Harris, Cortner & Co. v. Union Cotton Oil Co.

94 So. 559, 208 Ala. 535, 1922 Ala. LEXIS 323
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedOctober 26, 1922
Docket8 Div. 485.
StatusPublished

This text of 94 So. 559 (Harris, Cortner & Co. v. Union Cotton Oil Co.) 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
Harris, Cortner & Co. v. Union Cotton Oil Co., 94 So. 559, 208 Ala. 535, 1922 Ala. LEXIS 323 (Ala. 1922).

Opinion

MILLER, J.

This is a suit by Union Cotton Oil Company, a corporation, against Harris, Cortner & Co., a partnership composed of Richard Harris and others. There are two counts in the complaint. One is based on an account, and the other is for money had and received by the defendants to the use of the plaintiff.

There was a jury and verdict in favor of the plaintiff, judgment thereon by the court, and from it the defendants prosecute this appeal.

It is a suit to recover back some advance payments made by plaintiff to tbe defendants on a car of cotton seed shipped by ihe defendants, tbe appellants, to the plaintiff, appellee, at Birmingham from Trinity, Ala.

The defendants plead: General issue; set-off; acceptance by plaintiff of the car of seed after inspection under terms of sale, $95 per ton, f. o. b. cars; and acceptance of the car of seed after inspection under terms of sale, $95 per ton, f. o. b. cars, and recoupment for balance due, $717.62.

The plaintiff to the two pleas of acceptance of the car of seed replied: General issue; and the car was received and ascertained to he hot and damaged; before unloading telephone communication was had with defendants, and plaintiff declined to receive the seed in that condition; and plaintiff and defendants agreed for plaintiff to take the soed, have sample analyzed or graded, and settlement be made according to the grading made by Picard Laboratories and under the rules of Interstate Cotton Seed Crushers’ Association, all of which was done; and under the grading the seed were worth $1,697.67, and plaintiff had paid defendants $2,150, *537 which was $452.33 more than the amount clue under the agreement.

To this special replication defendants filed general denial, and also rejoined specially that the seed were bought by plaintiff f. o. b. cars at defendants’ station, and the seed were in good and fit condition when shipped, and there was no consideration for the alleged agreement over the telephone.

The i>urchaso of two cars of cotton seed was -made by plaintiff from the defendants over the telephone. After the telephone conversation each wrote the other a letter confirming the sale and purchase of the seed. Tlie letter of defendant to plaintiff is as follows :

“Referring to telephone conversation we are pleased to confirm sale to you of 2 cars cotton seed, approximately 50 tons, at $95 per ton f. o. b. stations. One of these cars is to be shipped from Trinity, and the other from Belle Mina, Alabama.”

The letter of plaintiff to defendant reads as follows:

“This will confirm purchase from 'you by phone to-day of 2 cars of sound, clean, dry cotton seed, at the price of $95.00 per ton f. o. b. cars your R. R. station, same to be shipped to us within fifteen days. Weight of seed upon arrival at our plant in Birmingham, Ala., to govern in settlement for same.”

This letter contained this at the bottom after the signature:

“Draft for 75% with invoice & B/L. Balance upon receipt of seed.”

A car designated as B. & O. 90918, said to contain 60,371 pounds of seed invoiced at $2,-867.62, -was shipped from Trinity, Ala., to plaintiff at Birmingham about November 15, 1919. At the time of shipment defendants drew on plaintiff with bill of lading attached a draft for 75 per cent, of the invoice, which was $2,150. This draft was paid before the car of seed was received. When the car arrived, plaintiff claimed, and its testimony tended to show, the seed were hot and damaged. Then Mr. Searles, secretary of the plaintiff, called Mr. Cortner, member of the defendant partnership, and told him over the telephone the condition of the seed, and had this agreement with him:

“I told Mr. Cortner that his seed had arrived, and we had found upon inspection that they were hot and damaged, and that we could not accept the seed under the contract in that condition, and I told him the only condition under which we couid handle the seed would be to have samples carefully drawn from all parts of the car and have the sample anaylzed in order to determine what the extent of the damage was, and that we would have this sample analyzed by the Picard Laboratories, in Birmingham, and would settle with him at whatever extent the damage was, as shown by the Picard Laboratories analysis, and according to the rules of the Interstate Cotton Crushers’ Association; and Mr. Cortner agreed to that, and instructed me to go ahead and unload the seed and make a draft on him for whatever the damage was,' and he would pay the di’aft;. and I also told Mr. Cortner over the phone at that time that thepe was an apparent shortage jin weight on the car as indicated by the sc¡\le weight of the car when unloaded, and subtracted from the stencil weight oxx the side of th'e ear, and Mr. Cortner said that he would ajso make good that shortage; so, after making tliat agreement over the phone, I O. K.’d this scale ticket, which gave instructions to Mr. Camp to unload the seed. That is the substance of my conversation with Mr. Cortner.”

The defendant Cortner denies this conversation and agreement, but admits they had telephone conversations about the seed, and by letter or telephone there was something said or written about the shortage of weights.

Samples of seed were taken from different parts of the car. There was evidence that they were analyzed or graded by the Picard Laboratories, and, according to the analysis or grading showing the extent of the damage and on basis of the contract price of $95 per ton, the seed were worth as damaged $1,697.67, and that plaintiff had paid defendants, by draft on it, the sum of $2,150, which overpaid the value of the seed, as damaged, to the sum of $452.23.

The court did not err in permitting Dr. Picard to testify that he received from the defendant a sample of cotton seed marked “November 23, 1919, B. & O. 90918.” The defendants objected to it because it was not sxxffieiently identified. The car containing the seed was a B. & O. car No. 90918. There was evidence, when the samples of seed were, drawn from "this car, that some of the seed from each sample was placed in a Ijag and the bag was' marked “November 23, 1919, B. & O. 90918.” It was placed in a cei*tain place in office of plaintiff for such samples. It was the duty and the custom of a servant woman to carry these bags found in that place to the Picard Laboratories for axxalysis. A similar bag with cotton seed- containing those identical marks was on November 25, 1919, delivered to the Picard Laboratories. There was also evidence in regard to the bag of seed, as follows:

“There was no other company that sent thorn in containers that sent them in like they did. It would be impossible to eonfxxse their samples with anybody else’s. * * * On the date we received this sample, we did not get any other saxxxple purporting to come out of a B. & O. car from the Union Cotton Oil Company. A negro woman they had at the Union Cotton Oil Company usually broxxght those seed to the laboratories, and they were placed on a receiving shelf, and either Dr. Picard or myself received all the samples.”

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Bluebook (online)
94 So. 559, 208 Ala. 535, 1922 Ala. LEXIS 323, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harris-cortner-co-v-union-cotton-oil-co-ala-1922.