Chickasaw Wood Products Co. v. Vail-Donaldson Co.

138 So. 680, 19 La. App. 315, 1932 La. App. LEXIS 202
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 14, 1932
DocketNo. 4177
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 138 So. 680 (Chickasaw Wood Products Co. v. Vail-Donaldson Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chickasaw Wood Products Co. v. Vail-Donaldson Co., 138 So. 680, 19 La. App. 315, 1932 La. App. LEXIS 202 (La. Ct. App. 1932).

Opinion

MCGREGOR, J.

This is a suit by the plaintiff against the defendant for the contract price of two carloads of keg heading. Both plaintiff and defendant are engaged in the manufacture and sale of heading and other wood products. Plaintiff is a Tennessee corporation, domiciled in the city of Memphis, while the defendant is an Indiana corporation, with a plant in Morehouse parish of this state, and a business office in St. Louis, Mo.

In its petition filed November 5, 1925, the plaintiff alleges that:

(1) On December 6, 1924, the defendant ordered from it one mixed carload of keg heading to contain 13,000 sets of varying sizes.

(2) This order was promptly acknowledged and was shipped in accordance with instructions, in the month of January, 1925.

(3) On March 21, 1925, an order for one mixed carload of No. 2 gum, oak, and ash heading of various sizes was placed with plaintiff by the defendant.

(4) This order was also accepted promptly and was shipped in due course and in accordance with instructions.

(5) The first invoice amounted to $1,468.48, the second to $1,470.01, and nothing was paid on either.

The total demand was therefore for $2,-938.49, which ordinarily would give the Supreme Court jurisdiction of this appeal. In fact, the appeal was lodged in that court at first, but was transferred to this court for the reason that at the trial of the case in the lower court it developed that the plaintiff had realized a certain sum from the sale of one of the cars, which reduced the amount in controversy to less than $2,000.

Without filing any • exceptions or pleas of any kind, the defendant filed its answer on March 5, 1926. In this answer, it denied owing any of the indebtedness claimed in plaintiff’s petition. It admitted that it placed each of the orders exactly as alleged in ¡the petition, and that they were accepted by the plaintiff, and that two carloads of heading were shipped upon the basis of the receipt of the orders, but that the heading shipped was of inferior grade and was not of the quality ordered. ’ It is specially alleged and admitted that the orders did not set out in detail the grade and specifications of the goods ordered, but that each order contained the following stipulation: “All cooperage bought subject to inspection rules of the Associated Cooperage Industries of America.” It is therefore contended that, since the heading was bought subject to inspection of that association, its grade rules and specifications governed the quality of goods to be shipped in filling the two orders. Excerpts from the rules and regulations of the association which defendant claims should govern the quality and grade of heading in this case are copied in its answer.

Of the two cars of heading involved herein, one was shipped to Cleveland, Ohio, and is known as the Cleveland car, and the other was shipped to Philadelphia, Pa., and is known as the Philadelphia car. In refusing to admit liability on the Cleveland car, it is alleged that: “This car was not of the grade ordered, for the reason that it contained a large quantity of what is known as ‘glued stock’, said stock being glued instead of properly jointed, and that said glued stock was not ordered and is not permitted under the grade rules and specifications of the Associated Cooperage Industries of America.”

It is then alleged and admitted that, “mtli-owt receiving or accepting said car” (italics ours), the defendant sold and delivered it to the Cleveland Cooperage Company, subsequently absorbed by the Allied Barrel Company, and that the said Allied Barrel Company deducted $535.07 from the purchase price on account of the glued stock found in the car. It is then alleged that the plaintiff took up this glued stock and sold to other parties at a price unknown to it.

With reference to the Philadelphia car, it is alleged that it was bought by sample; that the stock shipped was not equal to the sample in grade, and that therefore it refused-the car and denied liability for any portion of the purchase price. Then, as plaintiff in re-convention, it alleged that this car had been sold by it in advance at a profit of $69.91; that because it railed to be up to the grade of the sample it had lost this profit and had been put to an additional expense of $S.88 for telegrams. Judgment was prayed for against the plaintiff for these two sums.

In the alternative, the defendant prayed that, if the Cleveland car should be found to •have been of the proper grade and delivered in accordance with contract, it, the defendant, should be credited with whatever amount the plaintiff received from the sale to other parties. . Again, in the alternative, the defendant prayed that, if it should be held that the Philadelphia car was up to grade and delivered in accordance with contract, it be credited with whatever was realized by the plaintiff from its sale.

[682]*682It is then alleged by defendant that, while the plaintiff’s suit was brought in the name of “Chickasaw Wood Products Company,” the orders of defendant in each case were directed to the “Chickasaw Cooperage Company,” and that its answer was being filed upon the assumption that the two companies are one and the same. It is then suggested that the plaintiff amend its petition to show an appearance on the part of the Chickasaw Cooperage .Company. It is specially averred that, if it should appear that the named plaintiff is not in fact the company with which defendant dealt, the right to withdraw the answer is reserved.

On March 21, 1927, the defendant filed a supplemental answer in which it added to and enlarged upon its reconventional demands by claiming the additional loss of $64.35 in profits on the Cleveland car.

On this same day, in accordance with the suggestion contained in the defendant’s original answer, the plaintiff filed an amendment to its original petition and set forth that the Chickasaw Wood Products Company and the Chickasaw Cooperage Company are one and the same, and that the plaintiff, as named in the petition, is the real party in interest. The defendant answered this amended petition on the same day by adopting its original answer in full.

After the answer was filed, but before trial, exceptions of no cause or right of action were filed, which were referred to the merits.

The trial of the case consumed three days, beginning March 21, 1927. On June 25, 1927, judgment was rendered in favor of plaintiff for $1,889.19, and suspensive and devolutive appeals were lodged in the Supreme Court by the defendant. " Upon examination, it was found that less than $2,000 was involved, so the case was transferred to this court.

Opinion.

The errors of law and fact relied upon by the- defendant, appellant, are stated in its brief and are as follows:

“(1) That the Court erred in not sustain- • ing Defendant’s Exception of' No Right or Cause of Action and Defendant’s Exception that Plaintiff was without interest to sue. If these exceptions should not have been sus'tained on the face of the papers, they should have been sustained after the hearing of testimony on the merits.

“(2) That the Court erred in permitting Plaintiff- to amend its .petition without restricting the amendment so as not to change the plaintiff and not to change the substance of the demand.

“(3) That the Court erred in admitting the testimony of the witness, Ri A.

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Bluebook (online)
138 So. 680, 19 La. App. 315, 1932 La. App. LEXIS 202, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chickasaw-wood-products-co-v-vail-donaldson-co-lactapp-1932.