DE KALB HYBRID SEED COMPANY v. Agee

293 S.W.2d 64, 1956 Tex. App. LEXIS 1740
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 26, 1956
Docket6029
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 293 S.W.2d 64 (DE KALB HYBRID SEED COMPANY v. Agee) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
DE KALB HYBRID SEED COMPANY v. Agee, 293 S.W.2d 64, 1956 Tex. App. LEXIS 1740 (Tex. Ct. App. 1956).

Opinions

R. L. MURRAY, Chief Justice.

The appellee, Agee, recovered judgment in the district court of Montgomery County against appellant DeKalb Hybrid Seed Company, for damages resulting from the sale to him of diseased baby chicks by appellant. Appellant has duly perfected its appeal from that judgment.

Agee was engaged in the business of chicken raising and the production and sale of eggs. He desired to purchase some chicks as replacements for his laying hens, and after reading the advertising pamphlet of appellant and on the recommendation of a friend who sold him feed, he purchased 500 chicks from appellant through its local agent, the Montgomery County Farmers’ Co-Op. Association. The pamphlet contained many descriptions and pictures of appellant’s chickens offered for sale, and also contained this statement: “Will you be ready for them? DeKalb chicks come to you as well-bred, healthy chix — backed by years of outstanding research work by De-Kalb’s Poultry Breeders. However, they alone can’t do the best job. You must provide sanitary housing, good equipment, and isolation, along with the right feed, and clean, fresh water.” The pamphlet also contains the following: “These chix were healthy when you got them — keep them [66]*66that way.” Agee relied upon the representation that DeKalb chicks were strong, healthy chicks in deciding to buy the 500 chicks. They were hatched on a Sunday, and delivered to A gee on Monday morning. He discovered on delivery that something was wrong with the chicks, but did not know what the trouble was. There was sufficient evidence introduced to show that the chicks were sick with infectious bronchitis, that this is an airborne disease, and is easily communicable to other chickens. Soon the disease spread to the older hens in Agee’s flock, and as a result 101 hens died and the others became unprofitable as layers and were sold. 77 of the chicks died.

Appellant had a printed order form for its chicks, and Agee signed one in giving his order. The order contained the statement that “no warranty express or implied is given by the dealer or producer as to quality, productiveness or any other matter relating to any chicks sold.” The order form also contained a clause whereby the appellant’s liability in no case should exceed the purchase price of the chicks.

The appellant, as defendant in the trial court, made numerous exceptions to the appellee’s petition, and also presented a number of objections to the charge of the court, all of which are based upon the appellant’s contention throughout the course of the lawsuit and in this appeal that its liability in any event was limited to the purchase price of the chicks, and that the appellee had neither pleaded nor proved a cause of action against it because of negligence or fraudulent representations that the chicks were well and free from disease.

In answer to these special issues submitted in the court’s charge the jury found by its verdict that (1) appellant, by means of advertisements and pamphlets, represented that its chicks would be healthy when received by any purchaser thereof; (2) that appellee Agee relied upon such representations when he purchased the chicks; (3) that in this particular instance such repre-. sentations were false; (4) that such repre-' sentations were material to the transaction involved; (5) that the appellee was induced to make the purchase of the baby chickens by reason of such representations; (6) that appellee has suffered damages as a result of such false representations; (7) that the appellant was guilty of shipping diseased chickens to appellee; (8) that the guilt of the appellant in shipping diseased chickens to appellee was negligence; (9) that such negligence was a proximate cause of appellee’s damages sustained; (10) that the appellant delivered to appellee baby chickens which were infected with a dangerous. and infectious disease; (11) that such act was negligence; (12) that such negligence was a proximate cause of damages to appellee; (13) that the sum of $2,-187.38 would compensate the appellee for the damages suffered. In arriving at the answer to the above Special Issue No. 13 the jury verdict allotted the following amounts for the various items of damage: (1) the reasonable market value of 101 productive hens which died $252.50; (2) the difference in the reasonable cash market value of 774 hens sold as non-productive hens and the reasonable cash market value of such hens as productive hens $1,253.88; (3) reasonable and necessary expense in feeding and caring for appellee’s grown flock $346.80; (4) the reasonable value of appellee’s services in feeding and caring for such chickens $300; (5) the reasonable cash market value of medicine purchased and used in the treatment of the chickens $34.20.

The jury also answered Special Issues Nos. 14, 15 and 16 to the effect that appel-lee’s acts in placing the baby chicks near the other chickens after he believed the chicks were sick was not negligence and placing the chicks near the other chickens was not the proximate cause of the damages suffered by appellee; that appellee did not believe the chicks were sick at the time they were delivered to him.

The appellant brings its appeal under 20 Points of Error, but they are pre[67]*67sented in its brief in three groups. The first group of Points Nos. 1 through 11 are presented together. These raise the contentions of the appellant, in various ways, that the appellant’s liability was limited under the terms of the written contract between the parties to the purchase price of the chicks, that the appellee’s petition did not allege any specific acts of negligence on the part of the appellant and that no negligence was pleaded or proved against the appellant. We have examined the statement of facts and the material portions of the transcript, and have concluded that the appellant is correct in its contentions in so far as they relate to negligence. Without going into any detailed statement of the pleadings and evidence in regard thereto, we find that the pleadings did not set forth any specific act of negligence complained of and the evidence is insufficient to show any negligence on the part of the appellant. We believe this is harmless error, however, and presents no ground for reversal of the trial court’s judgment, because the liability of the appellant is upheld below in this opinion upon a ground wholly unrelated to negligence.

By its 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th points, presented together in its brief, the appellant contends that the representations contained in its advertisements and pamphlets could constitute no basis for a suit for damages because of such representation in that such representation does not constitute fraud. It says that a false representation in order to authorize relief on the ground of fraud must be of a past or existing fact and not a promise of something to be done in the future, even though the promise without excuse is subsequently broken. It says that the statement in the pamphlet that its chickens would be healthy when received was not a statement or representation of a past or present material fact, that it was only a promise to do something in the future, which promise is loose, vague and indefinite, that it contained no offer but only invites negotiation. It further says that even if it is a false promise to do something in the future, then such a promise must be made with no intent to perform in order to be fraudulent.

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DE KALB HYBRID SEED COMPANY v. Agee
293 S.W.2d 64 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1956)

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Bluebook (online)
293 S.W.2d 64, 1956 Tex. App. LEXIS 1740, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/de-kalb-hybrid-seed-company-v-agee-texapp-1956.