Baird Bros. v. Walter Pratt & Co.

89 S.W. 648, 6 Indian Terr. 38, 1905 Indian Terr. LEXIS 2
CourtCourt Of Appeals Of Indian Territory
DecidedOctober 27, 1905
StatusPublished

This text of 89 S.W. 648 (Baird Bros. v. Walter Pratt & Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court Of Appeals Of Indian Territory primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Baird Bros. v. Walter Pratt & Co., 89 S.W. 648, 6 Indian Terr. 38, 1905 Indian Terr. LEXIS 2 (Conn. 1905).

Opinion

Clayton, J.

There are 28 specifications of error in the assignment, but they go to only a few propositions of law. The first question we will consider, and the one which the counsel for defendants (appellants) most strongly relies, naming it “the crucial point in the case” is raised by the contention that as the contract on its face shows that the plaintiff is a firm doing business in Chicago, Ill., and as the order was addressed to “Walter Pratt & Co., Chicago, Ill.,” the defendants had the right to have their goods shipped from that point, and that as they were shipped from Iowa City, Iowa, although it may have been shown, as it was by the proof, to be the same firm, yet it was such a variance from the conditions of the order as to justify the defendants, on its discovery, to repudiate the contract, and refuse to receive the goods. The contention is that one upon entering into contract with another has the right to know with whom he is dealing; that there may be many things, personal to the other, which might be an inducement to the contract, such as personal integrity, business capacity, the reputation and supposed superior quality of the particular things manufactured by him, his promptness in business affairs, etc. And authorities are cited in support of this proposition, the correctness of which we concede. And if it has been shown that the firm of Walter Pratt & Co., of Chicago, Ill., is a different firm from that of Walter Pratt & Co. of Iowa City, Iowa, the appellants’ [48]*48case is established. “As is said in a recent case, ‘every one has a right to select and determine with whom he will contract, and cannot have another person thrust upon him without his consent. 'In the familiar phrase of Lord Denman: “You have the right to the benefit you anticipate from the character, credit, and substance of the party with whom you contract.” ’ If, therefore, at the time of making the contract, one of the parties supposed the other to be another than he was, as the latter knew or had reason to believe, there is a mistake as to a material fact and hence no sale. Thus, if A. orders goods of B., C., though B.’s successor in business, cannot fill the order without A’s consent, and if he does, A. is not bound. But where A. begins negotiations for a purchase with B.. supposing that he is dealing with C., but, before the negotiations are completed, is informed of the mistake, and completes the purchase, he is bound, and cannot afterwards set up the mistake to defeat his liability.” The United States Supreme Court, in Arkansas Smelting Co. vs Belden Co., 127 U. S. 387, 8 Sup. Ct. 1309, 32 L. Ed. 246, says: “But every one has a right to select and determine with whom he will contract, and cannot have' another' person thrust upon liim without his consent. In the familiar phrase, of Lord Denman: ‘You have the right to the benefit you anticipate from the character, credit, and substance of the party with whom .you contract.’ ” Benjamin on Sales, § 58; Clark on Contracts, 293; Boston Ice Co. vs Potter, 25 Am. Rep. 9.

But in this case the proof conclusively shows that Walter Pratt & Co. were manufacturers and wholesale dealers of perfumery and toilet preparations, with their offices at Chicago, and their manufactory at Iowa City. They were not a corporation, but a firm, doing business under the firm name and style of “Walter Pratt & Co.” Neither “Chicago, Ill.,” nor “Iowa City, Iowa,” was a part of the firm name; the business [49]*49at the two places was not a separate and independent one; goods were manufactured by them at one-place, and sold by sample at the other. When the contract had been entered into, it with the accompanying order was sent to the place of business at Chicago, and at the same time the agent who 'made the contract wired to the manufactory at Iowa City, which is located on the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway, to forward the goods at once by that railroad, as the contract required. Under these circumstances the mere fact that, after it was disclosed by the contract that the plaintiffs' place of business was at Chicago, they shipped the goods from Iowa City, has no tendency to change the identity of the parties. If Walter Pratt & Co., of Chicago, had been an Illinois corporation, and Walter Pratt & Co., of Iowa City, had been an Iowa corporation, or had been a different firm, there would have been just grounds for the contention; but they were not. They were simply a firm manufacturing goods and selling them, their selling department at one place and their manufacturing at another; and the fact, as before stated, that this contract is made with the Chicago selling department, and shipped from the Iowa manufacturing department, has no tendency to show that the defendants thought they were dealing with a different person than the one who filled the contract. The contention is without merit; and, as heretofore stated, it is also contended that, in the course of business when goods are ordered to be shipped from a business house located at a place designated by their advertisements or otherwise, the buyer has the right, not only to have the order filled by the particular person or firm to whom the order is sent, but to have it shipped from that place, “(a) Acceptance of an offer to result in a contract must be absolute and unconditional, (b) Identical with the terms of the offer, (c) In the mode, at the place and within the time expressly or impliedly required by the offer.” Clark on Contracts, § 36. “To constitute a contract there must [50]*50be a proposition by one party, accepted by the other, without any modification, whatever. If the acceptance modifies the proposition in any particular, however trifling, it amounts to no more than a counter proposition; it is not in law an acceptance which will complete the contract. The mere proposal of a bargain by one person to another imposes no obligation upon the former until it is accepted by the latter according to the terms in which the offer is made. Any qualification of or departure from those terms invalidates the offer unless the same be agreed to by the person who. made it.” Mr. Mechem, in his work on Sales (section 1124), says that when no place is specified delivery is to be where the goods were at the time of the sale. The contract specified that delivery was to be to the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway. And as that railway runs through both Chicago and Iowa City, it was left uncertain; and the goods at the time of the sale having been at Iowa City, the delivery to the -railway company at that place was sufficient, especially s.o when it is considered that they were delivered by the plaintiffs at a place where one of its departments of business was located.

But it is also contended that, as at the time of the-deh very of the goods to the railway company, ■ the plaintiffs, by their invoice, sent at the same time the goods were forwarded, set out in it different terms of payment from that contained in the contract, the defendants could, on its discovery, repudiate the contract and refuse to receive the goods. The contract gives 30 days’ timé for payment, with 6 per cent, discount, if paid within that time in cash; or, within that time, to be settled by five notes, due in 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 months. If the paper heretofore referred to were really but an order, then its acceptance should have been in accordance with its exact terms; and when the plaintiffs shipped the goods on the invoice changing the conditions of payment, it would not have been an [51]

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Bluebook (online)
89 S.W. 648, 6 Indian Terr. 38, 1905 Indian Terr. LEXIS 2, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/baird-bros-v-walter-pratt-co-ctappindterr-1905.