Glen O'Brien Movable Partition Co. v. McMullen

608 S.W.2d 512, 1980 Mo. App. LEXIS 2727
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 3, 1980
DocketNo. KCD 30239
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 608 S.W.2d 512 (Glen O'Brien Movable Partition Co. v. McMullen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Glen O'Brien Movable Partition Co. v. McMullen, 608 S.W.2d 512, 1980 Mo. App. LEXIS 2727 (Mo. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

SWOFFORD, Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment in a case tried to the court below without a jury. The respondent-plaintiff, Glen O’Brien Movable Partition Company, Inc. (hereafter O’Brien), filed suit against appellant-de[514]*514fendant, David H. McMullen d/b/a McMul-len and Company (hereafter McMullen), to recover the contract price for certain office furniture and office partitions which O’Brien had sold to McMullen, or, in the alternative, O’Brien asks for damages for wrongful non-acceptance or repudiation of such sales contract under the Missouri Uniform Commercial Code. McMullen counterclaimed for damages for alleged breaches of express and implied warranties in connection with the furniture and partitions covered under the contract.

The court below ruled that the contract was severable as to the furniture, on the one hand, and the partitions on the other, and found that some of the office desks were in damaged condition when delivered and gave McMullen credit on the contract price for the furniture, and directed that such furniture (then in storage) be made available to O’Brien. The Court further found for O’Brien with reference to the office partitions holding that they were to the specifications of and were installed in accordance with the contract, and were not defective, and entered judgment in favor of O’Brien in the sum of $3,490.24. The Court found against McMullen on his counterclaim. Judgment was entered according to these findings, and McMullen appealed. O’Brien took no appeal from the judgment.

The plaintiff, O’Brien, offered the testimony of John Boner in support of its claim. Boner at the time of his testimony was Division Manager of the O’Brien Company, stationed in St. Louis. In 1976, he was working for O’Brien at Kansas City. The principal business of O’Brien was the sale, manufacture and installation of movable office partitions and as an incident thereto handled some new and used office furniture and equipment. Boner stated he was not an architect or engineer.

He stated that in the latter part of 1976, he was contacted by one Tina Burton, who he understood was office manager for the McMullen firm of Certified Public Accountants. This firm was preparing to move their offices from downtown Kansas City to vacant office space at 4010 Washington in the Westport area of the city, and was interested in discussing the O’Brien movable office partitions. Most of the subsequent negotiations between O’Brien and McMullen were conducted by Burton, except that Boner also had dealings with David McMullen, the owner, and one Roger Novak, who the witness understood was a partner in the McMullen Company.

Boner examined the office space at 4010 Washington, which was then open space without separation into offices by partitions or walls, obtained the overall measurements, furnished advertising brochures showing the O’Brien products, and over a period of approximately six weeks, had seven planning meetings with Burton and McMullen. Boner prepared at least two, and possibly more, floor layout plans drawn to scale, various corrections and changes were made in these plans at the “customer’s” (McMullen’s) request, and, a final plan was agreed to as a result of these efforts. Plaintiff’s Exhibit 2.

This layout showed the allocation of the space as to the various offices, the location, height, width and color of the movable partitions, and other detail as to the use of the space.

During the course of the conferences and planning, Boner suggested to McMullen that he might be interested in purchasing from O’Brien seven Oxford desks and pedestals (an attachment to the desks for drawer space) which O’Brien had taken in trade from another customer and which were stored in the O’Brien factory. This transaction will be more fully detailed hereafter. Also, McMullen agreed to purchase two Formica bookcase units from O’Brien. These units are referred to in the record as “flippers”.

These rather extended negotiations resulted in O’Brien executing a written proposal dated October 5, 1976 to McMullen to furnish the partitions or screens “per attached plan” and the items of furniture for a lump sum of $5,024.00, without any dollar breakdown as to the categories or items involved. As a part of this proposal and as a condition thereto, the following is stated:

[515]*515“3. GUARANTEE. The Glen O’Brien Movable Partition Co., Inc. guarantees its workmanship and material supplied by it to be free from defects for a period of one year from date of completion. * *”

This proposal was accepted by McMullen, and O’Brien proceeded to manufacture the partitions. Boner testified that he made no guarantee that McMullen would like the layout of the offices which were in accordance with the decisions reached in joint planning conferences, and that O’Brien delivered what McMullen ordered.

As to the desks and pedestals, he stated that these were used by another client of O’Brien’s, the United Telephone Company, for approximately 6 months, and that he priced them to McMullen at $190.00 each in their “as is” condition. McMullen testified that Boner represented these desks to be “as good as new” and that the price was a great bargain. Ms. Burton came to the O’Brien premises to inspect the desks which were stored in their factory or warehouse stacked one on top of another and somewhat inaccessible. Boner had his factory people place one or two of these where Ms. Burton could inspect them, which she did. He offered to have all of them moved to a position for her inspection, but she declined. Later, David McMullen came to O’Brien’s and inspected one of the desks in order to measure the size of its working surface to see if it was of sufficient size to accommodate his accountancy working papers. All of the desks and pedestals were the same size and matching as to color.

The desks were delivered to McMullen’s new office on October 14, 1976, on the weekend of that Company’s move from downtown to the Washington Street address. The 19 partitions or screens were delivered and installed at that address on October 26, 1976, at which time Roger No-vak, an associate of McMullen, called Boner’s attention to the defects in the desks and pedestals. Novak, however, signed an acceptance of the proposal on behalf of McMullen on that date.

At that time, the two bookcases, at $100.00 each, and one screen at $138.00, had been eliminated, so that the total sale price, as shown on the final proposal, was then $4,686.00. Boner testified that of this amount $1,330.00 represented the price of the desks and pedestals, and $3,356.00 the price of the partitions. Boner testified that he had received no complaints about the desks until the partitions were delivered.

Mrs. Tina Mattix (nee Burton) was called as a witness for O’Brien. At the time of her testimony, she was no longer employed by McMullen, having been terminated there the end of November, 1976. She was in charge of the details of the move of McMul-len from downtown to the Washington Street office. She stated her first contact with O’Brien was sometime in September, 1976, and thereafter she had 4 or 5 meetings with Boner. Her testimony corroborates that of Boner in substantial respects. She stated that Boner worked hard on their problems, made no complaints about requested changes, and his services were of excellent quality.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
608 S.W.2d 512, 1980 Mo. App. LEXIS 2727, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/glen-obrien-movable-partition-co-v-mcmullen-moctapp-1980.