Brewster District Unit v. Monroe

200 P. 841, 117 Wash. 21, 1921 Wash. LEXIS 1008
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 8, 1921
DocketNo. 16404
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 200 P. 841 (Brewster District Unit v. Monroe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brewster District Unit v. Monroe, 200 P. 841, 117 Wash. 21, 1921 Wash. LEXIS 1008 (Wash. 1921).

Opinion

Holcomb, J.

In its complaint against appellants, respondent, Brewster District Unit, a corporation, demanded judgment for the value of 12,000 apple box shooks, goods, wares and merchandise furnished and services rendered, of the total value of $5,470.48, during the year 1919, upon which payments are admitted in the sum of $1,204.31, leaving a balance due, as claimed, of $4,166.17, with interest on the sum of $1,980 from July 15, 1919, at the rate of six per cent per annum, and on $2,186.17 from November 30, 1919, at the rate of six per cent per annum.

Appellants answered and admitted that respondent sold and delivered to them approximately 11,000 apple [22]*22box shooks, admitted the purchase of certain merchandise during the season of 1919, and that certain services were rendered by respondent to the appellants in warehousing and hauling part of appellants’ apple crop for the season of 1919.

Appellants also pleaded three payments on account, namely: $1,000, $227.58, and on April 27, 1920, after the commencement of the action, a third payment of $2,530.97, or a total of $3,758.55.

Appellants further pleaded an affirmative defense and counterclaim growing out of a certain written contract entered into between the respondent, Brewster District Unit, and appellants, Monroe Brothers, dated September 18, 1919, wherein respondent was to furnish services in warehousing and hauling fruit of the appellants, and claimed a breach of the contract. By reason of the breach and failure to perform on the part of the respondent, appellants alleged damages in the sum of $1,735,20, minus any balance that might be due the respondent for services rendered and merchandise sold and delivered.

The contract is herewith set forth as follows:

“Brewster District Unit warehouse and loading contract.
‘‘ This agreement, entered into this eighteenth day of September, 1919, by and between Monroe Bros., and of the county of Douglas, state of Washington, whose post office address is Brewster, Wash., hereinafter called the grower, the party of the first part, and the Brewster Union, hereinafter called the Unit, party of the second part, witnesseth:
“The period of this contract shall be for the year 1919.
“The Unit agrees to maintain and provide warehouse facilities for the warehousing and loading of the grower’s fruit at the Unit Warehouse, at Brewster, Wash.
[23]*23“The grower shall have all fruit delivered packed in plainly marked boxes with the grade, variety and sizes stamped on in regular form for labeling.
“The grower or shipper agrees to furnish all labels required put on boxes of apples so warehoused, also to give the Unit written instructions twenty-four hours before loading cars.
“The grower further agrees to pay the Unit the sum of (71/2) seven and one-half cents per packed box of apples for all apples delivered to the Unit. •
“The Unit agrees to furnish grower warehouse receipts, label, load, brace and manifest all fruit warehoused with Unit by said grower.
“The grower further• agrees to pay the Unit the sum of 6c per packed box of apples for hauling fruit from ranch to warehouse.
“The Unit agrees to furnish trucks to move said fruit within twelve hours after notified by grower on phone and to pay all ferry charges. The Unit to be relieved of this hauling clause if ferry refuses to cross them. ’ ’

The agreement was signed by the parties.

The respondent demurred to the affirmative answer and counterclaim and the demurrer was sustained, with permission to plead anew. An amended affirmative answer and counterclaim was filed and respondent demurred, which demurrer was sustained.

Subsequently, on the 27th day of September, 1920, a stipulation was entered into by and between Johnson & O’Connor, attorneys for respondent herein, and Corbin & Easton and W. C. Gresham, attorneys for appellants herein, whereby it was agreed that R. C. Monroe is not a member of the partnership composed of the appellants L. E. Monroe and Y. B. Monroe, trading under the firm name and style of Monroe Brothers.

It was further stipulated and agreed that the appellants L. E. Monroe and V. B. Monroe are indebted [24]*24to the respondent in the sum of $1,635.20, together with interest at the rate of six per cent per annum on the following amounts: On $1,980 from July 15, 1919, to May 1, 1920; on $509.03 from December 1, 1919, to May 1, 1920, and on $1,635.20 from December 1, 1919, to the date of the judgment herein, on account of goods, wares and merchandise and services furnished to appellants by the respondent.

The stipulation also provided that appellants do not waive any rights they may have under and by virtue of their affirmative answer and counterclaim made and filed in this action, and that the indebtedness of appellants to the respondent should not in any manner be taken as a waiver of any rights of appellants which they may have by virtue of their affirmative defense and counterclaim.

On this stipulation, an order was entered sustaining the demurrer to the affirmative defense and counterclaim in appellants’ amended answer, and making certain findings, which were that judgment be entered in this cause in favor of respondent without further proof, on account of appellants’ failure and refusal to further plead in the action, to which order of the court, filed September 27, 1920, appellants excepted.

On the same date, the court entered judgment in favor of respondent and against the appellants in the sum of $1,635.20, together with interest at the rate of six per cent per annum on the. amounts as stipulated, the interest totaling the sum of $184.98, and for respondent’s costs and disbursements incurród in the action.

The pleadings, records and files compose the entire record on which the appeal is based.

The amended answer alleged some supplemental oral agreements and circumstances surrounding the [25]*25making of the written contract, apparently intended to furnish the basis of an independent consideration and inducements. It alleges the custom of fruit growers to make warehousing arrangements, and the warehousing concerns to make contracts for warehousing; that the parties, with knowledge of those customs, estimated the size of appellants’ crop and one paragraph of the amended answer alleged that:

“At the time of entering into said agreement the parties especially understood that the contract was concerning all fruit harvested from the defendants’ orchards, and all of the parties knew the customs concerning said agreements and knew of the necessity of making proper provisions prior to the time said fruit season began, which was the latter part of September, 3919.”

The trial court held that the contract could not be enforced because of its lack of mutuality.

Appellants contend that the contract pleaded constitutes a bilateral contract, upon mutual considerations.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
200 P. 841, 117 Wash. 21, 1921 Wash. LEXIS 1008, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brewster-district-unit-v-monroe-wash-1921.