Champlin Refining Co. v. Street

57 S.W.2d 903
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 25, 1933
DocketNo. 3946.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 57 S.W.2d 903 (Champlin Refining Co. v. Street) 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
Champlin Refining Co. v. Street, 57 S.W.2d 903 (Tex. Ct. App. 1933).

Opinion

HALE, Chief Justice.

L. O. Street, a resident citizen of Oklahoma, owned several town lots in Farnsworth, Ochil-tree county, Tex., upon which he desired to have storage tanks for petroleum products, as well as a filling station, erected. On the 21st day of April, 1927, he entered into a written contract with the appellant refining company, for the construction and erection of said improvements upon said lots. The lots are a part of a block situated between the highway and the railroad right of way running through said town. The storage tanks and improvements were near the railroad track and the filling station faces the highway. The contract provided that the rights of the parties thereunder should exist for three years, beginning on June 1, 1927. That no rent should be paid to Street for the use of the lots during said period. It. bound the refining company to purchase and install on lot 9 two storage tanks of not less than 11,000-gallon capacity each, to be ready for use by June 1, 1927. Paragraph 3 provided that at the expiration of the three-year term Street would purchase, for cash, the storage tanks and all other equipment which the company might ship to Farnsworth during the life of the contract for use in operating the agency at that point; the purchase price being the original cost of such property, plus freight and expenses of installation. It is further provided in section 3 that the failure of Street to purchase the property as stipulated should be construed as an option to the refining company to purchase said lot 9 for the sum of $200 and that Street would convey the property by warranty deed. That it was also an option to the refining company to lease the service station on lot 9 for an additional period of five years at a rental not to exceed 1 per cent, of the cost of the station, plus a reasonable valuation of the ground on which it is located. Paragraph 4 provided that Street should purchase a portable steel service station to be located on lot 8 and to be properly installed and ready for operation not later than June 1,1927. Paragraph 5 provided that the refining company would furnish the gasoline pump, the underground tank, and the lubricating oil pumps necessary for the successful operation of the service station, provided, however, that Street would install a Y-20 Curtis air compressor and all other equipment necessary for the operation of the station, and that further equipment furnished by the refining company should constitute all the loaned equipment to be used there. By paragraph ⅜ the refining company appointed Street as its agent to operate its bulk and service stations. Paragraph 8 recites that the refining company employs Street as its agent under the terms and conditions of another agreement made between them, “which is attached to and made a part of this contract”; but it was not attached and is not in the record. By paragraph 9 Street agrees to operate the agency in accordance with the. rules and regulations issued by the refining company and comply with all instructions governing the operation and maintenance of the bulk storage and service stations, and further stipulates that should Street violate the terms of the contract, the refining company at its option might cancel and revoke the ‘agency without violating the terms of the lease and optional agreement conveyed. That Street should pay all the expenses incident to operating the bulk station and service station.

The refining company instituted this suit January 14, 1931, alleging a breach of the contract, and filed its first amended original petition March 28, 1932, upon which the case-wa's tried. By its amendment it set up the execution of the original contract April 21, 1927, setting forth the substance of the various provisions as stated above, and further-alleged that the contract was executed at Enid, Okl., and that the plaintiff below, being plaintiff in error here, and its said representatives, were ignorant as to the division into lots of the contemplated location for said bulk station and service station as the same existed upon the ground, but that the defendant knew of such subdivision,and designation of the several lots in block A of said-town of Farnsworth. That plaintiff is now advised that said block A is a long strip of. land about 100 feet wide, extending in a northeasterly and southwesterly direction between the tracks of the Santa Fé Railroad on the northwest and the public highway leading from Spearman to Perryton. That this strip of land is divided into lots numbered consecutively from the northeast to the southwest and that Street owned all of the lots numbered from 1 to 12, inclusive, and also owned a grain elevator situated on or about lot 8 of said series of lots and near the railroad track. .That there was also situated on said lot 8 an office building. .That lot 9 is immediately southwest of lot 8; lot 10 immediately southwest of lot 9; lot 11 immediately southwest of lot 10; and that there was a warehouse on said lot 11. That each of said lots is 50 feet wide, and it was agreed that the bulk storage station should be' located on one of the lots and the service station on the lot adjoining same on the east. That in reducing their contract to writing, there was a clerical error made by the draftsman, and by mutual mistake of all parties, lots 8 and 9 were *905 mentioned therein instead of lots 9 and 10. That by mutual mistake, lot 9 was designated as the location for the bulk station instead of lot 10, which erroneous designation of lot 9 appears in all of the paragraphs of said contract. That instead thereof, there should have been written lot 10. That in the latter portion of subdivision 3, in referring to the option given by defendant to plaintiff to lease the gasoline service station, lot 9 is properly designated and such service station was, in fact, located on said lot 9, but that the bulk storage station was on said lot 10. That in keeping with said real and true contract, the refining company placed on said lot 10, as directed by Street through his authorized agent and representative, Bradley Anderson, the equipment which is itemized in the petition .and separately valued, aggregating $4,168.69. -Plaintiff refining company' further alleged -that on May 31,1927, it entered into a written contract with Bradley Anderson, who was the agent for .and acting on behalf of Street, providing for the operation and conduct of said service station. That Street still resided in Oklahoma and that Anderson was fully authorized and empowered by him to represent him in the execution of said contract and the performance of said services.

That in the execution of said contracts, the refining company, as party of the first part, and Bradley Anderson, as party of the second part, executed another written instrument, designated “Loaned Equipment Contract,” on June 15, 1928, wherein plaintiff company agreed to furnish Anderson for a •period of three years, and thereafter until terminated by either party by thirty days’ previous notice, one Butler model 71 gasoline pump, hand operated; one 550-gallon underground tank; two Tokhein 60-gállon lubricating tanks, to be used by the second party in •the sale of petroleum products manufactured ■by plaintiff refining company. In said contract lot 8 is named as the location for installing said property, but lot 8 was designated by mutual mistake and error and the same should have been lot 9.

That the act of Bradley Anderson in executing said above contracts as the agent of Street has been ratified, confirmed, and approved by the latter up to the time of the repudiation and breach of said contract by Street.

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57 S.W.2d 903, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/champlin-refining-co-v-street-texapp-1933.