Brophy v. Idaho Produce & Provision Co.

78 P. 493, 31 Mont. 279, 1904 Mont. LEXIS 153
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 10, 1904
DocketNo. 1,947
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 78 P. 493 (Brophy v. Idaho Produce & Provision Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brophy v. Idaho Produce & Provision Co., 78 P. 493, 31 Mont. 279, 1904 Mont. LEXIS 153 (Mo. 1904).

Opinion

ME. COMMISSIONER OLAYBEEG

prepared the following opinion for the court:

This is an appeal by defendant from a judgment in favor of plaintiff and from an order overruling a motion for a new trial.

P. J. Brophy was doing business under the name of P. J. Brophy & Oo. The defendant was a corporation. The contro[283]*283versy arose over an alleged contract for the sale and delivery of ten carloads of potatoes, the plaintiff asserting snch sale and a non-delivery. The defendant admits making an offer of sale to plaintiff, and claims that the same was not accepted. The value of the properly involved in the alleged sale is sufficient to bring the contract under the provisions of Sections 2185 and 2340 of the Civil Code, and 3276 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The burden, therefore, was upon plaintiff to establish by a preponderance of evidence that a valid contract under the above statutes was entered into between the parties, its breach, and his damages. There is no dispute but that defendant failed to perform the contract, if one was made; neither is the amount of damages sought to be established by plaintiff contested. The only question, therefore, for our consideration is whether a valid contract was established by plaintiff’s proofs. The defendant offered no testimony, but relied upon that offered by plaintiff as not being sufficient to establish a valid contract; so that there is no conflict in the testimony, and the only question is, did the testimony offered by plaintiff, as a matter of law, establish a valid contract for the sale of ten carloads of potatoes ?

Section 2185 of the Civil Code provides: “The following contracts are invalid, unless the same, or some note or memorandum thereof, be in writing and subscribed by the party to be charged, or his agent: * * * (4) An agreement for the sale of goods, chattels or things in action, at a price not less than two hundred dollars, unless the buyer accept or receive part of such goods, chattels or the evidences, or some of them, of such things in action, or pay at the time some part of the purchase money * * *”

Section 2340 of the Civil Code provides: “No sale of personal property, or agreement to buy or sell it for a price of two hundred dollars or more, is valid, unless: (1) The agreement or some note or memorandum thereof be in writing, and subscribed by the party to be charged, or by his agent; or, (2) the buyer accepts and receives part of the thing sold, or when it consists of a thing in action, part of the evidences thereof, or some [284]*284of them; or, (3) tbe buyer at tbe time of sale, pays a part of tbe price.”

Section 3216 of the Code of Civil Procedure provides: “In the following cases the agreement is invalid, unless the same or some note or memorandum thereof be in writing, and subscribed by the party charged, or by his agent; evidence, therefore, of the agreement cannot be received without the writing or secondary evidence of its contents; * * * (4) An agreement for the sale of goods, chattels or things in action at a price not less than two hundred dollars, unless the buyer accept and receive part of such goods and chattels, or the evidences, or some of them, of such things in action, or pay at the time some part of the purchase money. * * *”

As above stated, the proof-must, therefore, have shown an agreement which is covered by Subdivision 4 of Sections 2185 of the Civil Code and 3216 of the Code of Civil Procedure and by Section 2340 of the Civil Code. The evidence of the sale under Section 3216 of the Code of Civil Procedure must be in writing, or secondary evidence of such writings, and perhaps such oral testimony as is explanatory of ambiguities in the' writings.

The- alleged contract consists of the following correspondence between the parties: It seems that about September 6, 1901, appellant sent to respondent a trade circular (which is not in evidence), by which it announced the fact that it was prepared to furnish farm produce to purchasers. On September 10, 1901, respondent wrote the following letter to appellant: “Gents: ^Replying to your favor of the 6th inst.j we will be pleased to have you quote us prices on potatoes for winter use, say from six to ten cars, shipments to be made within the next six weeks. Tour very best efforts in this direction will be appreciated by, yours truly.” By this letter respondent requested appellant to make him' a proposition or offer to sell “from six to ten cars” of “potatoes for winter use,” to be shipped “within the next six weeks.” In reply to this letter appellant sent respondent the following under date of September 12th: “Tour favor of the [285]*28510th inst. at hand and noted. We can furnish you ten cars of nice white potatoes (Peerless stock) at 60c. per hundred sacked, f. o. b. Rexburg. We also have some stock, but a little scabby, at 55 c. per II. at this point. * * *” By construing this letter with that of respondent’s of the 10th, above quoted, appellant offered to sell respondent “ten cars of nice white potatoes (Peerless stock) at 60c. per hundred, sacked, f. o. b. Rexburg,” 'and “some stock, but a little scabby, at 5oc. per IT. at this point,” which were to be for winter use, and shipped within six weeks from September 10th. This was the only offer appellant made. All that "was required to make a valid contract between the parties was the acceptance by respondent of this offer within a reasonable time.

Judge Graves, of the Supreme Court of Michigan, in the case of Eggleston v. Wagner, 46 Mich. 610, 10 N. W. 37, states the rule as to the acceptance of an offer in the following clear and concise language: “In order to convert a proposal into a promise, the constituents of the acceptance tendered must comply with and conform to the conditions and exigencies of the proposal. The acceptance must be of that which is proposed, and nothing else, and must be absolute and unconditional. Whatever the proposal requires to fulfill and effectuate, acceptance must be accomplished, and the acceptance must include and carry with it whatever undertaking, right or interest the proposal calls for, and there must be an entire agreement between the proposal and acceptance in regard to the subject-matter and extent of interest to be contracted. If the parties do not refer to the same things in the same sense, the transaction is simply one of proposals and counter proposals.” This language is quoted with approval by Mr. Mechem in his work on Sales (Section 288), and numerous other cases are’cited in its support.

In Potts v. Whitehead, 23 N. J. Eq. 514, the court says: “An acceptance, to be good, must, of course, be such as to conclude an agreement or contract between the parties. And to do this it must in every respect meet and correspond -with the offer, neither falling within nor going beyond the terms proposed, but [286]*286exactly meeting them at all points, and closing with them just as they stand.” ,

The Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of Minneapolis, etc. Ry. v. Columbus R’g Mill, 119 U. S. 149, 7 Sup. Ct. 168, 30 L. Ed. 376, says; “As no contract is complete without the mutual assent of the parties, an offer to sell imposes no obligation until it is accepted according to its terms.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
78 P. 493, 31 Mont. 279, 1904 Mont. LEXIS 153, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brophy-v-idaho-produce-provision-co-mont-1904.