General Mills, Inc. v. O'Rear

194 So. 823, 239 Ala. 270, 1940 Ala. LEXIS 104
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedMarch 21, 1940
Docket6 Div. 638.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 194 So. 823 (General Mills, Inc. v. O'Rear) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
General Mills, Inc. v. O'Rear, 194 So. 823, 239 Ala. 270, 1940 Ala. LEXIS 104 (Ala. 1940).

Opinion

KNIGHT, Justice.

The first three counts of the complaint are the common counts, while counts four and five declare upon written contracts, one under date of July 7, 1937, and the other under date of August 12, 1937. The first mentioned contract covers the sale by the plaintiff to defendant of 210 barrels of flour, at the price of $6.75 per barrel, and for shipment on or before ninety days, under orders from the defendant.

The second contract, that sued on in count five, covers the sale by the plaintiff to defendant of three hundred barrels of flour, at the price of $6.60 per barrel, and for shipment on or before November 10, 1937, upon shipping instructions from the purchaser-defendant.

The defendant pleaded in short by con-sent “the general issue, with leave to give in evidence any matter that would constitute a good defense either under the general issue or under any special plea, the same as if such matter was specially pleaded,” with like leave to plaintiff by replications, general or special.

In each of counts four and five, the plaintiff sues to recover a stated sum of money as liquidated damages for the breach of the contracts sued on, by reason of the defendant’s failure to comply with said contracts of ordering out, and accepting said flour, which the plaintiff alleged it was ready, able and willing to ship to defendant upon his directions, as provided in the contracts.

With reference to the first of said contracts, it was the defendant’s contention, and the court permitted evidence to that1 effect, that two representatives of the plaintiff — salesmen—called upon him on July 7, 1937, soliciting an order for flour, that defendant told them that the plaintiff’s flour “had not been standing up to what they recommended it to be, and that it was not giving satisfaction like . it should have;” that these salesmen said they would give *272 him good flour and would guarantee it'to be as good or better than any flour at that price; that during said year defendant had been getting flour from plaintiff, which was shipped from its Mobile mills; and said salesmen, before the order and contract was signed for the 210 barrels of flour (sued on in the fourth count), said plaintiff had “plenty of mills and had twenty-one in all, and would ship it (the flour) from some other mill;” that after they had made that statement the defendant, without reading the contract, signed the order for 210 barrels. This contract called for “pure Gold Pin” flour, and the written contract stipulated that the flour should be “representative” of the brand or grade specified in the contract.

This order for the 210 barrels of flour was then forwarded by the salesmen— McCrea and Calvert — to plaintiff’s head office in Atlanta, Georgia, where it was formally accepted in writing by the plaintiff. No flour was ordered out by defendant, or shipped to him on-this contract.

That about a month after giving the above mentioned order for 210 barrels of flour, Bull Connor, 'another salesman of the plaintiff, and with whom defendant had theretofore had his dealings in buying flour from plaintiff, called upon defendant and undertook to secure from him a new order for some of plaintiff’s flour, telling defendant at the time that the defendant was in his territory, and that McCrea and Calvert were not supposed to operate in his territory. That before the defendant gave the second order, sued on in count five of the complaint, the following conversation occurred between the said Connor and defendant: “He asked me to give him a new order for flour, that I had that bought from some outside people that was not supposed to be in this territory, which was his territory and he was supposed to work it and he could and'would'do better with me than they could and (if) I would change this order and give it to him he would cancel the 210 barrel order, also give me a better price on it. I told him I had had trouble with the flour and he- said he would ship this from Louisville instead of Mobile and ■give me a better grade of flour; and said he would come out and help me advertise •and help me go out and work the country trade; -I had some country trade.” That defendant signed the order or contract without reading it. This last order or contract called for 300 barrels of Pure Gold Self Rising flour at $6.60 per barrel and was forwarded by Connor to Atlanta, Ga., and there accepted by the plaintiff in writing on August 12, 1937.

After this last contract was made, the plaintiff shipped 10 barrels of flour last contracted for to defendant.

There was evidence tending to show that this flour (10 barrels) was not wholesome, in fact bad, and that customers of defendant returned it to defendant and he replaced it with other flour from his stock. However, defendant paid plaintiff for said flour, without reclamation on plaintiff on account of the quality of the same.

There was evidence offered and admitted, over plaintiff’s objection, that Connor did not comply with his oral agreement to help the defendant advertise the flour and work up the trade.

The contracts sued on do not contain any of the agreements alleged to have been made with the defendant by the plaintiff’s salesmen, or by any one of them.

There was other testimony in the case but we do not think it necessary to set it out in detail, but it is well here to state that the testimony shows without conflict that the said McCrea, Calvert and Connor were mere traveling salesmen of plaintiff, and any order that was given them had to be accepted by the plaintiff’s head office to be binding on plaintiff.

In the case of Abercrombie v. Martin & Hoyt Co., 227 Ala. 510, 150 So. 497, 498, it was observed: “The general rule of law, that one who deals with an agent is bound to know the extent of his authority, is fully recognized, and one absolutely necessary to the protection of the principal in all actions brought against him founded upon contracts made by an agent. The doctrine is equally well established, and rests upon equally sound principles of law, that a principal who would seek to avail himself of a contract made by an agent for him, whether such agent be appointed or self-constituted, is bound by the representations made and methods employed by the agent to secure the execution of the contract. And it is the duty of the principal to inform himself as to what representations may have been made. This is true regardless of the fact that the agent had no authority to make such representations. Bell, Rogers, etc., Bros. v. Jenkins, 221 Ala. 652, 130 So. 396; Williamson v. Tyson, 105 *273 Ala. 644, 17 So. 336; Philips & Buttorff Co. v. Wild Bros., 144 Ala. 545, 39 So. 359; Capital Security Co. v. Owen, 196 Ala. 385, 72 So. 8; Mid.-Cont. Life Ins. Co. v. Beasley, 202 Ala. 35, 79 So. 373; Brenard Mfg. Co. v. Cannon, 209 Ala. 626, 96 So. 760; Grissom v. Colt & Co., 218 Ala. 336, 118 So. 580; Colt Co. v. Price, 210 Ala. 189, 97 So. 696.”

In the case of Jackson et al. v. Sample et al., 234 Ala. 75, 173 So.

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Bluebook (online)
194 So. 823, 239 Ala. 270, 1940 Ala. LEXIS 104, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/general-mills-inc-v-orear-ala-1940.