company and greed in his own interest, had substituted counterfeit money and paid that. Would the company have a defense? The bills paid looked like good currency, as the milk delivered looked like pure milk. In fact both were tainted. Is there any real difference in the two cases? Isn’t it a failure to perform a contract in both? True, the method of making proof of damages is different; it is simple in one case, and. much less so in the other. But when arrived at, the result is precisely the same.
Our case is essentially dissimilar from that of Railroad Co. v. Wetmore, supra, where the defendant was exonerated. If Miller had got into a quarrel with the manager of the factory, about the delivery of milk, for instance, and, to gratify his own personal resentment, had lashed the other with the defendant’s, whip which had been furnished him to drive the horses with, we would have a case parallel with the one above cited. If, on the other hand, the baggage man in the case last cited, impelled by the same malicious motive which induced the assault on the passenger, had, with the hatchet smashed the passenger’s trunk, the question involved would have resembled the case at bar.
The view here indicated finds support in the broad principle that where one of two innocent persons must suffer he must be the sufferer who puts it in the power of the wrong doer to cause the loss. “He, certainly, who trusts most, must suffer most.” He through whose agency the loss occurred must sustain it. It is a principle founded on the highest considerations of justice and expediency. The rule is elucidated in the opinion by Minshall. J., in the recent case of Shurtz, Adm’r, v. Colvin, 55 Ohio St., 274, and special reference is here ade to that opinion for argument and illustrations. See, also, Quick v. Milligan, 108 Ind., 419; Blight v. Schenck, 10 Pa. St., 293; LeNeve v. LeNeve, 3 Atk., 646.
If the foregoing conclusions are correct, it follows that the constructions given the jury did not cover the case before them. The ease made was the case_ which, within the allegations of the
There is another ground which would appear to defeat the attempted defense. The sale and delivery of adulterated milk is an offense against one of the pure food statutes. The act of April 10,1889, entitled “An act to regulate the sale of milk,” 86
These conclusions require a reversal of both judgments, and a new trial.
Reversed.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting.
This decision seems to me to rest upon the unsound principle that one person may be held to respond in damages to another on account of injuries sustained by the malicious acts of a third person.
Unfortunately the case was argued in this court upon one side only. The circuit court rendering the judgment is composed of men of experience, learning and ability, and the views of that court upon the question were in harmony with those of the court of common pleas, but we have not had the benefit of that experience, learning and ability, or of the research of counsel in support of their judgment. Their decision, I think is correct, but I feel the embarassment incident to an attempt to justify it without some intimation of the grounds upon which they placed it, or of the views of counsel for the party who prevailed in that court.
The action did not sound in contract, the plaintiff was under no obligation to receive milk, and the defendant was under no obligation to deliver it, nor was any price fixed for that which might be delivered and received. The only averment of the petition relating to a promise is this: “Said defendant promised and agreed at the time to bringing, first, his milk to plaintiff’s said factory to bring nothing but milk of first class or superior quality.” No consideration is stated for this supposed promise, and an analysis of the petition shows that the promise was one implied from the fact that milk was to be delivered, and arose out of the circumstances surrounding the parties. The uses to which the milk, according* to the averments of the petition, was to be devoted, was simply mat
The gist of the action is that the defendant knowingly delivered foul and unwholesome milk. The averment being that the “defendant continued to thus send impure, unwholesome, foul and adulterated milk * * * knowing the same to be adulterated” * * *
The defendant denied this and the ease was tried.
The evidence was not set forth in full, the bill of exceptions showing merely that evidence was given tending to support the petition, and that evidence was also given tending to show that the milk was maliciously watered by an employe of defendant for the purpose not of damaging the plaintiff, to whom the milk was delivered, but of' injuring his employer, the defendant; that it was not his duty to water the milk, and in doing so he was not acting for defendant, but solely out of malice towards the defendant, and that defendant was entirely ignorant of his actions.
In this view of the evidence, the following instructions were asked by the defendant and were refused: “If the jury shall find that the milk of defendant was delivered at its factory watered, then the defendant would - be liable for the damages that necesssarily and directly resulted therefrom, even though the defendant did not water such milk or authorize it to be. done, or know the same was or. had been watered, if the jury shall .find it was watered by one Ed. Miller, the employee of defendant. ’ ’
And the court did charge the jury as follows:
“If it appear to you that the milk was adulterated by Miller maliciously to injure Coit, and was
The instructions given by th.e court of common pleas were directly applicable to the facts, and were sound, unless one man is to be mulct in damages for the malicious act of another. Employers are liable for that negligence of their servants which occurs in the course of the employment. And under certain peculiar circumstances where the master owes a special duty to the party injured, he is held liable for malicious acts directed against the person to whom the master owes such special duty. This principle is generally, if not exclusively confined to common carriers of passengers.
I know of no principle, however, by which a master is held liable for a malicious act. of a servant, not committed in the scope of his employment, directed against another; or where, as in this case, the malicious act was directed against, the master himself, was not done in the course of the master’s service, and incidently injured another.
Where a malicious act is done to the injury of another, the right of the latter, to redress, is against the party who caused the injury, if the party committing the act' cannot respond in damages, the party injured can obtain no practical relief., This result often occurs, but is unavoidable. The person doing the mischief is, in such cases, amendable to the public, if the act has been made a
In driving the vehicle in which this milk was carried to market, the servant had no duty to perform in respect to its quality. His authority was in all respects similar to that of a boy who drives a delivery wagon for a retail grocer. It is the duty of the boy to deliver the parcels as they may be wrapped up in the shop. It was the duty of this hired man of the defendant to deliver this milk in the condition it was when it left the defendant’s farm. As well charge'the grocer with civil liability for the death of a customer, because a boy maliciously stops at a drug, store, procures arsenic, opens and distributes it through a package of sugar, as to charge the defendant in this case with liability because his man stopped-at a wayside pool of stagnant water, maliciously dipped a bucket into it and discharged its contents into the cans of milk committed to his charge. In each case the fact of employment gave the opportunity for the act, but the act was not in the line of the employment of either.
The statutes in relation to adulterated food and milk are no more applicable in the one case than in the other. If they bear on the question at all, the penalties they denounce should be directed against the wrong doers, and not one of the victims of the wrongful act.
No authorties have been cited in support of these views; none are needed, if the analysis of the petition upon which they are found is correct.
A copy of the petition and answer are appended, from which the character of the action and of the issues joined between the parties can be readily perceived.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- The Stranahan Brothers Catering Co. v. Coit
- Status
- Published