Davis v. Tidewater Coal & Coke Co.
Davis v. Tidewater Coal & Coke Co.
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiff sued in assumpsit to recover the price or value of his labor for coal actually mined from defendants mines number one and number two, pursuant to an alleged contract or contracts ■with defendant, and for damages for alleged breaches thereof by defendant, the specification of -such- breaches applicable to the contract as to mine number one relating to the obligations of defendant thereunder to furnish mine props, cross ties, rails, spikes, machines, and mine ears; and as to number two, its failure to furnish railroad cars, mine cars, pumps, fans, cutting machines, and to do the engineering work necessary to enable plaintiff properly to execute the contract on his part to mine the coal from said mines; and as to both mines the breaches of defendant to pay him the balance due for coal actually mined and delivered under and pursuant to said contracts, and for damages for loss of, profits in not being permitted by defendant completely to perform said contracts on his part. The declaration avers that the balance due plaintiff for four hundred cars of coal actually mined from mine number one was $892.25, and for damages for loss of profits on four thousand cars of coal remaining in the mine, which under his contract he was entitled to take out, the sum of $4,000.00; and the damages sustained
Ás to mine number two, in addition to the special damages sutained by the alleged breaches of defendant to provide mine cars, pumps, etc., aggregating several thousand dollars, it is averred that the defendant owed plaintiff on coal actually mined a balance of thirteen cents per ton for the coal mined in addition to $1.32 per ton paid him thereon, and which additional sum, it is alleged, defendant had contracted to pay him for fifteen thousand tons mined and delivered, provided defendant should be thereafter allowed by the United States Fuel Administration to charge for the coal the additional price of forty-five cents per ton over the prices prevailing at the time of said contract, or if the cost of mining said coal to plaintiff should thereafter be increased, both of which events the declaration avers had happened, rendering the defendant liable to plaintiff on said contract in the additional sum of $1,950.00.
Defendant demurred to the declaration, which demurrer was properly overruled; and in addition to the general issue tendered, it filed a plea of tender of $2,745.22; the plea of the statute of frauds, averring that neither of the contracts jdeaded was in writing, nor was there any memorandum or note thereof signed by defendant or its agent, and that it was not to be performed within a year or capable of performance within that time; a plea that subsequently to the time of the making of the alleged contracts, on January —, 1919, plaintiff and defendant mutually agreed that said contracts should end not later than April 1, 1919, and that in consideration that plaintiff should be permitted to mine coal up to that date, all claims against defendant under said prior contracts should be settled and fully discharged. Issue being joined on all of said pleas, the case was subsequently tried to the jury and resulted in a verdict for the plaintiff in the sum of $4,500.00, which on October 4, 1919, was carried into the judgment now complained of.
The first four of the seven distinct propositions relied on to reverse the judgment relate solely to the defendant’s pleas of the statute .of frauds. It was admitted on the trial by counsel for plaintiff and in his brief and oral argument here that the con
So we are bound to consider the plea of the statute of frauds in its application to the contract relating to number one mine. Proof was offered showing or tending to show damages sustained by plaintiff not only by defendant’s failure to furnish mine timbers, machines, cross ties, etc., but for loss of profits on the ' coal left in the mine and covered by plaintiff’s contract.
The statute as construed here does not render a verbal contract void and unenfo-rcible if in any possible event it may be fully performed.according to its terms within a year. McClanahan v. Otto-Marmet Coal & Mining Company, 14 W. Va. 543. The contract respecting mine number one as found by the jury on the evidence contained no time limit for executing it, but it is earnestly insisted that by the great preponderance of the evidence, considering the quantity of coal which remained in the mine, it was shown that the contract was wholly incapable of
Of course the statute of frauds has no application to executed contracts, and as to the part executed the price stipulated for performance would furnish to the jury the true measure of damages for the part so performed. Miller v. Wisener, 45 W. Va. 59; Arbenz v. Exley, 52 W. Va. 476, 479.
The next point of error urged is that the trial court refused defendant’s instruction number five. This instruction related to the effect of the several receipts given defendant by plaintiff on the various pay days, which being in full, the jury would have been instructed bound the plaintiff unless afterwards some mistake or error was discovered therein. According to our decisions a receipt is but prima facie evidence of the facts recited. Oral evidence is admissible to overthrow them. Anderson v. Davis and Ould, 55 W. Va. 429; Chicago Art Company v. Thacker, 65 W. Va. 143. Such receipts could not possibly have been-made to cover damages for loss of profits resulting from the subsequent breaches of a contract by the defendant. These profits alone, if the jury believed the plaintiff’s evidence, would account for the amount of tire verdict in excess of the sum tendered by defendant. So we see no error in the ruling of the court on instruction number five; and it follows of course from this conclusion that the court committed no error in rejecting defendant’s instruction number six, which would have limited the jury in their verdict to the sum of $2,745.22, tendered by defendant.
As we hold the evidence on each of the several theories of plaintiff justified the verdict, there was no error in the judg
Affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Irvin Davis v. Tidewater Coal & Coke Company
- Status
- Published