Cheboygan Paper Co. v. Eichberg

150 N.W. 312, 184 Mich. 30, 1915 Mich. LEXIS 843
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 4, 1915
DocketDocket No. 33
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 150 N.W. 312 (Cheboygan Paper Co. v. Eichberg) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cheboygan Paper Co. v. Eichberg, 150 N.W. 312, 184 Mich. 30, 1915 Mich. LEXIS 843 (Mich. 1915).

Opinion

Moore, J.

The plaintiff is a Michigan corporation engaged in the manufacture of paper. Defendants are a copartnership engaged in the manufacture of bags at Baltimore, Md. This suit is brought for a balance claimed to be due it for the manufacture and delivery of paper made under the provisions of two contracts, one dated October 17, 1908, one dated July 6, 1909, and a supplemental contract of July 6, 1909.

There was delivered under these contracts paper of the approximate value of $120,000. Trouble arose between the parties and this litigation followed. Defendants pleaded the general issue, and gave notice of set-off and recoupment. The only item of these defenses involved in this review is a claim of damages for bréach of warranty amounting to $5,991.64, which defendants sought to recoup. From a verdict and judgment in favor of the plaintiff, the case is brought here by writ of error.

The appellants discuss their assignments of error under two heads, the first of which is that there was a mutual release of liability. This claim is based upon the following language contained in the contract of July 6, 1909:

“And it is further understood and agreed, by and between the parties hereto, that the contract under date of October seventeenth, nineteen hundred and eight, existing between the parties hereto, shall be henceforth and forever considered canceled and annulled, to all intents and purposes, as if the- same had never been entered into, the parties hereto releasing’ and discharging each other from all liability growing out of or arising therefrom.”

The first contract had this language in it:

“It is further agreed that party of the first part [32]*32shall carry 100 tons of bag paper of the above-mentioned grades in the warehouse of party of the second part, and shall keep same insured, but will be at no further expense in regard to such stock. Specifications for the 100 tons to be furnished party of the first part by party of the second part thirty days before this contract is to take effect.”

When the second contract was made there was in storage in Baltimore 350 tons of paper, placed there for defendants. The supplemental contract was made the same day the second contract was made. It reads:

“July 6, 1909.

“It is hereby agreed between the Cheboygan Paper Company, of the first part, and the Paper Mills Company, of the second part, that the paper now in store in Baltimore, amounting to 350 tons more or less, shall be reported by them weekly as provided under contract dated October 17, 1908, so that the total amount of paper now in storage there shall have been reported used within ninety' days from the date hereof. If at the end of ninety days there' should remain any portion of the said 350 tons not reported by the Paper Mills Company, such portion shall be settled for by note from the Paper Mills Company to the Cheboygan Paper Company, which note, or any part thereof, shall be extended from time to time at the option of the Paper Mills Company, and shall be exclusive of the settlement by note of an amount equal to 100 tons which has been provided for in contract of this date

“Cheboygan Paper Co.,

“By H. A. Frambach, President.

“Paper Mills Co.,

“M. H. Eichberg.”

In view of the language contained in the supplemental contract, and the conduct of the parties following the making of the contracts of July 6, 1909, we think there is no merit in the claim of a mutual release.

The second group of assigned errors.grows out of the failure of the court to allow defendants to recover [33]*33for a breach of an express warranty, in that the paper was overweight. We cannot present this claim better than to quote from the brief:

“The second contract contained the following express warranty: 'And the said party hereto of the first part, vendor, further agrees that all. the paper delivered under the terms and provisions of this contract shall be of the standard quality, which is considered by the customs of the trade as a good delivery, and acceptable in all respects to the said parties hereto of the second part, vendees, with the allowance of a variation of 3 per cent, in the tensile strength as shown by a Mullen tester, or in weight over the designated or ordered basis weight/ That the foregoing clause falls squarely within the definition of an express warranty is fully supported by the authorities: ‘A warranty in a sale of personal property is a statement or representation made by the seller, contemporaneously with and as a part of the contract of sale, though collateral to the express object of it, having reference to the' character of, or the title to, the goods or article sold, and by which the seller promises or undertakes that certain facts are, or shall be, as he represents them. The warranty is express when created by apt and explicit statements of the seller/ 30 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law, p. 129.

“Language strikingly similar to that employed in the second contract, and under parallel circumstances, was held to constitute a warranty in the case of American Glue Co. v. Rayburn, 150 Mich. 616 [114 N. W. 395]. The objection to overweight paper in the manufacture of bags is that it will produce fewer bags per pound than paper of lighter weight.”

It is claimed the last-named case rules the instant case.

As to the alleged breach of an express warranty, counsel for appellee say:

“First. There was no express warranty in either of the contracts sued on in this case; the provision in the second contract as to the qualities was not a warranty, but a description — a condition; that it con[34]*34stituted a sale by description, which placed upon the buyers the duty to inspect, and accept or reject, the paper tendered thereunder.

“Second. That by the very terms of the second contract the purchasers, defendants, were obligated to seasonably accept or reject paper tendered by plaintiff thereunder; it being provided therein that the paper ‘shall be * * * acceptable in all respects to the said parties hereto of the second part, vendees.’

“Third. That on Fébruary 23, 1910, in writing, defendants acknowledged they had no' existing claim for alleged overweights of paper, and completed an agreement, in writing, signed by both parties to the so-called ‘second contract,’ that defendants should thereafter lay aside all paper received by them from plaintiff that was not up to standard in weight, quality, and finish, and that all paper thereafter shipped defendants was shipped under said agreement completed February 23, 1910, and that by its terms defendants were required to accept or reject all paper seasonably on its receipt, and therein and thereby any express warranty in the second contract, if any ever existed, was abrogated.

“Fourth. That, under the admissions of the defendants made in open court, defendants neither offered, nor can offer, any competent proof of damages in any event, so that the ruling complained of, being based upon this incompetent testimony, was not erroneous, and moreover, if erroneous, which we strongly deny, is harmless.”

The record shows there were occasional complaints made that the paper was running overweight, and was not making the requisite number of bags. The plaintiff claimed the weight was, as a rule, all right, and suggested that the paper was cut larger than necessary for the bags.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
150 N.W. 312, 184 Mich. 30, 1915 Mich. LEXIS 843, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cheboygan-paper-co-v-eichberg-mich-1915.