Brandtjen & Kluge, Inc. v. Tarter

236 S.W.2d 550, 1951 Tex. App. LEXIS 2420
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 26, 1951
Docket15211
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 236 S.W.2d 550 (Brandtjen & Kluge, Inc. v. Tarter) 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
Brandtjen & Kluge, Inc. v. Tarter, 236 S.W.2d 550, 1951 Tex. App. LEXIS 2420 (Tex. Ct. App. 1951).

Opinion

HALL, Justice.

Appellant Brandtjen & Kluge, Inc. sued appellee Bishop H. Tarter individually, an'd .d/b/a Globe Printing Company, in the District Court of Tarrant County, Texas, for judgment and foreclosure of a chattel mortgage executed by appellee to appellant for part payment on a printing press. Appellee defended by way of cross action to cancel said notes and mortgage and for recovery of cash payments made prior to installation; for cost of installation and for loss of business due to the machine being totally defective.

The trial court entered judgment for ap-pellee supported by jury findings as follows:

(1) That the Kluge Press purchased by appellee from appellant was so defective it could not be made to register accurately with the paper stock in good condition.

(2) That failure of said press to register properly was not caused by appellee's improper handling.

(3) That -during the period of time said press' was in appellee’s shop he lost profits from his business.

(4) The amount of profits so lost by appellee was $250.00.

(5)That appellee expended the sum of $50.00 for electrical installation, of said press.

Appellant’s appeal consists of 25 points.

The first nine points are grouped by appellant for discussion, and contain, in the main, contention that trial court erred in overruling its motion for judgment non obstante veredicto. That said trial court failed to give effect to limitation contained in the warranty contract; trial court erred in refusing to give appellant a new trial because there was no evidence of fraud nor of total failure of consideration; nor of partial failure of consideration; nor of breach of warranty; that said trial court erred in awarding appellee judgment because the proof, as matter of law, reflects that appellee retained and used the press with full knowledge of its condition; that appellee, at most, only proved a partial failure of consideration or a partial'breach of warranty for which damages would be the difference in values and not for cancellation or rescission.

A review of the statement of facts reveals that in' 1946 appellee signed a contract with appellant to- purchase from appellant a Kluge Automatic Press, 12 x 18, and at said time he advanced $50.00 to appellant. When the press was delivered in 1948, he paid a further sum of $557.00. When appellee was notified the press had been shipped from the factory, he sold his press which was doing the printing work contemplated to be performed by the new one. When the press was delivered, appellant employed a man- by the name of Heckler to erect said machine under the terms of their agreement. Appellee testified many times, that result of all tests made after installation, was that the machine would not operate. It would not register accurately. While trying to register, it would pick up the paper, but would not lay it down in the proper place, and sometimes would scatter it over the floor. He hired two or three different expert machine operators who had. experience in operating the same kind and character of machine, but they could not make it properly operate.

*553 The undisputed evidence shows that the installation was completed on June 18, 1948; on June 24, 1948, appellee wrote appellant a rather lengthy detailed letter of explanation, a portion of which is as follows :

“We finally received the Kluge Press, and the erector came and put it together but could not make it feed. It still will not feed and we are worse off than we were before we put it, in, as we sold one of our Miller when we received notice from the freight company that the Kluge Press was here * * *.

“We have tried to run several jobs on the press and have had no luck either with the pick up, delivery or register, in fact there is something wrong with the press that even the erector does not know. So after giving it every trial that we could give it, we have washed.it up and are leaving it to your disposal.

“We know from other people that have Kluge presses that they can get production. and register on them, but the same men who run them, are stumped on this one.”

We find the above evidence is sufficient to support the trial court’s judgment for rescission of the contract. Appellant’s contention that the failure of said machine to operate constitutes a mere breach of warranty to furnish repairs is not well founded. Its guarantee as to operation is as follows:

“Kluge Automatic Press Guarantee

“We guarantee that the Kluge Automatic Press manufactured by us will handle any flat stock from tissue paper to eight-ply cardboard as well as envelopes (made-up or die-cut) with accurate register, provided that stock is not electrified or in otherwise bad condition.

“Brandtjen & Kluge, Inc., Warranty

“We warrant the goods of our manufacture for one year, this warranty being' limited to the furnishing at our factory of such parts as shall, under normal use and' service, appear to us to have been defective in material and workmanship.

“This warranty is limited to the shipment to the purchaser without charge, except for transportation, of the part or parts intended to replace the part or parts claimed to have been defective and which upon1 their return to us for inspection, we shail have determined were defective, and provided the transportation charges for the parts so returned have been prepaid. We make no warranty whatever in respect to hoses, counters, electric equipment nor any equipment not of our manufacture.

“The condition of this warranty is such that if the goods to which it applies are altered or repaired outside of our factory, our liability under this warranty shall cease.

“The purchaser understands and agrees that no warranty of the goods of our manufacture is made or authorized to be made by the Company other than herein above set forth.”

The above guarantee of appellant that said press would register accurately according to said warranty is not susceptible to provisions in the succeeding paragraphs supra relative to replacement of defective or broken parts. Said provisions may supplement but certainly do not supersede or nullify the warranty, previously cited, pertaining to operation and therefore we find that appellant’s obligation lies deeper than mere liability limited to replacement of parts.

Since the testimony reveals that operation of said machine was unsatisfactory from its installation and that appellant’s representative, -Heckler, its special erector, and other experts familiar with such machine were unable to make it operate continuously within a reasonable degree of efficiency, we overrule appellant’s contention. We have construed the provisions of the warranty and written contract between the parties as a whole in order to ascertáin their true meaning as under the law we should do. See St. Mary’s Oil Engine Co. v. Allen-Morrow Co., Tex.Civ. App., 20 S.W.2d 266, 271. As stated in said case, “Such construction is in accord with' the' further rule that a- contract should be construed most strictly against the party who prepared it and tendered it to the óth* er for acceptance or rejection.”

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236 S.W.2d 550, 1951 Tex. App. LEXIS 2420, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brandtjen-kluge-inc-v-tarter-texapp-1951.