Austin Mill & Grain Co. v. Lambert

245 S.W. 767, 1922 Tex. App. LEXIS 286
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 18, 1922
DocketNo. 6476.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 245 S.W. 767 (Austin Mill & Grain Co. v. Lambert) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Austin Mill & Grain Co. v. Lambert, 245 S.W. 767, 1922 Tex. App. LEXIS 286 (Tex. Ct. App. 1922).

Opinion

BRADY, J.

Appellee sued appellant for damages on account of the sale and delivery of seed wheat to be used by him for planting in the fall of 1918, which was alleged to have been of a character and kind different from that promised and purported to be sold. The damages sought was the difference between the value of the crop raised -from the seed wheat delivered and planted and that which would have been raised had the character of seed wheat embraced in the verbal contract been in fact sold and delivered, less the difference in cost of harvesting, threshing, and marketing the respective crops.

Appellant answered by general and special exceptions, general denial, -and special plea. There was a jury trial, and the verdict was for appellee in the sum of $700, for which the court entered judgment.

The principal question presented for our decision is whether appellee should have been permitted to recover damages predicated upon the value of a crop raised from pure Mediterranean seed wheat, when he neither pleaded nor proved that he could and would have planted that character of seed had he known that appellant was delivering him seed of a different kind. This question was presented by general and special exceptions to the petition; by tender of proof that plaintiff could not and would not have raised a crop of the character upon which he predicated his damages had he had no dealings whatever with appellant; by exceptions to the-court’s charge; and by presenting a special charge.

Appellant’s counsel concede that the measure of damages applied on the trial is, under the weight of authority, the correct one, provided appellee had pleaded and proved that he would have procured and planted.Mediterranean seed wheat, if he had known that the seed wheat sold and delivered to him was ■ not of the character as contracted for and represented. However, it is insisted that the damages allowed are in the nature of speculative gains and profits, and therefore not recoverable. That the damages here allowed are speculative is claimed because of the failure of appellee to plead or prove that he could, or would have procured and planted Mediterranean, or pure Mediterranean, seed wheat had he had no dealings whatever with appellant, and had he known of the different kind of seed delivered .him, and because of the proof offered by appellant that he could *768 not and would not have procured Mediterranean seed. In this state, of the case, it is argued that such a crop could never have had any other than an ideal existence, and that to predicate damages thereon is utter speculation. The case cited as most nearly in point is Huyett-Smith Mfg. Co. v. Gray, 129 N. C. 438, 40 S. E. 178, 57 L. R. A. 193. In that case it was held that, since there was no dry kiln in the market of the capacity contracted for, it was an ideal machine which could have no market value, and therefore damages could not be fairly estimated upon the basis of market value. There it was held that the principal measure of damages would be the difference in value of the apparatus as delivered and the contract price. If we should' concede the correctness of the doctrine announced in that case, under the particular facts, it is our conclusion that the principle is not applicable to' the instant case under the facts here. There it was shown that the machine had no existence. It was not on the market in the year of the contract nor at the date of the trial. There is much force, it must be admitted, that in such circumstances no market value could be attributed to the machine. In the present case, however, there was such a thing as Mediterranean seed wheat, and it is shown in the record by the testimony of appellant’s own witnesses that it had had such character of wheat in the preceding season, and had some left over, upon which it quoted a price to Mr. Taber, who was buying the wheat for appel-lee, at the time he was negotiating for the sale. It is further shown that appellee in the same year planted part of his land in that character of wheat, which he had procured from other sources. Other witnesses testified that there were several kinds of Mediterranean wheat. Therefore it cannot prop.erly be said that the subject-matter of the contract had no existence, or that it mutet be regarded as ideal, and the value of a crop therefrom held to be no basis for estimating damages. Under the evidence, the jury were justified in concluding that appellant had sold appeU.ee pure Mediterranean seed wheat, having an actual existence, and had represented it as such, but had delivered a different and inferior character of seed wheat

This appears to us not to present a case of breach of warranty, properly speaking, but a breach of an express condition in the contract, and the measure of. damages applied below seems to be in accord with the rule prevailing in this state and generally. Leading cases upon this subject are Hadley v. Baxendale, 9 Exch. 341; Jones v. George, 61 Tex. 345, 48 Am. Rep. 280; Railway v. Hill, 63 Tex. 381, 51 Am. Rep. 642; White v. Miller, 71 N. Y. 118, 27 Am. Rep. 13. The following additional Texas cases may be cited: Hoopes v. East, 19 Tex. Civ. App. 531, 48 S. W. 764; Am. Warehouse Co. v. Ray (Tex. Civ. App.) 150 S. W. 765; Tex. Seed & Floral Co. v. Watson (Tex. Civ. App.) 160 S. W. 659.

In this case appellee did not discover that inferior grain was delivered, purporting to be pure Mediterranean seed wheat, until after it had been planted and his crop practically matured, and too late :to take steps to procure the superior quality of seed wheat from which to raise a crop. We agree with appellee’s counsel that it would be too remota and speculative to require appellee to plead and prove what he might have done if he had known of the breach of the contract at the time he planted the crop. The damages resulting from the breach would, according to the usual course of things, result in a crop of less value and inferior quality than would have resulted had appellant complied with its contract; therefore the damages awarded were, in presumption of law, in contemplation of both parties at the time of the contract. The measure of damages applied is that generally recognized as the legal measure, and, we think, was fair and reasonable under the circumstances of this ease. Therefore we overrule the assignments raising this question.

It is further complained that the court should have given certain special charges requested by appellant, and specifically presenting its defense that it did not contract to deliver Mediterranean seed wheat, and did not represent the grain delivered to be such. It is claimed that these special charges fall within the rule announced in G., C. & S. F. Ry. Co. v. Shieder, 88 Tex. 152, 30 S. W. 902, 28 L. R. A. 538; M., K. & T. Ry. Co. v. McGlamory, 89 Tex. 635, 35 S. W. 1058; M., K. & T. Ry. Co. v. Rogers, 91 Tex. 52, 40 S. W. 956; and similar eases. This court has frequently recognized and enforced the rule in question, but it is to be observed that the rule has generally been applied to cases in which the defenses sought to be embodied in special charges were not specifically covered by the main charge, and were interposed by special pleas, in avoidance of the case made by the plaintiff.

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245 S.W. 767, 1922 Tex. App. LEXIS 286, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/austin-mill-grain-co-v-lambert-texapp-1922.