Hale v. Trout

35 Cal. 229
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 1, 1868
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 35 Cal. 229 (Hale v. Trout) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hale v. Trout, 35 Cal. 229 (Cal. 1868).

Opinion

By the Court, Sawyer, C. J.:

The plaintiffs, as parties of the second part, and defendants, as parties of the first part, entered into a contract containing the following covenants: The parties of the second part agree to go upon said premises and take possession of all the personal property and mill, and to sell, manufacture, and deliver to parties of the first part two million feet of merchantable and clear sawed lumber, to be in length from twelve to twenty-four feet, and sawed to the order of the parties of the first part; said orders to be furnished always in advance, and to include all the merchantable sawed lumber that comes from the saw, but to include only such dimensions as are usually sawed by mills in this vicinity for this market; and for any extra size or dimension that may be required, to be paid for at an extra price. Said parties of the second part further agree to and with the parties of the first part to commence operations at said mill on or before July 20th, 1866; and to manufauture at least fifty thousand feet per month while they may occupy and use the [236]*236old mill, but to saw and deliver at least eighty thousand feet per month after the new mill (in contemplation) is completed, and to deliver to the parties of the first part on or before the 1st day of January, A. D. 1867, three hundred thousand feet, and not to exceed six hundred thousand feet of sawed lumber ; and to commence on or before May 20th, 1867, and saw and deliver to parties of the first part, at least eighty thousand, and not to exceed one hundred and fifty thousand feet per month until one half of what may remain not delivered of the two million feet is sawed and delivered to parties of the first part: and to commence on or before the,20th day of May, A. D. 1868, and saw and deliver at- least eighty thousand feet, and not to exceed one hundred and fifty thousand feet per month until the two million feet first mentioned are delivered to parties of the first part. Said parties of the second part are to have the privilege to erect a new mill upon any of the ground described above and to remove the same at the option of the parties of the second part. * * * And said parties of the first part covenant and agree to and with the parties of the second part to pay ten dollars per thousand feet for cutting, hauling, and sawing said lumber, payable at the end of each thirty days, at the mill, in United States gold coin, for all lumber sawed at the end of the month.”

The plaintiffs entered upon the performance of their covenant, and before, the 1st day of January, 1867, sawed and delivered to the defendants merchantable clear sawed lumber to the amount of three hundred and nineteen thousand five hundred and twenty-eight feet, in all respects as required by the contract, which lumber was received and paid for by defendants. During the months of April and May, and up to the 8th of June, 1867, the plaintiffs sawed and delivered to the defendants one hundred and four thousand two hundred and seventy-three feet of lumber which was received, but not paid for. Upon the 11th of June, 1867, in addition to the lumber so delivered to and hauled away by defendants, the plaintiffs had at their sawmill of merchantable clear [237]*237sawed lumber fifty thousand feet, and they so notified the defendants in writing, and, in writing, demanded that defendants should receive said fifty thousand feet of lumber and pay for the same. When plaintiffs so demanded that defendants should receive and pay for said fifty thousand feet of lumber remaining in said mill yard on the 11th day of June, 1867, the defendants notified the plaintiffs that they would not receive or pay for any more lumber under the agreement, as they believed the plaintiffs had broken said agreement, and that they, defendants, would hold said agreement at an end. They claimed that plaintiffs had failed to perform their agreement in delivering quantities of lumber neither merchantable, nor clear sawed, and that during the winter months of 1866-1867 plaintiffs had not sawed and delivered as much lumber as they were required to do by the terms of their contract. The defendants’ teamsters loaded the lumber at the mill, and sometimes through carelessness, and sometimes willfully and intentionally, and against the orders, and without the knowledge and approval of the plaintiffs, took from the mill yard small quantities of lumber not merchantable or clear sawed; but the plaintiffs, when informed of the fact, stated to the defendants that plaintiffs did not wish defendants to take such lumber as was not merchantable or clear sawed, and did not expect defendants to pay for any such lumber that had been hauled from plaintiffs’ mill to defendants’ lumber yard.

This action is brought to recover the contract price of the lumber delivered, but not paid for, and damages for breach of the contract by the defendants in declaring the contract at . an end, and refusing to receive any more lumber under it.

The Court, in addition to other facts stated, found the value of the lumber delivered, and not paid for, at the contract price (including a small amount furnished outside the contract), to be one thousand sixtyrseven dollars and fifty-six cents; that the amount of lumber remaining to be delivered is one million five hundred seventy-six thousand feet; that the cost of manufacturing and delivering said [238]*238lumber to defendants would be six dollars per thousand feet in coin, and that the profits of manufacturing and delivering the said amount of lumber at the contract price would be six thousand three hundred four dollars and seventy-nine cents in coin. As conclusions of law from the facts found, the Court held that there was no breach by either party so as to entitle the other to rescind, and that plaintiffs were entitled to a judgment only for the amount found due for the lumber delivered and received. Plaintiffs appeal upon the judgment roll alone.

The defendants insist, that the facts found disclose a breach on the part of the plaintiffs, which justified them in declining to receive any more lumber, on the ground, firstly, that a portion of the lumber delivered was neither merchantable nor clear sawed; secondly, that plaintiffs had not manufactured and delivered the lumber as fast as the contract required.

We will dispose of these questions first. There is nothing-in the first ground. The unmerchantable lumber hauled away by defendants’ teamsters was taken by them of their own accord, and contrary to the express orders of the plaintiffs. Plaintiffs never desired or expected defendants to receive it, or pay for it as a pai-t of the lumber called for by the contract, and so notified them. The plaintiffs were in no way responsible for the acts of defendants’ teamsters in hauling it away.

Whether there is any force in the second ground relied on by defendants, depends upon the construction to be given to the covenant quoted, and this, it must be confessed, is somewhat obscure, not to say ambiguous. The defendants claim the construction to be, that plaintiffs are to manufacture and deliver not less than fifty thousand feet each and every month from July 20th, 1866, to May 20th, 1867, and at least eighty thousand feet per month thereafter. The District Court, however, held the covenant to be satisfied by a delivery of three hundred thousand feet before the 1st of January, 1867, at the rate of not less than fifty thousand feet per month from [239]

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Bluebook (online)
35 Cal. 229, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hale-v-trout-cal-1868.