Chapin v. Potter

1 Hilt. 366
CourtNew York Court of Common Pleas
DecidedJune 15, 1857
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 1 Hilt. 366 (Chapin v. Potter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of Common Pleas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chapin v. Potter, 1 Hilt. 366 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1857).

Opinion

Daly, J. —

This is an action to recover the value of twenty-three boxes of candles, alleged to be wrongfully detained from the plaintiff by the defendants, in which the plaintiff was non-suited upon tbe following state of facts:

The clerk of the plaintiff called upon one Russell to solicit an order for soap and candles. Russell agreed to take twenty-five boxes of soap and fifty boxes of candles, upon condition that the plaintiff would take in exchange all the damaged candles which Russell then had in his store. The clerk consulted tbe plaintiff, and he accepted the proposition; and, a day or two after, tbe clerk called upon Russell, and informed him that the plaintiff agreed to the terms proposed; whereupon Russell ordered, at the market price, twenty-five boxes of soap and fifty boxes of candles; and the clerk, on the part of the plaintiff, agreed to [368]*368take, in part pay, all tbe stock of damaged candles that Russell bad, at tbe rate of 13g cents per pound. After tbe contract was made, Russell and tbe plaintiff’s clerk went and examined an open box of candles placed near tbe door of tbe office, after wbicb Russell took tbe clerk to tbe back part of tbe store, where a lot of candles were piled up together, and, showing them to bim, said, “ Here is tbe lot of candles; send down some soap, and take tbe candles away.” Before this, Russell bad told tbe clerk that there were from fifteen to twenty-five boxes. Gandies are sold by tbe marks of tbe number of pounds on tbe outside of tbe boxes. Tbe terms of tbe sale to Russell were cash for tbe difference upon tbe exchange. He was to pay 14f cents per ^jound for tbe candles; tbe soap was to be at tbe market price.

The following day tbe clerk entered tbe order given by Russell on the plaintiff’s order book, and a day or two afterwards fifteen boxes of soap were sent to Russell. In a few days a load of candles was sent; but Russell in the meanwhile having made an assignment, bis assignee, Mr.Dimmick, refused to receive them, and they were brought back by tbe carman. The plaintiff’s clerk then called at Russell’s store, and after being informed by Dimmick of tbe fact of tbe assignment, the clerk demanded tbe damaged candles purchased of Russell, or that the soap which tbe plaintiff bad delivered to Russell should be returned. Dim-mick said be would take legal advice, and tbe clerk having called tbe next day, Dimmick told bim that he bad sold tbe soap and bad also sold tbe candles, to go into tbe country. The clerk afterwards saw Mr. Potter, one of tbe defendants, who told bim that he bad bought a lot of candles from Dimmick, at a bargain. Tbe clerk then stated to bim tbe circumstances, and Potter said it was hard for the plaintiff; that be had not paid Dimmick for tbe candles, and also that it made no difference to the defendants bow tbe suit terminated. The complaint alleged that twenty-three boxes of candles, slightly damaged, were delivered by Dimmick to tbe defendants, containing 1,177 pounds, amounting, at 13& cents per pound, to $158.89 ; wbicb was not denied by tbe answer. [369]*369The first question is, whether the contract for the sale or exchange of these twenty-three boxes of candles for the goods agreed to be, and in part delivered by the plaintiff, was void by the statute of frauds. It is alleged to be void because there was no delivery, in part performance, at the time the contract was entered into, the soap having been delivered a day or two after Russell and the clerk had agreed upon the terms of the sale or exchange; and we are referred to the case of Seymour v. Davis (2 Sandf. S. C. 239), but the decision in that case, that a delivery and acceptance in part performance of an agreement for the sale of goods must be made at the time of the sale, was founded upon an obvious misapprehension of the terms of the statute. The provision in the statute, respecting time, refers to the payment of part of the purchase money, and not to the receipt and accef& ance of part of the goods. "Where a payment of part of the purchase money is relied upon to take the case out of the statute, the payment must be made at the time when the contract is entered into; but it has been settled, in McKnight v. Dunlop (1 Seld. 537), by the Court of Appeals, if it was ever doubtful, that a delivery and acceptance of part of the goods takes the case out of the statute and renders the contract binding, though it takes place after the parties have agreed upon the conditions of the sale. “ The oral contract,” says Paige, J., in McKnight v. Dunlop, “may be considered good as a proposition, and the subsequent delivery of the whole or of a part of the goods, as an acceptance of the proposition and the final conclusion of a valid contract;” and it was accordingly held, in that case, that the delivery and acceptance of part of the goods, several months after the making of the verbal agreement, was a sufficient compliance with the statute; and even before that decision, it was held by the Supreme Court, in Sprague v. Blake (20 Wendell, 63), that a part delivery need not, by the terms of the statute, be made when the agreement is entered into. “ An oral agreement,” says the court, in Sprague v. Blake, “may stand for a mutually agreed proposition, and, unless revoked, the subsequent acceptance of part of the goods, which were the subject of the oral negotiation, [370]*370will make it binding.” In this case there was a delivery and acceptance of a part of tbe soap, a day or two after Russell and the plaintiff’s clerk had agreed upon the terms of exchange and sale, which rendered the contract binding.

But I think the court below erred in granting a nonsuit. Before a nonsuit can be directed, there must be no doubt in respect to what is proved by the evidence. The evidence must not only be taken to be true, but it must be so clear and conclusive, in respect to the facts upon which the conclusions of law are based, that it is in the power of the court to draw every inference which a jury might draw. Smyth v. Craig, 3 Watts & Serg. 18. If it is not of that character, the case must be submitted to the jury under proper instructions from the court in respect to the law. lÜ^is is especially so where no written agreement or contract is entered into, and a question arises as to the intent of the parties, to be gathered from their acts and declarations. Where the intent follows as the legal and logical conclusion from their acts, it may be passed upon by the court; but where, upon the evidence, it is so uncertain or doubtful as to justify a jury in finding either way, then it is not in the province of the court to pass upon the question, but the case must be submitted to the j ury.

Such, I think, was the case here. The agreement was in part for the exchange of commodities, or, rather, it was an agreement for the sale of goods, payment for which was to be made partly in goods ; the whole amount, or quantity of which, was not ascertained, but which was to be taken at a certain rate per pound, and partly in cash. If the parties had put their agreement in writing, and nothing more was expressed, but that the plaintiff was to deliver a certain quantity of soap and candles at a stipulated price, to be p,aid for partly in damaged candles and partly in cash, the construction of it, as an executory contract, would be, that the delivery of the damaged candles and the cash payment was to be contemporaneous with the delivery of the soap and candles the plaintiff bad agreed to sell. But it may have been the intention of the parties here, that the damaged candles were to be delivered at once.

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Bluebook (online)
1 Hilt. 366, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chapin-v-potter-nyctcompl-1857.