Canham v. Plano Manufacturing Co.

55 N.W. 583, 3 N.D. 229, 1893 N.D. LEXIS 17
CourtNorth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 21, 1893
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 55 N.W. 583 (Canham v. Plano Manufacturing Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering North Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Canham v. Plano Manufacturing Co., 55 N.W. 583, 3 N.D. 229, 1893 N.D. LEXIS 17 (N.D. 1893).

Opinion

CoIrliss, J.

The defendant sold and delivered to plaintiff a twine binder. For this, plaintiff gave his three promissory notes. Fie subsequently returned the machine claiming that there was a breach of the warranty accompanying the sale, and, having paid two of these notes, he brings suit to recover the amount so paid, and also the amount due on the other note. If there was a valid warranty on such sale, and a breach thereof, and a valid rescission of the contract, then the consideration for these notes failed, and it was the duty of the defendant to return the note which remained unpaid, and to restore the money which had been paid by the plaintiff in satisfaction of the other two'notes. One of the notes was paid to the a.gent on his promise to remedy defects in the machine, and the other one was paid by plaintiff to one claiming to be an innocent purchaser for value. In making these payments plaintiff did not waive his right to a return of the money on failure of the consideration of these notes. The other note having been negotiated before maturity by the defendant, it is liable to plaintiff for the amount due thereon if a failure of consideration is established. Fahey v. Harvesting Co., 55 N.W. Rep. 580, (decided at this term,) and cases there cited.

The sufficiency of the complaint was challenged, but it is clearly sufficient. It shows a breach of warranty and rescission of the contract which would entitle plaintiff to recover the amounts paid on the two notes and the amount due on the note negotiated by defendant before maturity. All these facts relating to these notes are fully set forth in the complaint. It therefore states a cause of action. The court directed a verdict for the plaintiff for the full amount claimed. From the judgment entered upon this verdict, [231]*231defendant appeals. Was it error to direct this verdict ? The machine was sold by an agent of the defendant whose name was Crafts. The warranty was oral. It was, in substance, that the binder would do as good work as any other binder in the market. There is no controversy either as to the fact of this warranty, oías to the fact of a breach thereof. But it is insisted that the plaintiff did not rescind the contract promptly, after discovering the defect. This would be fatal to plaintiff’s recovery unless he was induced to delay action by defendant’s promise to make the machine work. Section 3591, Comp. Laws. The sale was in July, 1889, and the binder was not in fact returned until August 4, 1890. It is undisputed however, that the agent Crafts repeatedly promised to put the binder in working order, and requested the plaintiff to keep it, to enable him (Crafts) to do this. A number of .efforts to fix it were made during the season of 1889, but they all proved abortive. Each time the attempt failed, plaintiff expressed his determination to return the binder, but was -deterred from doing so by Crafts’ repeated promises to make the binder do good work, and his often repeated entreaties that the plaintiff keep the machine, to give him (Crasts) a chance to make it fulfill the warranty. Finally, not being able to make it work during the harvest of 1889, Crafts promised plaintiff that, if he, plaintiff, would keep the binder until next season, he would agree to see that it was put in good working order for next harvest, to do as good work as any other machine in the market. Relying on this promise, plaintiff did keep the binder. It was urged on the argument that Crafts gave his mere personal guaranty that this should be done, but we do not so construe the record. It was undoubtedly understood by both the parties that he was acting for the defendant in making this promise. During all of this time Crafts was agent for the defendant in the sale of these machines. He was their general agent for this purpose, being intrusted with this business of selling generally, and not merely with the sale of this particular machine. “An agent for a particular transaction is called a special agent. All others are general agents.” [232]*232Section 3962, Cotnp. Laws. As such agent he had authority to make the warranty on the sale already referred to. Section 398$, Id.; McCormick v. Kelly, 28 Minn. 135, 9 N. W. Rep. 675. It cannot be doubted that he had power to represent and bind the defendant by his subsequent conduct and promises, inducing plaintiff to refrain from prompt action on discovery of the defects in the machine. Snody v. Shier, (Mich.) 50 N. W. Rep. 252; Pitsinowsky v. Beardsley, 37 Iowa, 9. Defendant, through its authorized agent, by its promises and conduct, lulled the plaintiff into a sense of security against prejudice from his failure promtly to restore the property, and cannot be heard to insist that the delay until the year 1890 is fatal to plaintiff’s right to rescind for breach of warranty. Snody v. Shier, (Mich.) 50 N. W. Rep. 252; Manufacturing Co. v. Kelly, 26 Ill. App. 394. In fact, there was a new warranty made in the fall of 1889 that the machine would do as good work the next season as any other binder in the market. In the month of August, 1890, after repeated efforts by plaintiff to induce Crafts to send an expert to fix the binder in accordance with his promise, one was finally sent out to plaintiff’s farm. It was Saturday night before the work was finished. Plarly Monday morning plaintiff started the machine. It did not do good work. The same day it was returned by plaintiff to the same place from which he took it when he purchased it, and he then notified the agent Crafts that he had returned it, and demanded a return of his notes. If Crafts was agent for the defendant during the year 1890 in the- sale of its machines, there can be no doubt that plaintiff acted promptly in returning the property to defendant, in view of the promises and conduct of defendant’s agent inducing delay, and therefore amounting to a waiver of return until after defendant’s final effort to - fix the machine. That Crafts could give a new warranty, after failure to make the binder work during' the harvest of 1889, cannot be doub'ted. There being a breach of a former warranty, plaintiff had it in his power to return the binder and have back his notes, or a new machine in place of the defective one. This new machine would be delivered upon the same [233]*233warranty which related to the old one. The parties could agree, after the return of the old one, to a new contract of sale of the old binder with warranty, and therefore the agent could make a new warranty without the formality of a return, which he could not prevent. This same reasoning leads to the conclusion that the agent could attach to the continued holding of the binder by the plaintiff a condition that if it should not do as good work the next season as any other binder in the market he would take it back. This is precisely what he did agree to. It amounted, in effect, to a keeping of the machine by the plaintiff on tidal, with a right to return it next year if it should fail to work as stipulated by defendant’s agent. Had the binder been returned as sold, Crafts would have had power to sell it on trial. Deering v. Thom, 29 Minn. 120, 12 N. W. Rep. 350; Oster v. Mickley, 35 Minn. 245, 28 N. W. Rep. 710. He therefore had power to promise to take back the binder if it did not work as warranted, without the necessity of a formal surrender of the machine and the cancellation of the contract of sale and the making of a new contract.

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Bluebook (online)
55 N.W. 583, 3 N.D. 229, 1893 N.D. LEXIS 17, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/canham-v-plano-manufacturing-co-nd-1893.