Interboro Brewing Co. v. Independent Consumers Ice Co.

93 Misc. 24, 156 N.Y.S. 410
CourtAppellate Terms of the Supreme Court of New York
DecidedDecember 15, 1915
StatusPublished

This text of 93 Misc. 24 (Interboro Brewing Co. v. Independent Consumers Ice Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Terms of the Supreme Court of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Interboro Brewing Co. v. Independent Consumers Ice Co., 93 Misc. 24, 156 N.Y.S. 410 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1915).

Opinion

Lehman, J.

The plaintiff and the defendant on the 22d day of April, 1913, entered into a contract whereby the plaintiff agreed to manufacture ice at its ice manufacturing plant to the full capacity of the plant and the defendant agreed to purchase the total output until the 31st day of December, 1913, at certain agreed prices. The contract provided that the ice should be satisfactorily frozen and of a merchantable character. [26]*26The contract further provided that the defendant should deposit the sum of $3,000 in cash for the faithful performance of the conditions of the agreement and that in the event of failure, to comply with all the terms and conditions of the agreement, the “ plaintiff ” may apply the said sum as liquidated damages and not by way of penalty. The plaintiff has now brought this action for the agreed price of ice delivered between September 1 and September 13, 1913.

The answer sets up three counterclaims of which the second was withdrawn before the trial. The first counterclaim seeks to obtain damages for an alleged breach of warranty in that the ice delivered prior to September fifteenth was not satisfactorily frozen and of a merchantable character.

The third counterclaim is for the return of the $3,000 deposited under the contract and sets forth that on September 15, 1913, the defendant notified the plaintiff that it, the defendant, would not accept any future deliveries under the said agreement unless they were satisfactorily frozen and of a merchantable character. That the plaintiff notified the defendant it could not and would not make deliveries in the future other in quality and character than those made up to that date. That the next deliveries after said notification of September fifteenth were not satisfactorily frozen and of a merchantable character and that this defendant thereupon rejected and refused to accept the same and terminated the agreement; that the defendant has received or accepted no deliveries.of ice from the plaintiff since September 15, 1913.

At the trial the defendant practically conceded the plaintiff’s case and then presented evidence to sustain its counterclaims and at the close of its case the learned trial justice dismissed the counterclaims. Upon a previous appeal (83 Misc. Rep. 119) this court [27]*27had occasion to consider the answer and held that the counterclaims were properly pleaded. Upon that appeal the law of this case was settled in the following particulars:

First. That where a seller has failed to comply with his warranty in deliveries under a contract and then broken the agreement by refusal to perform according to its terms the buyer has a right to sue both for the breach of warranty upon the deliveries he has accepted and for the breach by refusal to perform.

Second. That if the seller refuses to carry out his contract, the buyer has an immediate right to the return of the deposit.

The appellant now claims that at this trial the trial justice did not follow the law of the case as laid down upon the previous appeal, but I find nothing in the record to bear out this contention, and we are bound now to consider that the counterclaims were dismissed because in the opinion of the trial justice the defendant’s evidence was insufficient to establish the counterclaims as pleaded. For this reason it is necessary to consider the evidence in detail to determine whether or not the defendant has established a prima facie case upon either or both counterclaims.

The pleadings have been somewhat amplified by a bill of particulars and under the pleadings so amplified, the defendant was called upon to prove under his fied the defendant was called upon to prove under his first counterclaim:

First. That the ice delivered was not satisfactorily frozen or of a merchantable character for the following reasons: It was cloudy, of the color of dirty snow and it contained human or animal waste together with unwholesome growth of bacteria and was unfit for human consumption.

Second. That the defendant was obliged to sell [28]*28•this ice at the price of forty-five cents per cake instead of the market price of sixty cents per cake.

Upon the first issue the defendant attempted to prove that a bacteriological examination was made of ice taken from plaintiff’s factory on September eighteenth or three days after the last delivery of ice and that this examination disclosed the presence of dangerous bacilli. I think that the trial justice properly excluded this evidence. Although the defendant proved that neither the plant nor the operation of the plant was changed in these three days, yet the presence of bacilli in water may be due to so many different causes that the condition of the ice on September eighteenth allows no fair inference of the same condition previous to September fifteenth. The defendant, however, did show through its treasurer that he was present at the plaintiff’s plant “ about every day ” and that the ice was throughout that time yellow, cloudy, dirty and salty, and that it was unmerchantable. The defendant further showed, though part of this evidence was erroneously stricken out, that in June the plaintiff’s manager and the chairman of the executive committee had admitted that the ice was defective and agreed to an allowance of fifteen cents per cake. Moreover, the largest retail dealers who bought this ice from defendant testified without objection to its defective condition.

.There is therefore ample evidence to warrant a submission to the jury that the warranty was in fact broken and that this breach applied to all the ice delivered, and in the court below the plaintiff never moved to dismiss for failure to prove this breach. The more serious claim, however, is that the defendant has failed to prove his alleged damages. The conceded market price was sixty cents a cake. The. plaintiff delivered the ice to the defendant’s customers and received from [29]*29them for defendant’s account the sum of sixty cents per cake. Therefore, the plaintiff urges, it affirmatively appears that the defendant has suffered no damages. The defendant, however, produced evidence that its large customers bought from it both artificial and natural ice and that it was obliged to arrange with these customers that it would furnish fifteen cents worth of natural ice without charge as an allowance upon each cake of artificial ice delivered to them by plaintiff. In effect therefore if this testimony is true these customers did pay only forty-five cents for the artificial ice as alleged in the bill of particulars. The plaintiff also claims that, this testimony is palpably fabricated but obviously it is not for us to weigh the probability of the testimony corroborated by several witnesses and not denied. Upon the dismissal of the counterclaim we of course may consider only a prima facie case has been established. Finally the defendant urges that inasmuch as the defendant has accepted the ice it has waived the defects. Under section 130 of the Sales Act it is expressly provided that,* ‘ ‘ In the absence of express or implied agreement of the parties, acceptance of the goods by the buyer shall not discharge the seller from liability in damages or other legal remedy for breach of any promise or warranty in the contract to sell or the sale.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Interboro Brewing Co. v. Independent Consumers Ice Co.
83 Misc. 119 (Appellate Terms of the Supreme Court of New York, 1913)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
93 Misc. 24, 156 N.Y.S. 410, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/interboro-brewing-co-v-independent-consumers-ice-co-nyappterm-1915.