Gorham v. Dallas, Cleburne & Southwestern Railway Co.

95 S.W. 551, 41 Tex. Civ. App. 615, 1906 Tex. App. LEXIS 420
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 10, 1906
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 95 S.W. 551 (Gorham v. Dallas, Cleburne & Southwestern Railway Co.) 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
Gorham v. Dallas, Cleburne & Southwestern Railway Co., 95 S.W. 551, 41 Tex. Civ. App. 615, 1906 Tex. App. LEXIS 420 (Tex. Ct. App. 1906).

Opinion

BOOKHOUT, Associate Justice.

Walter M. Gorham brought this suit in the District Court of Johnson County against the Dallas, Cleburne & Southwestern Railway Company, a corporation incorporated under the laws of Texas, alleging: That plaintiff resided and was doing business in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, under the name of Henry Levis & Co., and that defendant was engaged in operating a line of railroad from Egan, in Johnson County, to Cleburne, in said county, and that its general office was located at Cleburne, Texas, and that W. D. Myers was its president, and resided in Kansas City, ifissouri; that its secretary and treasurer, W. A. McDonald, resided in Johnson County, Texas.

That about the twenty-second day of August, 1902, the plaintiff entered into the following contract with the defendant: “Philadelphia, August 22, 1902. Sold to the Dallas, Cleburne & Southwestern Railway Company for the account of Messrs. Henry Levis & Company of Philadelphia, sufficient relaying steel T rails to lay eleven (11) miles of single track, approximately nine hundred and sixty-eight (968) tons, original fifty-six (56) pounds to the yard, and the necessary accompanying angle bars, thirty-two ($32) dollars per gross ton for rails and one ($1.00) dollar per joint complete (consisting of two angle plates and bolts and nuts) both f. o. b. Kansas City, Mo. Shipment to be made immediately. Material to be subject to Hunt’s inspection at buyer’s cost. Terms of payment—cash against sight draft with shipping documents attached, payable in Hew York funds at par.

This contract to be guaranteed by the endorsement of a reputable bank.

Signed in duplicate.

John B. Waston.

Accepted: Dallas, Cleburne & Southwestern Railway Company,

per W. D. Myers, Prest.”

That in compliance with said contract plaintiff submitted to Hunt & Company, inspectors, for defendant’s inspection, all the material called for in said contract, including rails, bars and joints complete with bolts and nuts, etc., that the same was inspected by Hunt & Company, through their agent or employe, and as agent and inspector of *618 the defendant; that the defendant through its agent and inspector as aforesaid selected and inspected, passed and accepted, from the material presented by plaintiff as aforesaid the amount of material called for in said contract, and pointed out to plaintiff or his employes the material so selected and inspected as the material he had inspected and accepted as the material called for in said contract. That the plaintiff then and there had the material so inspected and passed by the defendant’s inspector loaded in ears and billed to Egan, Texas, as required by said contract.

Plaintiff averred that all of said material was paid for by the defendant, save and accept two thousand five hundred and sixty-five pairs of anglebars or joints, with the accompanying bolts or nuts, for which the defendant, by said contract, agreed to pay the plaintiff $1 per joint, consisting of a pair of angleplates with the necessary bolts or nuts, and that for said material defendant owes plaintiff $2,565, and has failed to pay the same; and that by the terms of said contract the defendant wa's to pay all freight, but that at the special instance and request of the defendant, plaintiff paid two amounts of freight, towit: $53.12 and $56.44, whereby defendant became liable and promised to pay plaintiff said two sums; that though requested so to do, defendant has failed to pay same. Plaintiff prays for judgment for $2,565 and $109.56, with six percent interest from October 30, 1902.

The answers consist of a general demurrer, denial, and special answers and cross-bill. The defendant, in its special answer, says that in the summer and fall of 1902, it was-engaged in constructing a line of railroad from Cleburne to Egan, in Johnson County, Texas; that it and others, whose right it held, had agreed with sundry persons of Cleburne and elsewhere to build said railway by the first of January, 1903; and in consideration of building said railway by said time, said sundry persons had executed their notes for about $30,000, and that it had secured franchises and right of way and other rights to about $25,000; and that if it had failed to complete said railway by the first day of January, 1903, it would have lost about $60,000; that the defendant had contracted with Daugherty & Davis on or before it made the contract with plaintiff set out in plaintiff’s petition, to build said railway and complete same, defendant to furnish them the material set out in such contract, and that the plaintiff knew at the time he made said contract that the defendant’s, road had been graded, and that the defendant was buying said material to be delivered to said contractors to be laid on said roadbed; with all of said facts before him plaintiff entered into said contract to deliver said material to defendant f. o. b. Kansas City, Missouri, for immediate shipment; that the inspection of Hunt was to be under the direction and control of plaintiff, and not the defendant, and that all the defendant had to do with the inspection was to pay reasonable charges therefor; to have immediate shipment was a part of the consideration of said contract. That in consideration of the immediate delivery of the material, defendant paid greatly in excess of the real value of said material. Defendant says that said material was not delivered immediately; and that five hundred pairs of fishplates in the place of angle-bars were delivered to it at Egan, and that it refused to accept same.

*619 The defendant says that relying on the obligation of the plaintiff to ship said material immediately, the defendant had contracted with said contractors to furnish them all of said material and that by the contract with the contractors they were to begin work July 15, 1902, and finish same in ninety days. That defendant’s contract with said contractors, bound it to deliver said material to it in time to enable them to complete said railroad in ninety days from July 15, 1902; that said contractors employ a great number of hands at great expense, skilled in laying tracks, who were compelled to remain idle for about thirty days at great expense to said contractors, to their damage, for which this defendant was compelled to compensate said contractors; and for which it did compensate said contractors. That in consequence of such delay by the default and misconduct of the plaintiff, and his failure to comply with said contract, defendant became compelled to and did pay in allowances and reasonable concessions and payments to its contractors the sum of $3,500 which sum was reasonable, and made necessary by the default and wrong of the plaintiff in the manner above set out, wherefore and whereby defendant was damaged in the sum of $3,500.

The plaintiff on January 6, 1905, filed his first supplemental petition which - contained a general denial, a special exception to all that part of defendant’s answer which set up and claimed damage by reason of acceptance of certain material which it put in its track, which it alleged it had to remove from said track, as same is too remote. A special exception which excepted to all that part of said answer which pleads as damages, that its workmen were delayed, etc., because su.c-h damages do not arise out of the contract, and are too remote.

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Bluebook (online)
95 S.W. 551, 41 Tex. Civ. App. 615, 1906 Tex. App. LEXIS 420, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gorham-v-dallas-cleburne-southwestern-railway-co-texapp-1906.