Davis Calyx Drill Co. v. Mallory

137 F. 332, 69 L.R.A. 973, 1905 U.S. App. LEXIS 4544
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedApril 11, 1905
DocketNo. 2,132
StatusPublished
Cited by41 cases

This text of 137 F. 332 (Davis Calyx Drill Co. v. Mallory) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Davis Calyx Drill Co. v. Mallory, 137 F. 332, 69 L.R.A. 973, 1905 U.S. App. LEXIS 4544 (8th Cir. 1905).

Opinions

SANBORN, Circuit Judge,

after stating the case as above, delivered the opinion of the court.

An implied warranty that an article will be fit for a particular .purpose may be inferred from a contract to make or supply it to accomplish that purpose, because the accomplishment of the purpose is the essence of •' the undertaking. But no such warranty arises but of a contract to make or supply a specific, described, or definite article, although the *manufacturer or dealer knows that the vendee buys it to‘ accomplish a specific purpose, because the essence of this contract is the furnishing of the specific article, and not the .accomplishment of the purpose. In other words, a warranty that a machine, tool, or article sold is fit and suitable to accomplish a particular purpose or to do a specific work may be implied when the manufacturer or dealer knows the purpose or work ■tb. be effected, and the purchase of the machine, tool, or article is in reality an employment of .the"vendor to do the work by making or •furnishing a machine, tool, or article to effect it. Kellogg Bridge Co., v. Hamilton, 110 U. S. 108, 116, 3 Sup. Ct. 537, 28 L. Ed. 86; Breen v. Moran, 51 Minn. 525, 53 N. W. 755; Leopold v. Van Kirk, 27 Wis. 152, 156; Brenton v. Davis, 8 Blackf. (Ind.) 318, 44 Am. Dec. 769; Omaha Coal, etc., Co. v. Fay, 37 Neb. 68, 75, 55 N. W. 211; Lee v. Sickles Saddlery Co., 38 Mo. App. 201, 205; Rodgers & Co. v. Niles & Co., 11 Ohio St. 53, 57, 78 Am. Dec. 290; White v. Adams, 77 Iowa, 295, 297, 42 N. W. 199.

But no implied warranty that a machine, tool or article is suitable to accomplish a particular purpose or to do a specific work ¿rises where the- vendor; orders of the manufacturer, or purchases of the dealer, a specific, described, or definite machine, tool, or article, although the vendor knows the purpose or work which' the purchaser intends to accomplish'with it, .and assures him ,that it; will .•effect it. Such an assurance, is but the expression of an opinion, rwhen .it is followed, by.a¡ written; contract,. complete in itself, which [335]*335is silent upon the subject. The extent of the implied warranty in such a case is that the machine, tool, or article shall correspond with the description or exemplar, and that it shall be suitable to perform the ordinary work which the described machine is made to do. Seitz v. Brewers’ Refrigerating Co., 141 U. S. 510, 518-519, 12 Sup. Ct. 46, 35 L. Ed. 837; Keates v. Cadogan, 2 E. L. & E. 320, 10 C. B. 591; Grand Ave. Hotel Co. v. Wharton, 24 C. C. A. 441, 443, 79 Fed. 43, 45; Morris v. Bradley Fertilizer Co., 64 Fed. 55, 56, 12 C. C. A. 34, 35; Feake on Contracts (4th Ed.) 261, 262; 1 Parsons on Contracts, 586, 587; Union Selling Co. v. Jones, 128 Fed. 672, 675, 677, 63 C. C. A. 224, 227, 229; McCray Refrigerating, etc., Co. v. Woods, 99 Mich. 269, 58 N. W. 320, 321, 41 Am. St. Rep. 599; Cosgrove v. Bennett, 32 Minn. 371, 20 N. W. 360; Goulds v. Brophy, 42 Minn. 109, 43 N. W. 834, 6 L. R. A. 392; Wisconsin Red Pressed Brick Co. v. Hood, 54 Minn. 545, 56 N. W. 165; Fairbanks, Morse & Co. v. Baskett (Mo. App.) 71 S. W. 1113; Wheaton Roller Mill Co. v. John T. Noye Mfg. Co., 66 Minn. 156, 68 N. W. 854, 855; Boiler Co. v. Duncan, 87 Wis. 120, 58 N. W. 232, 41 Am. St. Rep. 33; Case Plow Works v. Niles, Scott & Co., 90 Wis. 590, 63 N. W. 1013; Deming v. Foster, 42 N. H. 165, 175; Morse v. Union Stockyard Co., 21 Or. 289, 28 Pac. 2, 3, 14 L. R. A. 157; Dushane v. Benedict, 120 U. S. 630, 647, 7 Sup. Ct. 696, 30 L. Ed. 810; Carleton v. Jenks, 80 Fed. 937, 26 C. C. A. 265; Checkrower Co. v. Bradley & Co., 105 Iowa, 537, 546, 75 N. W. 369; Latham v. Shipley, 86 Iowa, 543, 53 N. W. 342; Blackmore v. Fairbanks, Morse & Co., 79 Iowa, 289, 44 N. W. 548; Parsons Band-Cutter, etc., Co. v. Mallinger, 122 Iowa, 703, 98 N. W. 580.

