California Wine Asso. v. Wisconsin Liquor Co.

20 Wis. 2d 110
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedApril 30, 1963
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 20 Wis. 2d 110 (California Wine Asso. v. Wisconsin Liquor Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
California Wine Asso. v. Wisconsin Liquor Co., 20 Wis. 2d 110 (Wis. 1963).

Opinions

Brown, C. J.

The Actions.

Counterclaims were brought by defendant-appellant Wisconsin Liquor Company of Oshkosh, and by defendant-appellant Wisconsin Liquor Company of Green Bay, for damages for breach of exclusive distributorship contracts against plaintiff-respondent California Wine Association, which had previously commenced actions against these defendants for payments for merchandise received. Later plaintiff-appellant Sheboygan-Badger Liquor Company [113]*113commenced an action against California Wine Association also for damages for breach of an exclusive distributorship contract.

These actions were consolidated for trial, and the two suits brought by the California Wine Association were settled by stipulation, leaving for trial only the counterclaims and the action by the Sheboygan-Badger Liquor Company. For convenience, the liquor companies will be referred to collectively as the “Peckarsky Companies,” and the California Wine Association as the “Association.”

Trial was to the court which found among many other findings of fact that the Association wrongfully terminated exclusive distributorship contracts with the Peckarsky Companies. The trial court made several findings of fact regarding the calculation of damages for breach of contract and awarded each of the Peckarsky Companies a separate amount which in the first two actions were setoffs against the amount owed to the Association for merchandise received. In each of these actions the Peckarsky Companies appeal from the whole of the judgment and the Association files notice of review.

The Facts.

In 1933, Wisconsin Liquor Company, a Wisconsin corporation located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was engaged in the wholesale distribution of whiskies, brandies, wines, and other liquors in 19 contiguous counties in the eastern part of Wisconsin. It was equally owned by Sam Pokrass and Hyman Peckarsky. From 1937 to 1944, Herman E. Case was its general manager and handled virtually all of its affairs. Wisconsin Liquor Company had two large suppliers, National Distillers from which it purchased whiskies, and the Association from which it purchased brandies and wines. The Association, prior to 1951 known as the Fruit [114]*114Industries, Ltd., is a co-operative organized under the California co-operative laws. It is technically known as a federated co-operative because a majority of its members are co-operatives in themselves. The Association manufactures and sells a complete line of champagne, wine, and brandy, at both the popular price level and at the premium price level. Material here are its premium wine labeled “Ambassador Wine,” and its brandy labeled “Aristocrat.” Walter Taylor was its chief executive officer, known as the vice-president and general manager until 1950, at which time Mario Perelli-Minetti became its chief officer.

Until his death in 1956, George Huckins represented the Association in its Chicago, Illinois, office for the 12 mid-western states, including Wisconsin. He also operated a brokerage partnership selling the Association’s products to wholesalers and distributors. At various times Huckins had different partners, including for a time Herman Case.

In 1933, the Wisconsin Liquor Company was not only a distributor but was also a rectifier of wine and brandy. It bottled and labeled its own brandy and sold it along with certain brands from the Association. In 1941, immediately prior to the war, the amount of brandy sold was nominal. In that year there had been available surplus bulk brandy, and the Wisconsin Liquor Company purchased several hundred barrels of so-called prorate brandy in California. Early in 1942, the OPA established ceiling prices and as a result brandy began to become a better seller. In 1942, Herman Case approached George Huckins with a plan to sell this brandy to the Association, which would bottle it under its Aristocrat label. The Wisconsin Liquor Company would then buy the Aristocrat brandy back from the Association. This plan was adopted at a second meeting three months later. During this second meeting Walter Taylor was present, and the actual prices at which the bulk brandy [115]*115was sold to the Association and repurchased by the Wisconsin Liquor Company were settled. Thereafter, the Wisconsin Liquor Company concentrated on the sale of Aristocrat brandy.

On June 30, 1945, the Wisconsin Liquor Company was split between Sam Pokrass and Hyman Peckarsky, its principal owners. The corporate entity, Wisconsin Liquor Company, continued to operate but under the ownership of Sam Pokrass and only in Milwaukee and Waukesha counties. The remaining 17 counties went to Hyman Peckarsky. Wisconsin Liquor Company transferred the physical assets which comprised the branch operations in Oshkosh and Green Bay and the shares of stock formerly held by the Wisconsin Liquor Company in the Racine Beverage Company, Badger Liquor Company, and Sheboygan Liquor Company to Hyman Peckarsky in return for Peckarsky’s Wisconsin Liquor Company stock.

Hyman Peckarsky and his son, Irvin, formed the Wisconsin Liquor Company of Oshkosh and the Wisconsin Liquor Company of Green Bay out of the former Oshkosh and Green Bay branches of the Wisconsin Liquor Company. In 1950, the Peckarskys sold the Racine Beverage Company which operated in the counties of Walworth, Kenosha, and Racine, and the Sheboygan Liquor Company and Badger Liquor Company were consolidated into a new corporation known as the Sheboygan-Badger Liquor Company. The three surviving companies owned by the Peckarskys are the present appellants.

For a short period following the split between Peckarsky and Pokrass, the Peckarsky Companies were required ' to make all purchases of inventory from or through the Wisconsin Liquor Company then owned by the Pokrass family. After a few months the agreement which gave rise to the' split was modified and the Peckarsky Companies were per[116]*116mitted to purchase inventory directly from the suppliers. The Peckarsky Companies first arranged for direct purchase with National Distillers, the company which had been the principal whisky supplier of the Wisconsin Liquor Company. Then they arranged for direct purchases from the Association in a meeting in Chicago with George Huck-ins. Prior to this conference in Chicago, the split between the Pokrasses and the Peckarskys had not caused any change in distribution with respect to the Association for it continued to sell to only one distributor in eastern Wisconsin, namely, the Wisconsin Liquor Company. After this conference, the Association sold directly to the Peckarsky Companies, and the latter were its sole distributors in that area.

From 1945 to 1959, the Peckarsky Companies sold virtually only Aristocrat brandy although it handled some competitive brands. Both the Peckarsky Companies and the Association vigorously promoted the sale of Aristocrat through extensive programs of salesmen’s benefits and advertising. In March and April, 1947, the Association specifically authorized advertisements to be placed in a number of newspapers in Wisconsin cities describing the Peckarsky Companies as its exclusive distributor of Aristocrat brandy.

In 1947, Irvin Peckarsky learned that Kuechenberg, a salesman for another company, was selling the Association’s products in the city of Fond du Lac which was in the Peck-arsky territory. Peckarsky contacted Richard Sayre, the Wisconsin representative of the Association, and protested. Sayre investigated and discovered that Kuechenberg was getting products from Sam, Pokrass.

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Bluebook (online)
20 Wis. 2d 110, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/california-wine-asso-v-wisconsin-liquor-co-wis-1963.