Hartford City Paper Co. v. Enterprise Paper Co.

86 F. Supp. 549, 1949 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2257
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedSeptember 30, 1949
DocketCiv. A. No. 8127
StatusPublished

This text of 86 F. Supp. 549 (Hartford City Paper Co. v. Enterprise Paper Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hartford City Paper Co. v. Enterprise Paper Co., 86 F. Supp. 549, 1949 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2257 (E.D. Pa. 1949).

Opinion

BARD, District Judge.

This is a civil action to recover $3523.97 as allegedly representing the balance due on goods specially manufactured by the plaintiff for the defendants and the storage charges on these goods which were paid by the plaintiff.

On the basis of the pleadings and the testimony, I make the following special Findings of Fact:

1. The plaintiff is Hartford City Paper Company, an Indiana corporation whose home office and manufacturing plant is in Hartford City, Indiana.

2. The defendant Enterprise Paper Company, hereinafter called Enterprise, is a Pennsylvania corporation whose principal office is in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

3. The defendant Cellulose and Paper Converting Company, Inc., hereinafter called Cellulose, is a Pennsylvania corporation whose principal office is in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

4. ' The defendants are family corporations with interlocking officers, directors and shareholders, and were interchangeably and indistinguishably involved in the transaction hereinafter described.

5. The plaintiff is in the business of manufacturing glassine and greaseproof paper, and derivatives thereof. One of the plaintiff’s products is Lustron, the trade-name for a coated and embossed glassine, which is made in the United States by the plaintiff only.

6. The defendants aré in the business of manufacturing and distributing' paper and paper products, particularly paper roll specialties and gift wrappings.

7. In December 1946 authorized agents of the plaintiff and the defendants discussed the purchase by the defendant Cellulose of colored Lustron in order to round out Cellulose’s line of products.

8. On December 30, 1946 the defendant Cellulose ordered on its own stationery 600 reams of gold Lustron and 300 reams each of red, green, blue, dubonnet and peach Lustron. Each color was equally divided among the following six designs or patterns: Imperial Moire, scotty, cord-line, whipcord, broadline and brocade.

9. On December 30, 1946 the defendant Cellulose also ordered 300 reams of silver metalglass in three designs.

10. This order from the defendant Cellulose was on separate sheets, one for each color, and included the color of the Lustron, the number of reams of each design or pattern, the side of the sheets of paper, and that they were to be ream wrapped.

11. On January 2, 1947 the plaintiff accepted the defendant Cellulose’s order by acknowledgment on separate sheets of paper containing terms corresponding to those in Cellulose’s order, and including the price per ream f.o.b. mill1, that it was to be shipped as soon as possible, and that the basis weight of the paper was 30 pounds per ream.

12. This Lustron was sold to the defendant Enterprise but was to be shipped to the defendant Cellulose. The plaintiff would not accept the credit of Cellulose alone.

13. The plaintiff began to manufacture this paper in January 1947.

14. The normal production time of Lustron paper was about six weeks. The plaintiff was four months behind in its production of customers’ orders. But the defendants’ order was a rush order which was completed in about three weeks.

15. On January 27, 1947 the plaintiff shipped the gold, red, and blue Lustron and the silver metalglass.

16. On February 12, 1947 the defendants received a'nd accepted this shipment.

17. Under the customary terms of the plaintiff, which terms were on its invoices and were known to the defendants, the defendants were entitled to a 2% cash discount if the invoices were paid within thirty days, and the bill became due net in thirty-one days.

[551]*55118. The plaintiff’s invoices covering this shipment totalled $11,351.74.

19. When the invoices fell due the defendants did not pay them.

20. On March 11, 1947 the defendants requested permission to pay these invoices on the 27th day of March, April, May and June of 1947.

21. The defendants paid a total of $11,240.44 against these invoices and against invoice 5615 which was for another order in the amount of $115.47; None of the payments was made according to schedule.

22. The defendants deducted 2% or $226.77 from the net amount due on the gold, red and blue Lustron and the silver metalglass.

23. The last payment was made by a check dated June 30, 1947 which contained the notation “Paid in full up to date”.

24. The plaintiff and the defendants agreed that this check was to cover only the balance due for the gold, red and blue Lustron and the silver metalglass and invoice 5615. It was deposited in the plaintiff’s account on July 12, 1947.

25. The plaintiff had not made peach or dubonnet Lustron in any design since the start of World War II. Prior to the war it had made Lustron in these colors but not in the designs or patterns ordered by the defendants.

26. During the discussions in December 1946 it had been agreed that the defendants would have an exclusive right to the purchase of peach and dubonnet Lustron in those designs or patterns which they ordered.

27. The peach and dubonnet Lustron were neither stock patterns nor colors, but were specially manufactured for the defendants.

28. On January 20, 1947 the plaintiff notified the defendant Enterprise that it would receive one ream each in any or all of the patterns of peach and dubonnet Lustron in about thirty days.

29. On February 3, 1947 the manufacturing of the peach and dubonnet Lustron had progressed beyond the point where the paper could be appropriated to another customer’s order.

30. On February 3, 1947 the defendant Cellulose notified the plaintiff by telegram to hold up shipment of the peach, green and dubonnet Lustron until further notice.

31. On February 5, 1947 the defendant Cellulose informed the plaintiff that the defendants were undecided at that time whether to have the Lustron shipped in rolls or in sheets, that they were experiencing keen competition at low prices, that they were dissatisfied with the brightness of the colors of. the samples of the red and blue Lustron which they had already received, and that they wanted sample sheets of the peach and dubonnet Lustron “if it is at all possible”.

32. On February 7, 1947 the plaintiff acknowledged that all shipments would be held up, that it did not know where such competition could come from, that while the finished product was not always to the plaintiff’s liking, this was due to a shortage of essential ingredients in the color industry, and that green, peach and dubonnet sample sheets would probably arrive via parcel post on February 10, 1947.

33. On February 11, 1947 the plaintiff completed manufacturing the peach and dubonnet Lustron, and appropriated this paper to the defendant’s order.

34. On February 13, 1947 the defendant Cellulose received via express one ream of out-turn sample sheets of each design of the peach Lustron.

35. Out-turn samples are merely representative cuttings from a full run of paper which is being manufactured to fill a customer’s order.

36. Out-turn samples are usually sent to each customer without request.

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Bluebook (online)
86 F. Supp. 549, 1949 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2257, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hartford-city-paper-co-v-enterprise-paper-co-paed-1949.