Eastern Motor Sales Corp. v. Apperson-Lee Motor Co.

85 S.E. 479, 117 Va. 495, 1915 Va. LEXIS 61
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedJune 10, 1915
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 85 S.E. 479 (Eastern Motor Sales Corp. v. Apperson-Lee Motor Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Eastern Motor Sales Corp. v. Apperson-Lee Motor Co., 85 S.E. 479, 117 Va. 495, 1915 Va. LEXIS 61 (Va. 1915).

Opinion

Cardwell, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

This action was brought by the Apperson-Lee Motor Co., Inc., against the Eastern Motor Sales Corporation to recover of the defendant “commissions on sale of one Aleo Motor Truck to Montrose Fruit Company, Lynchburg, Virginia, at the price of $2,950.00 @ 15%—$442.50,” and at the trial of the cause a judgment was rendered upon the verdict of the jury in favor of the plaintiff for the sum of $376.12, with interest and costs, to which judgment this writ of error was allowed the defendant.

[497]*497It appears that the plaintiff in error was the general agent of the American Locomotive Company for the sale of its automobiles and trucks in the State of Virginia, and on October 28, 1912, plaintiff in error entered into a contract with defendant in error by which the latter was given the exclusive right of sale of automobiles known as “Alcos” in certain territory, viz: city of Lynchburg, counties of Amherst, etc., this contract to terminate on July 1, 1913, unless sooner terminated by one of the parties as provided for in the contract; that defendant in error, proceeding under said contract, had endeavored to interest the Montrose Fruit Co. in the purchase of an Aleo two-ton truck at the price of $2,950.00, that being the price at which defendant in error could sell said truck; that prior to April 17, 1913, while said contract was still in force, such a truck was sold to the Montrose Fruit Co., of Lynchburg, Va., by the American Locomotive Co., the manufacturer, and shipped from New York to Lynchburg, arriving in Lynch-burg on or about April 26, 1913, defendant in error having assisted materially in making such sale, the sale of the truck in New York having been made not later than April 17, 1913, and at a discount of 15% off the list price, viz: $2,950.00, and plaintiff in error received a commission on the sale. The contract between the parties here litigant providing that it might be terminated by either party upon ten days’ notice to the other party to that effect, “said ten days to run from the time the notice of cancellation is deposited in the mails, enclosed in a post-paid wrapper properly addressed * * *, but no expiration or termination hereof shall in any wise affect such liabilities of second party as have been incurred prior to such expiration or termination,” plaintiff in error, on April 18, 1913, wrote defendant in error cancelling said contract, which letter was mailed on the following day, but under the terms thereof their contract did not terminate before April 29, [498]*4981913, after the truck in question arrived in Lynchburg and on the day the same was delivered by the carrier to the purchaser. It further appears that subsequently, on May 21, 1913, plaintiff in error wrote defendant in error in reply to a letter from the last-named company that they would not pay the “commission” on this sale, and gave as their reason for refusing so to do that the contract was terminated before the truck arrived in Lynchburg, this being the only reason then given for the refusal to pay defendant in error the commission it demanded on said sale.

The .judgment complained of is for 15% of the price actually paid by the Montrose Fruit Co. for the truck in question, and the errors assigned deal only with the instructions given and refused by the trial court.

The court, at the request of the defendant in error, plaintiff below, gave three instructions, the first of which told the jury that the plaintiff was entitled to commissions on the sale of the truck in question if sold prior to the cancellation of the contract between the parties, and the objection to the instruction proceeds upon the theory that it erroneously recognized that the relation of the parties under their contract was that of agent and principal, instead of telling, the jury that the plaintiff, under the contract, was only to have as its compensation such profit as might arise on the sale of these trucks in a named territory, over and above the price it was to pay the defendant for a truck sold.

Under the contract between the parties, entitled “Agency Contract,” the defendant in error was given the exclusive right to sell in the territory named certain automobiles, the contract fixing the percentage which would be allowed on sales of cars in the specified territory, and it could make no possible difference whether this percentage was called in the court’s instruction commissions or discount. Not only so, but plaintiff in error construed the contract between it [499]*499and defendant in error as entitling the latter to commissions on the sale of the car or truck to Montrose Fruit Co., if the sale was made before the contract had been cancelled, for, as remarked, in refusing to pay defendant in error “commissions,” the refusal was only upon the ground that the contract had been cancelled before the sale was made. A similar contract was in existence at that time between plaintiff in error and the American Locomotive Co., by which the former was the general agent in Virginia of the latter for the sale of its automobiles, etc., and in a letter from the American Locomotive Company to plaintiff in error of April 17, 1913, informing the latter of the sale of the truck in question, the writer said: “We draw on the Montrose Fruit Company for the price of the truck, crediting your account with the commission.”

Hudley on Automobiles (2nd ed.), p. 288, cited by plaintiff in error, does say that “an agency, within the meaning of the automobile trade, consists in giving the agent the exclusive right to purchase for cash from the manufacturer machines at a discount from the list price and retail them to customers at the full list price,” but all that is there meant, as the concluding part of the text shows, is that while in the automobile trade the agent is entitled to compensation, such compensation is not generally called com- ■ mission.

While plaintiff in error received compensation for the sale of the truck to the Montrose Fruit Co., it had done nothing in bringing about the sale, but, as plainly appears from the evidence, it was brought about alone by the efforts of defendant in error; so that whether the compensation for the sale it seeks to recover of plaintiff in error in this action be called discount or commissions is wholly immaterial.

Instruction No. 2 complained of is as follows: “The court instructs the jury that if they believe from the evi[500]*500dence that the truck in question was sold to the Montrose í’ruit Company and delivered to the railroad company before the cancellation of the contract, to be carried by said railroad company to the Montrose Fruit Company in Lynchburg, Virginia, such delivery to the railroad com-' pany constituted the delivery contemplated and required by the contract between the plaintiff and the defendant, and the jury must find for the plaintiff a sum equal to 15% of the price paid by the Montrose Fruit Company for the truck in question, which was $2,507.50, with interest from the date of the sale of said truck. If the jury believe from the evidence that the letter dated April 18, 1913, from the defendant to the plaintiff was written solely for the purpose of depriving the plaintiff of commissions they had earned on the sale of the truck in question, then they are instructed that this constitutes fraud on the part of the defendant, and they must therefore find for the plaintiff.”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
85 S.E. 479, 117 Va. 495, 1915 Va. LEXIS 61, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/eastern-motor-sales-corp-v-apperson-lee-motor-co-va-1915.