Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. v. Shore

121 S.E. 709, 31 Ga. App. 644, 1924 Ga. App. LEXIS 114
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedFebruary 23, 1924
Docket14559, 14560
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 121 S.E. 709 (Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. v. Shore) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. v. Shore, 121 S.E. 709, 31 Ga. App. 644, 1924 Ga. App. LEXIS 114 (Ga. Ct. App. 1924).

Opinion

Jenkins, P. J.

The plaintiff sued for damages consisting of alleged profits lost and expenses incurred on account of the defendant’s failure to comply -with its contract to sell and deliver to the plaintiff certain tires, wheels, and automobile accessories, for the purpose of re-equipping with pneumatic tires his truck, which had been equipped with- solid rubber tires. The amended petition alleged: that in the operation of plaintiff’s sawmill it was necessary for this truck to transport the manufactured product a distance [645]*645of seven miles to the nearest railroad station; that on account of the sandiness of much of the road the truck had proved inadequate for this purpose; that plaintiff therefore contracted as alleged, with the defendant through its representative, who, at the time was fully informed of the difficulties and conditions and saw the truck at the railroad station; that the contract provided for delivery “at once,” and 10 days was a reasonable time therefor; that notwithstanding repeated promises, the defendant failed to make delivery, until finally the plaintiff, after thirty more days, purchased another truck, which could transport his full manufactured product; that he did not previously make such purchase because of his reliance on the defendant’s agreement; that during the period preceding this purchase of the new truck he was able to cut and manufacture only one half of the normal output of his mill, on account of having to use his four logging teams to haul the manufactured lumber for a part of the day over the sandy portion of the road, the original truck being unable to come nearer than four miles to the mill; that he “had standing continuous orders for the entire output of the mill during all of said time, and that the only condition which prevented the manufacturing of the lumber to the extent of the entire capacity of the mill” was the condition alleged; that at the time the plaintiff bought the new truck, to do the work which his original truck equipped as contracted for would have done, “there was no one on the market able or willing at that time to furnish the wheels and pneumatic tires and other equipment necessary to convert” the truck into such a vehicle as would do the work required; and that when he bought the second truck “it was the only thing which petitioner could have done to meet the situation and to stop the damage and loss which the plaintiff was suffering by reason of the failure of the defendant to furnish said equipment.” He therefore claimed as damages the expense incurred in purchasing the new truck; that is, the difference between the cost of the new truck, after receiving a credit for the exchange of the old truck to the seller, and the contract cost of the tires and equipment agreed to be paid to the defendant; and further, the alleged actual net profits lost by the fifty per cent, inactivity of the mill, the averments being: “that said mill averaged 9,000 feet of manufactured products per day, or 216,000 feet per month, which fact was made known to the said . . agent [646]*646of the defendant at the time said contract was made,” and “that the net profits to petitioner of said manufactured products at that time was $7 per thousand feet, $1512 per month as a result of the normal output of said mill) and that by reason of the fact that petitioner was able to deliver to the railroad only 50 per cent, of said 216,000 feet per month, actual net profits for the above-mentioned month was only $756, or a loss of $756 to petitioner.” By amendment it was shown that this loss arose, not after the lumber had been actually cut, but by reason of the plaintiff’s failure to cut the percentage stated, on account of the use of his logging teams for a portion of the day in transporting the manufactured product to the station. The defendant demurred both generally and specially to the petition, both generally and particularly attacking each of the items of damage claimed, as being remote, speculative, not in contemplation of the parties, an improper measure of damages, and demurred to the expense item of buying the new truck, as incurred without any notice or knowledge of the defendant. The trial court sustained the demurrers with reference to the purchase of the new truck, and overruled the others. The defendant, by direct bill, excepts to the overruling of the latter; and the plaintiff, by cross-bill, excepts to the sustaining of the demurrer as to the expense item.

1. “Remote or consequential damages are not allowed whenever .they cannot be traced solely to the breach of the contract, or unless they are capable of exact computation, such as the profits which are the immediate fruit of the contract, and are independent of any collateral enterprise entered into in contemplation of the contract.” Civil Code (1910), §§4394, 4395. “Damages which are the legal and natural result of the act done, though to some extent contingent, are not too remote to be recovered, especially where they are such as may be fairly and rfeasonabty considered as arising either naturally from a breach of the contract itself, or as may reasonably be supposed to have been in contemplation of both the parties at the time they entered into the contract as the probable result of a breach of it.” Stewart v. Lanier House Co., 75 Ga. 582 (1 a), 598; Van Winkle v. Wilkins, 81 Ga. 93 (3) (7 S. E. 644, 12 Am. St. R. 299); Gore v. Malsby, 110 Ga. 893 (3), 902, 903 (36 S. E. 315); Waycross Air-Line R. Co. v. Offerman R. Co., 114 Ga. 727 (3), 731 (40 S. E. 738); Anderson v. Hilton & Dodge [647]*647Lumber Co., 121 Ga. 688 (3), 691 (49 S. E. 725); Carolina Portland Cement Co. v. Columbia Improvement Co., 3 Ga. App. 483 (2), 489 (60 S. E. 279); Chappell v. Western Ry. of Ala., 8 Ga. App. 787, 790 (70 S. E. 208); Tompkins Co. v. Monticello Cotton Oil Co., 153 Fed. 817, 819-821. But parties will not, as a general rule, be held liable for the current profits of a going manufacturing concern, especially where, under the rule stated, they are neither the immediate fruit of the contract itself, nor would reasonably have been anticipated by the parties as naturally flowing from a breach. Upmago Lumber Co. v. Monroe, 148 Ga. 847 (2) (98 S. E. 498); Willingham v. Hooven, 74 Ga. 233 (3), 248, 249 (58 Am. R. 435); Ga. R. Co. v. Hayden, 71 Ga. 518 (2) (51 Am. R. 274); Consolidated Phosphate Co. v. Sturtevant Co., 20 Ga. App. 474 (2), 476, 477 (93 S. E. 155); Ralph T. Birdsey Co. v. Porter, 18 Ga. App. 391 (3) (89 S. E. 435); Albany Phosphate Co. v. Hugger, 4 Ga. App. 771 (3), 777, 778 (62. S. E. 533). In this case, irrespective of whether or not the measure of damages claimed was the proper legal measure (see Thornton v. Cordell, 8 Ga. App. 588 (4), 70 S. E. 17), and whether or not the petition was defective in failing to show that the plaintiff had lessened his damages by the use of ordinary care and diligence, the profits here claimed were not the direct and immediate fruit of the contract, such as can reasonably be considered as having been in the contemplation of the parties when the contract was made. Civil Code (1910), § 4398; Betts Co. v. Mims, 14 Ga. App. 786 (82 S. E. 474); Mims v. Betts Co., 9 Ga. App. 718, 721 (72 S. E. 271); Ansley v. Jordan, 61 Ga. 483 (1).

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Bluebook (online)
121 S.E. 709, 31 Ga. App. 644, 1924 Ga. App. LEXIS 114, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/firestone-tire-rubber-co-v-shore-gactapp-1924.