Farmers' & Ginners' Cotton Oil Co. v. Cleburne Oil Mill Co.
Farmers' & Ginners' Cotton Oil Co. v. Cleburne Oil Mill Co.
Opinion of the Court
Appellee alleged: That on September 16, 1913, it purchased of and from appellant, through Early-Foster Company, of Waco, Tex., as broker, 5 tanks of prime, crude, cotton-seed oil at 42 cents per gallon delivered f. o. b. cars at Wolfe City, Tex.; said contract being evidenced by a written confirmation in triplicate, executed by said broker on said date. That such execution by the said broker of said contract was accepted and ratified by appellee and appellant as the act and deed of each of said parties. Appellee alleged a breach of the contract by appellant and sued for $480 damages. Appellant denied that it contracted with appellee to deliver the five tanks of cotton-seed oil f. o. b. cars at Wolfe City, Tex. Answered that the memorandum made by the broker was forwarded to appellant for acceptance, but immediately upon receipt of the memorandum, appellant refused to accept the contract as written in the memorandum of sale by the broker and immediately notified the broker that it would not accept the contract. And appellant further averred that the broker promptly notified the appel-lee that appellant refused to accept the contract as written in the memorandum of sale. Several other issues were pleaded by both parties, which, under our view.of the case, need not be stated. Upon motion by appel-lee, the court gave a peremptory instruction to return a verdict in favor of appellee for $480, upon which verdict the court rendered judgment against appellant.
All six of appellant’s assignments very properly complain that the trial court erred by giving to the jury the peremptory instruction to return a verdict in favor of appellee.
This illustrates the conflict in the testimony upon the issue of acceptance by appellant of the sale contract, but is by no means all the circumstances shown by the testimony. To determine this issue was absolutely essential to a determination of the case. It was the exclusive province of the jury to determine the issue from the conflicting testimony. It seems from the evidence that appellant thought it had a contract for delivery f. o. b. cars at Austin, whereas ap- *351 pellee thought it had a contract requiring delivery f. o. b. Wolfe City, and both traveled their respective divergent routes in their dealings after September 16, 1913, and naturally separated further and further. If this be true, there never was any agreement between the parties.
The assignments are correctly taken and are sustained.
The judgment of the trial court is reversed, and the cause remanded.
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Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.