J. L. Latture Equipment Co. v. Gruendler Patent Crusher & Pulverizer Co.

289 P. 1067, 133 Or. 421
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 9, 1930
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 289 P. 1067 (J. L. Latture Equipment Co. v. Gruendler Patent Crusher & Pulverizer Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
J. L. Latture Equipment Co. v. Gruendler Patent Crusher & Pulverizer Co., 289 P. 1067, 133 Or. 421 (Or. 1930).

Opinion

BEAN, J.

This is an action at'law tried by the court without a jury. Findings of fact were made and judgment entered in favor of plaintiff for a part of the amounts claimed by plaintiff; both parties appealed.

*423 Plaintiff is an Oregon corporation. The defendant is a corporation organized under the laws of the state of Missouri. Its principal office is at the city of St. Louis.

As alleged and as it appears in the record, plaintiff purchased from defendant on trial on April 13, 1927, at Portland, Oregon, one No. 6X steel frame Gruendler monster crusher with trap iron catcher at the agreed price of $4,063 f. o. b. factory at the city of St. Louis. The defendant guaranteed the crusher in writing as follows:

“This order is confirming our conversation whereby this machine is put in on trial, being guaranteed to produce twenty yards of one-half inch material per hour, or forty yards of three-fourth inch material, crushing either gravel or quarried rock; also that the maintenance cost will not exceed .02c per ton. The above is with the understanding that not less than seventy-five H. P. be used on this machine.”

Plaintiff asserts that relying upon the warranty about August 12, 1927, it paid the defendant the sum of $1,489 and J. W. and J. R. Hillstrom, who purchased the crusher from plaintiff, about August 20,1927, paid defendant, for plaintiff, $885; that the crusher failed to fulfill the warranty and said J. W. and J. R. Hillstrom rejected the crusher. That the crusher was first put in operation about July 8,1927, and kept in operation, as far as possible, until about November 1, of that year. Soon after July 14, 1927, the crusher failed utterly to comply with the warranty, notice of which was given to defendant. After- continuous, but unsuccessful, efforts upon the part of defendant to make the crusher comply with the warranty, the same was rejected by plaintiff about November 1,1927.

*424 The defendant admits the sale and the guaranty as set forth above; alleges that the machine was not properly used but that wet gravel was crushed and that plaintiff, by Hillstrom Brothers, used and tested the machine for a sufficient time to inform plaintiff of its capacity and fitness and thereafter accepted the same and purchased other machines of defendant. Defendant also counterclaimed for the price of the machine.

The court found: that the crusher was valueless; that plaintiff has ever since November 1, 1927, held the crusher subject to defendant’s orders; has demanded repayment; that plaintiff sold the crusher to Hillstrom Brothers, contractors of Marshfield, Oregon, under a similar guaranty and upon delivery, the said crusher was transported to Curry county and set up by Hillstrom Brothers and set to work crushing gravel taken from the bed of Pistol river, where its work upon the larger sized material, for about a month, was fairly satisfactory, during which time the $1,489 was paid by plaintiff to defendant, but when the crusher was put to producing a smaller material, namely the three-quarter inch material, that part of the crusher, usually referred to as the hammers, failed.

The court further found as follows:

“That the profit on resale by plaintiff corporation to the said J. W. and J. R. Hillstrom was the sum of $1,837.00, but the court finds that plaintiff waived its right of rescission of rejection by not acting promptly and that in equity and good conscience plaintiff is not entitled to recover any profit on resale of said machine or any part thereof. ’ ’

The rock crusher failed to comply with the said warranty. Plaintiff paid the sum of $313.54 freight and express upon parts furnished by defendant to plaintiff *425 in an endeavor to make the rock crusher operate satisfactorily; and paid $579 freight on rock crusher, $263.85 freight from Marshfield, Oregon, to Ewing, Oregon, where the crusher was shipped at the request of the defendant for the purpose of trying the same on quarry rock, and as follows:

“That the defendant, by its conduct acquiesced in the plaintiff waiving its right of rescission or rejection by not acting promptly and with knowledge that the machine was not performing according to its guarantee and has waived its right of insisting that plaintiff should be bound but the court finds that in equity and good conscience the plaintiff is not entitled to any damages by reason of the said rock crusher having failed to comply with the said warranty.
“As to plaintiff’s second cause of action the court finds that plaintiff paid the sum of $579.00 freight upon rock crusher manufactured by defendant corporation known as shop No. 8554, the sale of which said crusher by defendant to plaintiff was rescinded and the title thereto now rests in defendant corporation.”

That the parts supplied by defendant to plaintiff sought to be recovered in defendant’s counterclaim were supplied in an endeavor to make the Hillstrom crusher operate satisfactorily and in accordance with the guarantee and without any agreement on the part of the plaintiff to pay for the same.

The court found plaintiff was entitled to recover from defendant $1,489 paid on the purchase price; of $579, freight, from the factory to Marshfield, Oregon; $313.54 freight and express paid on parts supplied for the crusher and $263.85 freight on crusher from Marsh-field to Ewing, Oregon, and $579 freight paid from the factory to Portland, Oregon, upon another crusher pur *426 chased by plaintfif of defendant September 29, 1927, shop No. 8554, which defendant agreed to repay to plaintiff.

The first assignment of error involves a motion of defendant to strike portions of the complaint. The cause having been tried by the court without a jury, it is unnecessary to pass upon this question, except as it may be embraced in other issues. The second assignment of error pertains to the refusal of the court to require plaintiff to elect the remedy it intended to pursue. This question may be considered with the other assignments of error.

The third assignment of error is that there is no evidence to support the finding of the trial court of payment of freight and express upon the rock crusher, or parts thereof.

There can be no controversy as to the question that the findings of the court upon the trial of a law action, without a jury, are of the same force and effect as the verdict of a jury. We are not to weigh the evidence, if conflicting, but are simply to inquire if there is any substantial competent evidence to support the findings.

A reference to pages 76,77 and 194 of the transcript of evidence discloses proof that the freight on the crusher and the freight and express on parts furnished to be used on the crusher and also $579 freight paid on the second crusher contracted by plaintiff, which was returned to defendant, were paid by plaintiff. The testimony amply supports such findings of the trial court.

Mr. William G-ruendler, president of the defendant company, when a witness, stated when the matter of *427

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
289 P. 1067, 133 Or. 421, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/j-l-latture-equipment-co-v-gruendler-patent-crusher-pulverizer-co-or-1930.