If the purchaser, Mallory, or his agent, Haven, had described the strata through which he desired to drive the drill, and had ordered the Calyx Company to make or to select and furnish to him a drill that would bore the desired holes through these strata as rapidly and economically as a diamond drill, for an agreed price, and the plaintiff had accepted the order, an implied warranty would have arisen that the drill to be furnished under that contract would do the work as speedily and cjieaply as a diamond drill. But an accepted order to make and deliver a specific, described drill, which the vendor is engaged in making, has no such effect, although the manufacturer knows the use for which the vendee desires to obtain it. The reason for this rule is conclusive and unanswerable. When a manufacturer or dealer agrees to make or furnish an article that will accomplish a particular purpose, the accomplishment of the purpose is the substance of his undertaking, and he is free to make or to supply any article that will do the work required. If he furnishes an article that will accomplish this purpose, he performs his contract, although the article he supplies may differ widely from that contemplated by the purchaser when he made the agreement to buy. On the other hand, when the manufacturer or dealer contracts to make or to deliver a specific and definitely described article, to enable the vendor to accomplish a known purpose, the essential part of his obligation is the delivery of the identical article described in the contract; and the delivery [336]*336of a different article, although it may better accomplish the desired result, is not a performance of his agreement, and does not entitle him to recover the purchase price The furnishing of the article described-, and that alone, whether that article is fit for the known purpose to which the vendee intends to apply it or not, constitutes a compliance with the contract by the vendor, and entitles him to secure its fruits. The familiar illustration of this distinction by Maulé, J., in Keates v. Cadogan, 2 Eng. Law & Eq. Rep. 320, 10 C. B. 591, is still the most felicitous:

“If a man says'to another, ‘Sell me a horse fit to carry me,’ and the other sells a horse which he knows to be unfit to ride, he may be liable for the consequences ; but if a man says, ‘Sell me that gray horse to ride,’ and the other sells it, knowing that the former will not be able to ride it, that would not make him liable.”

. In Kellogg Bridge Co. v. Hamilton, 110 U. S. 108, 116, 3 Sup. Ct. 537, 28 L. Ed. 86, the bridge company had erected a portion of the falsework requisite for the construction of a bridge across the Maumee river. Hamilton made a contract with the company to purchase the falsework, the foundation of which was concealed by the river, and to complete the bridge. While he was engaged in the performance of this contract, the falsework gave way, by reason of defects in its construction, and precipitated thé iron upon it into the river. The Supreme Court held that the bridge company impliedly warranted that the work which it sold to Hamilton was suitable to construct the bridge upon because it built this •falsewcjrk, and had sold it to Hámilton to accomplish that specific purpose.

But in Seitz v. Brewers’ Refrigerating Co., 141 U. S. 510, 512, 519, 12 Sup. Ct. 46, 35 L. Ed.

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Bluebook (online)
137 F. 332, 69 L.R.A. 973, 1905 U.S. App. LEXIS 4544, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/davis-calyx-drill-co-v-mallory-ca8-1905.