J. I. Case Plow Works v. Niles & Scott Co.

63 N.W. 1013, 90 Wis. 590, 1895 Wisc. LEXIS 294
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 26, 1895
StatusPublished
Cited by45 cases

This text of 63 N.W. 1013 (J. I. Case Plow Works v. Niles & Scott Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
J. I. Case Plow Works v. Niles & Scott Co., 63 N.W. 1013, 90 Wis. 590, 1895 Wisc. LEXIS 294 (Wis. 1895).

Opinion

Pinney, J.

The finding of the court proceeds in part upon the basis of an implied warranty that the wheels were .suitable for the purpose for which the plaintiff desired them, namely, “ for our season’s wants,” it being engaged in manufacturing plows, cultivators, etc., intending to attach them to such implements, with which it was supplying the trade; and in part on the basis of the written warranty against defects in material and workmanship,” the defendants having used common iron in the manufacture of the spokes, and that the wheels were defective in material, and were not fit and proper for the uses and purposes for which they were, desired. The plaintiff’s damages were assessed at the gross sum of $1,655.54, but how much for defective materials, or ,how much upon the breach of the alleged implied warranty, it is impossible to say, nor does it appear upon what number of wheels the assessment was made; so that, in the view we have taken of the rights of the parties, judgment cannot be given on the finding, and a new trial becomes necessary.

1. The wheels were made specially for the plaintiff, and it specified the sizes, dimensions, and material, and had looked over and examined wheels of that kind manufactured by the defendant, which had been tested in the presence of the plaintiff’s representatives as to their quality and strength, 'before signing the contract. In the absence of any written or oral warranty, it seems to be quite well established that in such a case as the present no warranty of the suitableness of the wheels for the purpose desired can be implied. The purchaser, in such case, takes the risk of the fitness of the wheels for their intended use; and although it was stated that they were required for a particular purpose, if the known, defined, and described kind of wheels was actually ¡supplied, there was no implied warranty that they would ¡answer the particular purpose intended by the purchaser, [603]*603although intended and expected to do so. This is made clear in Leake, Cont. 404. The contract was not for the manufacture of wheels generally to satisfy a required purpose, hut for the manufacture and delivery of a specific kind or plan of wheels, of specified dimensions and sizes. This was the essential matter of the contract. Milwaukee Boiler Co. v. Duncan, 87 Wis. 120, 124; Chanter v. Hopkins, 4 Mees. & W. 399; Ollivant v. Bayley, 5 Q. B. 288; Jones v. Just, L. R. 3 Q. B. 197, 202; Goulds v. Brophy, 42 Minn. 109; Seitz v. Brewers' R. M. Co. 141 U. S. 518; Deming v. Foster, 42 N. H. 165. Where, however, a manufacturer or dealer contracts to supply an article which he manufactures or produces, or in which he deals, to be applied to a particular purpose, so that the buyer necessarily trusts to the judgment or skill of the manufacturer or dealer, there is in that case an implied warranty that it shall be reasonably fit for the purpose for which it is to be applied. Benj. Sales (6th ed.), § 657; Jones v. Just, supra. The test in such cases is whether the purchaser trusts and relies upon the judgment of the manufacturer, and not upon his own. Brown v. Edgington, 2 Man. & G. 279; McQuaid v. Ross, 85 Wis. 494, 496. This case, we think, falls within the rule first stated, and that there was no implied warranty of suitableness of the particular lands of wheels, with specified sizes and dimensions, required by the plaintiff.

2. It is insisted, however, that the plaintiff relied upon the representations made by the defendant’s agent as to the plan or method of construction, and, in particular, the manner of securing the spokes in the hubs of the wheels; but these representations preceded the execution of the written contract, and the plaintiff took a limited warranty, incorporated in the written contract, in respect to material and workmanship, going to and covering in part the suitableness «of the wheels for the purpose for which the plaintiff desired them. Where an article is sold by a formal written con[604]*604tract, which, silent on the subject of warranty, no express or oral warranty made at the same time or previously can be shown, nor can any additional oral warranty be ingrafted upon or added to one that is written, as the written instrument is conclusively presumed to embody the entire contract. Merriam v. Field, 24 Wis. 640; McQuaid v. Ross, 77 Wis. 470; De Witt v. Berry, 134 U. S. 312. The rule on this subject is too firmly settled to require discussion or the-citation of other authorities. Evidence to show an express oral warranty of the wheels, made previous to the written contract, was therefore clearly incompetent.

3. The contention of the plaintiff that it was not precluded' by the warranties in the written contract from insisting upon an implied warranty that the wheels should be suitable for the purposes for which they were required, for reasons in addition to those already stated cannot, we think, be sustained. The fact that the limited warranties going to the question of suitableness of the wheels were expressed in the contract, by the strongest implication excludes and negatives the idea that it was intended that other or more comprehensive warranties should exist, and repels any implication of law to that effect. The contract as written must be taken as the final and conclusive evidence of all that was intended or agreed upon. The familiar rule, “ Foapressio unius est exelusio alterms,” clearly applies. The demand of the purchaser for certain specified warranties indicates that no others were intended or expected. Had the parties intended that there should be an implied warranty, there was no occasion to make any stipulation on the subject. ’The one introduced must be taken as covering the entire subject; otherwise it would be idle and unmeaning. Adjudicated cases on this point are numerous and conclusive. We have not been referred to any decision expressly on the point to the contrary. Dickson v. Zizinia, 10 C. B. 602; Chanter v. Hopkins, 4 Mees. & W. 399; Baldwin v. Van Deusen, 37 [605]*605N. Y. 487; De Witt v. Berry, 134 U. S. 313; Carleton v. Lombard, Ayres & Co. 72 Hun, 254; Whitmore v. S. B. I. Co. 2 Allen, 58; Deming v. Foster, 42 N. H. 165; Budd v. Fairmaner, 8 Bing. 52; Shepherd v. Gilroy, 46 Iowa, 193.

The case of Merriam v. Field, 24 Wis. 640, was relied on as establishing a contrary view. In that case there was an express warranty of Uñe in the bill of sale, but it was held that facts might be shown from which an implied warranty of quality would arise. Between these two subjects there was no dependent connection, but each stood by itself. There was not, as in this case, any qualified or restricted warranty :upon the question of quality or suitableness, and the case was ruled on the authority of Bigge v. Parkinson, 7 Hurl. & N. 955, where the warranty, as in Merriam v. Field, was on a : separate and independent subject, namely, that the goods would pass inspection, and it was held that an express written warranty on that subject would not preclude an implied one that the goods were in fact fit for the purpose intended. 'The case of Boothby v. Scales, 27 Wis.

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63 N.W. 1013, 90 Wis. 590, 1895 Wisc. LEXIS 294, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/j-i-case-plow-works-v-niles-scott-co-wis-1895.