Albright v. Kalbitzer

62 F. Supp. 815, 1945 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1872
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedOctober 16, 1945
DocketCivil Action 3513
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 62 F. Supp. 815 (Albright v. Kalbitzer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Albright v. Kalbitzer, 62 F. Supp. 815, 1945 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1872 (E.D. Pa. 1945).

Opinion

KALODNER, District Judge.

This is an action ex contractu in which the plaintiff, in addition to damages for breach of contract, seeks an accounting. The defendant has set up a counterclaim also seeking recovery of damages for breach of the same contracts by plaintiff.

The cause was tried before the Court without a jury. The facts are as follows:

Plaintiff Albright, of Chicago, Illinois, and the defendant Kalbitzer, of Paoli, Pennsylvania, entered into a contract on May 6, 1943, whereby the plaintiff was, inter alia, to sell certain poultry and egg processing and handling equipment, and poultry eviscerating equipment to be manufactured by the defendant; the agreement was to continue effective for one year. On May 7, 1943, the parties executed a sup *818 plementary agreement extending the prior contract to include certain patented poultry picking equipment for which plaintiff held a license; this agreement was to continue as long as the plaintiff held the license. Both contracts are set out in full in an appendix.

The plaintiff has charged the defendant with failure to perform practically all the provisions of the agreements, and on this basis seeks the recovery of damages. The prayer for an accounting is founded upon the thesis that the contracts accorded to the plaintiff an exclusive right to sell, which the defendant is alleged to have violated by making sales over the plaintiff’s head without payment of commissions to the plaintiff. The defendant admits an exclusive agency, but denies that under the terms of the contract he himself was precluded from making sales.

The defendant also asserts that the plaintiff failed to meet the minimum requirements as to sales set forth in Paragraph 2(f) of the contract of May 6, 1943, and for this reason he wrote to the plaintiff on November 10, 1943, terminating that agreement.

It also appears from the record that the plaintiff’s license to manufacture the poultry picking machines, subject to the second agreement, terminated about November 9, 1943, at about which time the defendant acquired a similar license.

A preliminary question may be resolved at the outset. The defendant attacks the jurisdiction of this Court, on the ground that the jurisdictional amount, necessary in diversity of citizenship cases, is lacking here. However, this issue was determined against the defendant on his motion to dismiss by my brother Ganey, J., on August 11, 1944. I may add that the pleadings do not disclose the legal impossibility of a judgment for the plaintiff in excess of the jurisdictional amount. See Hiltz v. Atlantic Refining Co., 1944, 57 F. Supp. 308, decided by this Court.

Coming to the merits of the controversy, the plaintiff seeks to recover commissions on sales alleged to have been made by him between May 6, 1943, the date of the first contract, and November 10, 1943, the date of the defendant’s letter of termination.

It is hardly necessary to discuss in detail all the business done by the parties during this controversial period. Admittedly on the Ebbs & Son order of July 13, 1943, the commission was paid. On the Chicago Foods Products order of April 20, 1943, referred to at the trial as the Hor-witz transaction, plaintiff did receive a commission, but he is not entitled to commission under the contract since the sale was made prior to the execution of the contract .

Concerning the Dorset Foods order, Albright testified, and I credit his testimony, that he made the contact with Dorset in Long Island, New York, that he measured the building and helped prepare the blueprints for the layout, and that he then called Kalbitzer asking him to go to Dorset because the firm was ready to place its order. Kalbitzer took the order, and the unit was installed sometime in October, 1943. While this transaction may come within the plaintiff’s contention that he had an exclusive right to sell, I think he is entitled to the agreed commission on the ground that he was at least the efficient cause of the sale, particularly since there was no break in the negotiations. See Restatement, Agency, Section 448, and the Pennsylvania Annotations thereto.

As to purchases by the plaintiff, while they may be counted under Paragraph 2(f) of the agreement of May 6th, plaintiff is not entitled to commissions where he himself was the purchaser at cost.

Thus, plaintiff proved an order dated September 25, 1943, which was never shipped. Defendant’s counsel, in his brief, states that it was established no such order was received, but admits he could find no such testimony in the record. Neither can I, and I must therefore accept the plaintiffs proof. Also plaintiff proved an order for two machines dated June 22, 1943; this order was to be applied to a prior order for five machines dated May 19, 1943. This order was not shipped. Since these orders were purchases by the plaintiff for his own account, no commissions become due. While he may be entitled to damages for defendant’s failure to ship, he has not offered proof thereof.

The remaining orders handled by the plaintiff during the period from May 6, 1943, to November 10, 1943, are characterized by the fact that they were communicated to the defendant, but defendant failed to make deliveries thereon. On these orders, the plaintiff seeks to recover commissions as sales made. In view of the ad *819 mission 1 of the defendant that the contract provided for commissions on “sales,” the only question in dispute is the meaning of the term “sales,” concerning which the contract is silent.

The defense to this claim is that the term “sales” requires a delivery and passing of title; therefore, since no deliveries were made, no commissions became due.

Considering the admission, I think this view is too narrow. Ordinarily, where, as here, the contract is silent, it is sufficient if an enforceable contract of sale is executed. See Restatement, Agency, Section 445 Comment (e) ; 2 Amer.Juris., Agency, Sections 302, 303. In any event, since the defendant was bound to fill all orders, and failed to do so, plaintiff is entitled to damages in the amount he would have realized if the order had been filled. Johnson v. Hoosier Drill Co., 1881, 99 Pa. 216; see Penn Anthracite Collieries Co. v. Coleman & Co., Inc., 1945, 53 Pa.Dist. & Co.R. 420. Here, such damages constitute plaintiff’s commissions, in the absence of mitigating evidence. See 1 Sutherland, Damages, 3rd Ed. (1903) p. 215.

One transaction to which this conclusion is particularly applicable is that referred to during the trial as the Rabinowitz order of May 21, 1943. Although the defendant accepted the order procured by the plaintiff, and the contract with Rabinowitz, calling for equipment valued in excess of $6,000, was legally enforceable, the defendant released the purchaser for $750, considerably less than the plaintiff’s commission. On the view I have taken, the plaintiff is entitled to the agreed commission for making this sale. See Lieberman v. Colahan, 1920, 267 Pa. 102, 105, 110 A. 246; Blau v. Settling, 1928, 94 Pa.Super. 411; cf. Cooper v. Midland Metal Co., 1914, 56 Pa.Super. 485.

Another transaction in this group was the order obtained by the plaintiff from the Charles Keeshin Poultry Co., on or about October 6, 1943.

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62 F. Supp. 815, 1945 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1872, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/albright-v-kalbitzer-paed-1945.