Trinidad Asphalt Mfg. Co. v. Trinidad Asphalt Refining Co.
Trinidad Asphalt Mfg. Co. v. Trinidad Asphalt Refining Co.
Opinion of the Court
after stating the case as above, delivered the opinion of the court.
The issues in this case were of fact only, and are settled by the verdict of the jury. The assignments of error present for our consideration only certain- exceptions taken to rulings of the court in respect to the admission of testimony, and to portions of the charge as given to the jury, and to one refusal to charge as requested.
1. The court correctly ruled that the question to defendant’s witness Terpening whether, to his knowledge, the officers of plaintiff company knew that defendant company was handling other asphalts, called for irrelevant testimony.' The defendant’s right to handle other asphalts was unquestioned, and whether or not plaintiff’s officers knew it did so was immaterial.
2. There was no error in allowing the same witness to be asked, on cross-examination, if he did not know, when he made the contract with the Ayreult firm at Tonawanda, that their contract with plain
3. The question asked the same witness on cross-examination respecting the mixture which defendant, after cancellation of the contract, had been selling the city for paving purposes, was within the fair limits of cross-examination of this interested witness. It might lead to a comparison of that material with what had been previously sold to the city. It did not call forth any answer to defendant’s prejudice.
4. The questions asked of the witness Reid were properly excluded. It was no excuse for défendant’s breach of the contract that plaintiff was anxious to be relieved from it.
5. In view of the testimony of the witness Reddick in respect to the furnishing by defendant of Trinidad cement to the city for paving, it was not improper to show that his own like act was with permission of plaintiff, with whom he had a like contract.
6. The questions and answers covered by the sixth assignment of error occurred in an unobjectionable attempt to explain the differential characteristics of two kinds of asphalt commodities. There was little success in the attempt, and no harm to either party.
7. That part of the deposition of the witness Liesak ruled out was irrelevant. There was no attempt to show that the cement which defendant was charged with having sold to the city was what was described in the contract or by any one as “paving cement.” ,
8. That part of the deposition of the witness Boorm stating the prices at which he was directed by the president of the Alcatraz Paving Company to sell material was plainly incompetent, and properly excluded.
9. The agreement of December 30, 1899, between the defendant and the National Roofing Company, of Tonawanda, was properly admitted in evidence. The contract made by the parties to this action is admitted by the pleadings. The fifth subdivision limits the plaintiff’s agreement to sell to material to be used exclusively in the defendant’s own trade and for roofs and sidewalks. Defendant, by its counterclaim, avers failure by plaintiff to fill its large orders for material, which it claims plaintiff was bound by the contract to sell and deliver. It was open to plaintiff, under the separate general denial contained in its reply to the counterclaim, to contend, and establish by proof, if it was able to do so, that any part of the materials so ordered was not .sought or intended by defendant to be used exclusively in its own trade, and for purposes of roofs and sidewalks, but for other purposes for which plaintiff was not bound to sell or deliver any materials. It is needless, in this connection, to consider the various meanings which may be ascribed to the word “trade.” The
It cannot be said that there was no evidence to submit to the jury ón which they might find that part of the refined Trinidad asphalt ordered»by defendant of plaintiff, and for the nondelivery of which defendant claimed damages, was, when so ordered, intended for the National Roofing Company. Defendant’s contract with that company was made December 30, 1899. By it the defendant agreed to sell and deliver to the National Roofing Company 500 tons of refined Trinidad asphalt' yearly, shipments to be made from time to time in car-load or boat-load lots, as the roofing company might desire, at $23.30 per ton, free on board cars or boat at Jones Point, N. Y. This was at plaintiff’s plant, and the manner of delivery the same as plaintiff had agreed in respect to deliveries to defendant. Eleven days later defendant placed its order with plaintiff for 1,000 tons of refined Trinidad asphalt, to be sent on later shipping directions. Defendant’s testimony shows that it always claimed that plaintiff should consign material it should order to whatever place it might direct. But little remained to render the circumstantial evidence very strong—almost conclusive—that this order was in part to supply the National Roofing Company, and that little was amply furnished by the defendant’s evidence that at once, on plaintiff’s refusal to further deliver to it refined Trinidad asphalt,' and thereafter, it was unable to procure any of that material. Where, then, did the defendant purpose to procure the refined Trinidad asphalt which it had just con
The verdict was in proper form, and disposed of all the issues, and the judgment is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- TRINIDAD ASPHALT MFG. CO. v. TRINIDAD ASPHALT REFINING CO.
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. Sales—Refusal to Fill Orders—Action for Damages—Evidence—Admissibility. A contract for the sale of asphalt and cement contained stipulations binding the buyer to use the goods exclusively in its own trade and for roofs and sidewalks, and authorized the seller to cancel it in case the buyer should sell or use the same other than as so provided. The buyer claimed damages arising from the seller’s cancellation of the contract and refusal to fill orders. Held, that testimony as to whether the seller knew that the buyer was handling other asphalts was irrelevant. 8. Same. Since the contract merely required the seller to furnish to the buyer the materials designated for the latter’s exclusive use in its own trade, and did not permit the buyer, to make contracts with third parties, and require the seller to fill them, the court properly allowed a witness for the buyer to be asked on cross-examination if he did not know, when he made a contract with a third party, that the buyer’s contract with the seller had about expired, as the answer might have a bearing on the orders for materials for the nondelivery of which the buyer claimed damages. 8. Same—Breach of Stipulation—Defense. The fact that a seller was anxious to be relieved from a contract requiring it to sell materials did not furnish the buyer an excuse for committing a breach of the stipulation binding it to use the materials so purchased exclusively in its own trade. 4. Same—Evidence—Admissibility. Since it was competent for the seller to show that materials ordered by the buyer, for the nondelivery of which the buyer claimed damages, were not ordered in good faith for the buyer’s exclusive use, as required by its contract, but to fill contracts made with third parties, the admission in evidence of a contract between the buyer and a third party, whereby the former agreed to furnish materials to the latter, was proper. 5. Same—Damages for Nondelivery. Where a buyer was bound by the contract to use the materials purchased exclusively in its own trade, it could not recover damages .for the seller’s failure to fill orders for materials intended in whole or in part for delivery to third parties pursuant to contracts made with them, whether the seller knew or did not know of such contracts. 6. Same—Evidence—Sufficiency. Evidence in an action on a written contract for the price of materials sold under it held sufficient to warrant the jury in finding that a part of the materials ordered, and for the nondelivery of which the buyer claimed damages by way of a counterclaim, were, when so ordered, intended for delivery to a third party, pursuant to a contract previously entered into between the buyer and the third party.