Green Mountain Mushroom Co. v. Brown

95 A.2d 679, 117 Vt. 509, 1953 Vt. LEXIS 125
CourtSupreme Court of Vermont
DecidedFebruary 3, 1953
Docket153
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 95 A.2d 679 (Green Mountain Mushroom Co. v. Brown) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Vermont primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Green Mountain Mushroom Co. v. Brown, 95 A.2d 679, 117 Vt. 509, 1953 Vt. LEXIS 125 (Vt. 1953).

Opinion

Cushing, J.

This is an action in contract for recovery of damages to a building and loss of crops and profits due to an alleged breach of an implied warranty of fitness of a roofing cement used in the construction of plaintiff’s mushroom growing building. Trial was by jury which resulted in a verdict for the plaintiff. Plaintiff moved for judgment on the verdict. Defendant moved to have the verdict set aside and for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. This motion was granted and judgment entered for the defendant, with exceptions to the plaintiff.

The cause is before this Court on plaintiff’s exception to the court’s setting aside the verdict and granting judgment for the defendant, n.o.v. and on defendant’s exceptions to the court’s charge, failure to charge as requested, and to the admission of certain evidence.

Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable for plaintiff, as we must on defendant’s motion to set aside the verdict and for judgment n.o.v., Johnson v. Hardware Mutual Casualty Co., 109 Vt 481-499, 1 A2d 817; Farrell v. Greene, 110 Vt 87, 89, 2 A2d 194, the jury could have found the following facts.

The plaintiff is a Vermont corporation engaged in the growing of mushrooms in Manchester. The defendants are partners doing business as Brown and Hitchcock in Manchester, engaged in the business of selling building supplies. In January 1950 the plaintiff started the construction of a mushroom growing plant. During the period of construction Mr. Jennings, president and treasurer of the corporation, discussed with the defendants the matter of the materials to be used. After independent study the corporation decided on Reynold Rey-Kool roofing as the material to be applied to the roofs of its buildings and procured it through the defendants. It was purchased by its trade name Rey-Kool.

In order to apply the roofing an adherent was necessary. Mr. Jennings told Mr. Brown or Mr. Hitchcock the kind of a building the corporation was erecting: that it would accept 60 rolls of Rey-Kool roofing “along with the proper materials with which to apply it,” to be delivered when ready for the application; that at no time was it ever suggested by him that Barrett S. I. S. roofing cement should be delivered.

Mr. Ostrander, the corporation’s manager, informed Mr. Brown *512 that a cement would be necessary and wanted to know what they carried for half lap roofing; that Brown told him that the most common type used was Barrett S.I.S.; that there were other types, that there was a plastic cement which could be troweled on or the S.I.S. and in his opinion from what he knew of half lap roofs that the S.I.S. cement would be the one to use; that he knew the purpose for which the cement was to be used, that Mr. Ostrander asked what Brown thought ought to be used, that Brown’s opinion was that it would do the job they wanted done. Mr. Ostrander gave an order for the material suggested and that he did not ask for it under the name S.I.S.; that Brown suggested it was a good product to use and a proper one. Barrett S.I.S. cement was not a proper cement to use on Rey-Kool roofing, but that the adherent should have been hot asphalt.

The roofing was completed about the 16th of June. Sometime in early September it was noticed that the aluminum lamination on the Rey-Kool was beginning to peel from the asphalt backing and some pieces had blown away, that the roof continued to peel all over. As a result there was continual leakage into the building which resulted in the damaging of the insulation of the side walls, and the grey-lite boards on the ceilings and roof. The leakage damaged the growing crop of mushrooms to such an extent that the bins in which they were cultivated had to be emptied and the crop destroyed, that production was diminished because of the water and moisture from the leaking roof, and the development of certain diseases affecting the mushrooms.

The question presented by plaintiff’s exception is, was the sale of Barrett’s S.I.S. cement under an implied warranty of fitness?

Subdivisions I and IV of V. S. 47, § 7868 (Uniform Sales Act) read as follows:

“I. Where the buyer, expressly or by implication, makes known to the seller the particular purpose for which the goods are required, and it appears that the buyer relies on the seller’s skill or judgment, (whether he be the grower or manufacturer or not) there is an implied warranty that the goods shall be reasonably fit for such purpose.”
“IV. In the case of a contract to sell or a sale of a specified article under its patent or other trade name *513 there is no implied warranty as to its fitness for any particular purpose.”

Plaintiff’s contention is that the sale of the S.I.S. cement falls within the provisions of subdivision I of § 7868 whereas defendant claims that it falls within the provisions of subdivision IV.

V. S. 47, § 7927 reads as follows:

“This chapter shall be so- interpreted and construed as to effectuate its general purpose to make uniform the laws of those states which enact it.”

In view of this section decisions of the highest courts in other states having adopted the Uniform Sales Act, involving its interpretation or construction, are precedents by which we are more or less imperatively bound in cases where similar questions are presented. Aetna Chemical Co. v. Spaulding and Kimball Co., 98 Vt 51, 59, 126 A 582; Breding v. Champlain Marine and Realty Co., 106 Vt 288, 300, 172 A 625.

The implied warranty of fitness is not founded on negligence. Ireland v. Louis K. Liggett Co., 243 Mass 243, 137 NE 371.

The raising of an implied warranty of fitness depends upon whether the buyer informed the seller of the circumstances and conditions which necessitated his purchase of a certain character of article or material and left it to the seller to select the particular kind and quality of article suitable for the buyer’s use. This is the rule regardless of whether the case is governed by the common law or the Uniform Sales Act, except that under the Uniform Sales Act a dealer is placed under the same responsibility as a manufacturer and the term “trade mark” or “trade name” is used, rather than the term “specified, described article.” So when the buyer orders goods to be supplied and trusts to the judgment or skill of the seller to select goods or material for which they are ordered, there is an implied warranty that they shall be reasonably fit for that purpose. Davenport Ladder Co. v. Edward Hines Lumber Co., 43 F2d 63. George E. Pew Co. v. Karley, 168 Iowa 170, 150 NW 12, 13, was an action to recover the purchase price of an electric generator installed by plaintiff in defendant’s place of business for the purpose of operating a motion picture theater. The generator failed to produce adequate electricity to operate the machines and illuminate *514 the premises. In affirming the lower court’s judgment for the defendant the court says:

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Bluebook (online)
95 A.2d 679, 117 Vt. 509, 1953 Vt. LEXIS 125, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/green-mountain-mushroom-co-v-brown-vt-1953.