Barkley & Co. v. Burguieres Co.

7 La. App. 39, 1927 La. App. LEXIS 505
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 5, 1927
DocketNo. 9815
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 7 La. App. 39 (Barkley & Co. v. Burguieres Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Barkley & Co. v. Burguieres Co., 7 La. App. 39, 1927 La. App. LEXIS 505 (La. Ct. App. 1927).

Opinion

OPINION

CLAIBORNE, J.

This is a suit by a purchaser of sugar against his vendor to recover on his warranty.

The plaintiffs, domiciled in the City of New Orleans, allege that on July 22nd, 1921, the defendants, who were members of the Louisiana Sugar and Rice Exchange of New Orleans, exhibited on said Exchange to the plaintiffs, who are also members of said Exchange, a sample of sugar then being made or about to be made by the defendants in their sugar factory in the parish of St. Mary, and offered to s'ell to plaintiffs a quantity of sugar on the basis of, and to be equal to, said sample; the plaintiff obtained an option on said sugar; that plaintiffs are dealers in sugar and buy it for resale at a profit as was well known to defendants; that prior to completing the purchase of said sugar from the defendants, plaintiffs, by wire and letter, offered the same to Armour and Co. [40]*40of Chicago at the price of three and a half cents per pound net F. O. B. plantation; which Armour and Co. accepted and agreed to take two car loads of said sugar; that subsequently plaintiffs accepted the offer of defendants and purchased from them two car loads of said sugar at the price of three and one-quarter cents per pound F. O. B. cars at the factory of the defendants; that on July 28th, 1921, plaintiffs gave defendants shipping instructions directing them to ship said sugar in the name of petitioners, “order notify Armour and Co., Mincemeat Department, Chicago, 111.,” and asking that the shipment be made in two cars containing each 140 barrels as the minimum weight of car load shipments to Chicago was 60,000 pounds; that said sugar was shipped and consigned by defendants, as directed, on two cars; that said sale having been made on the Louisiana Sugar and Rice Exchange was governed by the rules of said Exchange which justify rejection of sugar if not equal to sample; that the sale was of two car loads of sugar, but the exact number of barrels and pounds was not then known until said sugar was made and weighed; that both of said cars moved from the factory of defendants on or about July 31st, 1921; one of said cars was delivered to Armour arid Co. in Chicago on August 6th and the other on August 8th, 1921; that on the arrival of said cars at Chicago, Armour and Co. notified plaintiffs of the bad condition of the sugar which was leaking from the barrels like syrup and that they could not accept the same; and that there was a shortage in weight; that in order to save freight and other charges plaintiffs accepted from Armour and Co. an offer of two and one-half cents per pound at shipping point for actual weight; that plaintiff notified the defendants of the complaints of Armour and Co. and offered that each should send an agent to Chicago to examine the sugar and report, or should agree upon an agent already in Chicago for the same purpose, or have the cars returned to New Orleans where the sugar could be examined, all of which propositions defendants refused to accept; that Armour and Co., having paid plaintiffs for said sugar at three and one-half cents per pound and on factory weights before having received the same or. having discovered its bad condition, claimed of plaintiffs the difference in quality and weights and the reduced price of two and one-half cents per pound; that the sugar contained in one car was billed to Armour and Co. and paid by them at 57,321 pounds at three and one-half cents per pound, making $2004.24, while the true weight in said car was 56,050 pounds at two and one-half cents was $1401.25, making a difference of $604.99; that the sugar in the other car was originally billed to Armour and Co. at 59,436 pounds at three and one-half cents was $2080.26, when as a matter of fact the true weight was 57,890 pounds, which at two and one-half cents per pound amounted tq $1447.25, making a difference of $633.01, and together $1238.00; that plaintiff reimbursed Armo.ur and Co. the above sum of $1238.00; that the sugar loaded by the defendants upon the cars was not equal to the sample exhibited to plaintiff and on the basis of which it was sold, but was inferior to the sugar of said sample; that the price which Armour and Co. agreed to pay was the price sugar of that quality was then worth, and that it was only because of the quality inferior to the sample that Armour and Co. refused to pay for it; and that the quality and grade of the sugar actually delivered to plaintiffs and to Armour and Co. was not worth more than two and one-half cents per pound; that before the arrival of the sugar in Chicago and before plaintiffs were made aware of the inferior quality of the sugar and short[41]*41age in weight, they had paid the defendants on August 19th, 1921, the price agreed upon, based upon the erroneous factory weights, namely, the sum of $3794.60. The plaintiffs, therefore, claim of the defendants $1238.00 with five per cent per annum interest from August 19th, 1921.

The defendants filed an exception of no cause of action.

This exception is based upon Article 2521 (2497) of the Civil Code, which reads as follows:

“Apparent defects, that is, such as the buyer might have discovered by simple inspection, are among the number of redhibitory vices.” C. C. 1847 (1841) S. 3.

This principle has been adopted by the common law. 35 Cyc. 229; 13 Wall 379; 77 U. S. 388.

But this article does not apply in this case for two reasons. The first is that the sugar was sold by sample. In such a case the purchaser does not inspect, and is not expected to inspect, the article sold and delivered. He inspects only the sample. If the article delivered corresponds to the sample, he cannot complain. But it is the obligation of the seller to deliver an article corresponding with the sample. If he does not, the purchaser is under no obligation to consummate the sale by paying the price.

The exhibition of a sample on the sale of merchandise is a tacit representation of its quality, and unless the warranty be clearly and explicitly excepted the vendor must deliver the article in a condition equal to that of the sample.

Brown et al vs. Duplantier, 1 Mart. N. S. 312.

Phillipi vs. Grove, 4 Rob. 315.

Clarke vs. Thomas, 10 Rob. 5.

Hall, Kemp & Co. vs. Plassan, 19 La. Ann. 11.

Penn vs. Kearny, Blois & Co., 21 La. Ann. 237.

Blanc vs. Murray, 36 La. Ann. 169.

Counsel for the defendants, with the utmost confidence, asserts that Article 2531 applies to sales by samples. But he does not rest his assertion upon any authority, nor have we been able to find any. But the Supreme Court of the United States has said in Barward vs. Kellogg, 77 U. S. 388:

“No principle of the Common Law has been better established, or more often affirmed, both in this country, and in England, than that in sales of personal property, in the absence of express warranty, where the buyer has an opportunity to inspect the commodity, and the seller is guilty of uq fraud, and is neither the manufacturer nor grower of the article he sells, the maxim, caveat emptor applies.”
“One of the main reasons why the rule does not apply to the case of a sale by sample is because there is no opportunity for personal examination of the bulk of the commodity which the sample is shown to represent.”

In Pope vs. Allis, 115 U. S.

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Related

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55 So. 2d 276 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1951)

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Bluebook (online)
7 La. App. 39, 1927 La. App. LEXIS 505, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barkley-co-v-burguieres-co-lactapp-1927.