Croneis Bros. v. Toledo Computing Scale Co.
Croneis Bros. v. Toledo Computing Scale Co.
Opinion of the Court
The defendant in error made a written contract with the plaintiffs in error for the sale to them of a pair of scales. It was a conditional sales contract, and contemporaneously with its execution plaintiffs in error executed and delivered to the company their ten promissory notes in the sum of $7.50 each, due in one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten months from date. The scales were shipped to the plaintiffs in error, and shortly thereafter they were returned to the defendant in error and the contract repudiated. The company refused to accept the return of the scales and brought suit on the notes before a justice of the peace, where judgment was rendered for the defendant. On appeal to the common pleas court, the company in its peti
. The contract referred to contains the following language.
“Should there be any failure to meet payments or to execute notes for deferred payments, it is agreed that the full amount of purchase price shall at once become due and payable. Should there be any default in the payment of any note it is agreed' that all the remaining notes shall at once become due and payable, anything in the notes to the contrary notwithstanding. In default of any payment you, or your agent, 'may take possession of and remove said scale without legal process; and in such case, all payments theretofore made by me under this order shall be deemed and considered as having been made for the use of said scale during the time the same remained in my possession, . and shall be retained and kept by said company as such payment. In the event of the re*170 fusal to accept said scales zvhen tendered, it is agreed that the sum first above mentioned, less any previous actual cash payments, shall at once become due and payable as liquidated damages, and not as a penalty.”
The question presented is whether or not this contract and the notes given in consideration thereof are enforcible. Pertinent parts of the statute are as follows: “Whenever such property * * * is so sold or leased, rented, hired or delivered it shall be unlawful for the persons who so sold, leased, rented, hired, delivered or his assigns or the agent or servant of either their agent or servant to take possession of said property, without tendering or refunding to the purchaser, lessee, renter, or hirer thereof or any party receiving the same from the vendor, the sum or sums of money so paid after deducting therefrom a reasonable compensation for the use of such property, which shall in no case exceed 50 pep cent, of the amount so paid, anything in the contract to the contrary notwithstanding, and whether such condition be expressed, in such contract or not, unless such property has been broken, or actually damaged, and then a reasonable compensation for such breakage or damage shall be allowed. Provided, that the vendor shall not be required to tender or refund any part of the amount so paid unless said amount so paid to the vendor exceeds 25 per cent, of the contract price of the property.”
A penalty is provided by statute for the violation of the provisions of the above act. It will
The judgment of the circuit court will be reversed and that of the common pleas affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Croneis Brothers v. The Toledo Computing Scale Company
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Negotiable instruments — Conditional sales contract — Contravenes Section 4155-1 et seq., Revised Statutes — Payee cannot maintain action, when — Waiver. Where notes are executed and delivered contemporaneously with the execution and pursuant to the terms of a contract for the conditional sale of personal property, which contains provisions in contravention of Section 41SS-1 et seq., Revised Statutes, the payee of the notes cannot maintain an action thereon in the absence of conduct on the part of the maker amounting to a waiver of his right to defend against them.