Davidson v. Consolidated Quarries Corp.

108 S.E.2d 495, 99 Ga. App. 359
Court of Appeals of Georgia·Decided March 20, 1959·No. 37422, 37442·Published·Cited by 12 cases

Opinions

Quillian, Judge.

Stone Mountain Grit Company, the plaintiff in error here, will be referred to as the plaintiff, and the defendant in error, Consolidated Quarries, as the defendant.

A very thorough review of the evidence adduced upon the trial is required by the plaintiff’s insistence on the general grounds and the defendant’s contention that the special grounds of the motion for new trial need not be considered because a verdict in its favor was demanded.

As to the plaintiff’s contention that the verdict returned in the defendant’s favor was not supported by the evidence, suffice it to say, that not only was the evidence in sharp conflict as to vital and controlling issues on which the plaintiff’s right to recover depended, but even the amount that the plaintiff would be entitled to recover if the verdict of the jury should have established the defendant’s liability could, under the evidence submitted, have been fixed at various amounts. So it is obvious that a verdict in the defendant’s favor was not demanded.

The defendant vigorously and ably urges that a verdict in its [364]*364favor was demanded for several reasons. We believe the reasons assigned, most of which were close questions, hard to decide, must be discussed in detail.

First, the defendant insists that the petition sets forth no cause of action and hence a verdict in the plaintiff’s favor could not be returned. The determination of the contention does not stem from a consideration of the sufficiency of the petition, but rather upon the doctrine that a judgment not excepted to becomes the law of the case. On August 27, 1956, a solemn judgment was entered by the distinguished trial judge adjudicating that the petition did set forth a cause of action. To that judgment no exception was taken. Later the petition was amended, but not in a material particular. The plaintiff then undertook to renew the general demurrer to the petition as a whole. The trial court very properly overruled the demurrer at that time because he had passed on the question of whether the petition was subject to general demurrer, and his previous order precluded further consideration of that question.

Secondly, the defendant contends that the only measure of damages alleged in the petition was the difference in the contract price of crushed stone or grit, the commodity sold by the defendant to the plaintiff, and its market value at Mt. Airy, North Carolina, on the dates delivery of the grit or stone was required by the provisions of the contract for the breach of which suit was brought, and that the measure of damages was not one available to the plaintiff in fixing its damages. This contention is based on the assertion of the defendant that the evidence demanded the finding that there was a market for the stone or grit at points in DeKalb County, Georgia, the same county of the plaintiff’s place of business at which the grit or stone was to be delivered and used. Obviously, two locations in DeKalb County are nearer each other than any place in that county is to Mt. Aiiy, North Carolina. It also follows that if there was a market in DeKalb County at which the plaintiff could purchase the stone in the open market, and under the conditions general in the traffic in the stone, the difference in the contract price of the stone at -the market in DeKalb County and not at the market in North Carolina would be the proper [365]*365method of arriving at the damages to which the plaintiff might be entitled on account of the defendant’s breach of the contract. Hence, if there was a market available to the plaintiff in DeKalb County at which the plaintiff could without being restricted in or deprived of its rights under the contract have purchased the stone, the plaintiff’s proof entirely failed, and a verdict in the defendant’s favor was demanded.

There was a sharp conflict in the evidence as to whether various persons and business enterprises in DeKalb County sold the same type of stone and grit as that purchased of the defendant by the plaintiff, but none was offered by the defendant that was conclusive of that fact.

The defendant insists that the proof that it sold stone of the type in question in DeKalb County and offered to sell it to the plaintiff at the market price proved indisputedly the fact that there was a market for such stone in DeKalb County. The defendant wrote the plaintiff a letter reading: “Confirming our telephone conversation with you this morning, we will be glad to fill your order for ten cars of crushed stone, No. 23, at our list price, provided cars are available. Since there has been some discussion between us about a purported contract, we wish it understood that this shipment is made simply in compliance with the above order because we do not recognize the existence of any contract with you.”

The defendant enclosed an agreement that it required the plaintiff to sign in accepting the shipment of stone under the terms of the letter. “We agree to the shipment of the above order in accordance with the foregoing terms.”

Conceding that the market for such stone obviously existed at the place contended by the defendant, the evidence showed that such market was not open or available to the plaintiff, for the reason that the defendant attached as a condition that the Davidson partnership buying the stone at the market price, surrender the right to hold the defendant responsible for the breach of the contract of sale then existing between the parties, the contract for the breach of which this case was instituted.

Had the plaintiff acquiesced in accepting stone under the terms expressed in the letter and the proposed acceptance, the [366]*366effect would have been to waive the defendant’s refusal to furnish the stone under the terms of the contract. Americus Grocery Co. v. Roney, 129 Ga. 40 (58 S. E. 462); Eaves & Collins v. Cherokee Iron Co., 73 Ga. 459 (3); Shoup v. Elliott, 192 Ga. 858, 861 (14 S. E. 2d 736); Hennessy v. Woodruff, 210 Ga. 742 (2) (82 S. E. 2d 859); Haigler v. Adams, 5 Ga. App. 637 (63 S. E. 715); Dowling v. Southwell, 95 Ga. App. 29 (1, 2) (96 S. E. 2d 903).

Such a requirement was to exact of the plaintiff a price for the stone higher than the market price. The plaintiff was not under a duty to purchase the stone in such circumstances nor was the offer any evidence that there was an open market in DeKalb County at which the plaintiff could purchase the stone.

The third reason given was that as in the cases of Williams & Templeton v. Brewer, 93 Ga. App. 603 (1) (92 S. E. 2d 586), and Estridge v. Janko, 96 Ga. App. 258 (99 S. E. 2d 682), the evidence furnished no criteria by which the amount of any damage due the plaintiff could be ascertained.

There was proof that would have sustained a finding in the plaintiff’s favor in some amount. The measure of damages pleaded by the plaintiff was the difference in the purchase price of the grit or stone and its market value as reflected by the price at which it could be bought in the nearest available market, Mt. Airy, North Carolina.

There was an interval, the duration of which clearly appears, between the time when the defendant refused to deliver the stone under the terms of the contract before the plaintiff began manufacturing its own stone. The plaintiff proved the purchase price of the stone at Mt.

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Davidson v. Consolidated Quarries Corp., 108 S.E.2d 495, 99 Ga. App. 359 (Ga. Ct. App. 1959).

108 S.E.2d 495 (Davidson v. Consolidated Quarries Corp.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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Davidson v. Consolidated Quarries Corp.
108 S.E.2d 495 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1959)