James Halpin Manufacturing Co. v. School District of California

54 Mo. App. 371
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 22, 1893
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 54 Mo. App. 371 (James Halpin Manufacturing Co. v. School District of California) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
James Halpin Manufacturing Co. v. School District of California, 54 Mo. App. 371 (Mo. Ct. App. 1893).

Opinions

Smith, P. J.

— This is an action to recover a balance of $350 for goods, wares and merchandise sold and delivered to defendant. The answer pleaded in bar a special contract. It was therein alleged and admitted [375]*375by the replication, that, in the month of September, 1890, the plaintiff contracted with defendant to furnish and place in the school building of the latter two number 71 hot-air furnaces which should be of sufficient capacity to heat said building to seventy degrees Fahrenheit when the temperature outside was zero. The answer further alleged, and the replication denied, that the plaintiff guaranteed that said furnaces should be complete with all necessary connections to heat said building, and that they should be free from emitting gas and smoke into said building, for which the defendant was to pay $850. The answer set forth in minute detail wherein the furnaces failed to come up to the requirements of the contract it alleged. The replication on the other hand charged that the reason why the furnaces did not heat the building was on account of the neglect and fault of the defendant, which was quite elaborately therein specified. The defendant had judgment and the plaintiff appealed.

At the very threshold of the trial the court committed an error, afterwards repeated and emphasized in the giving of an instruction for the plaintiff, which we think is fatal to the judgment. The court over the objections of the plaintiff permitted the defendant, upon whom under the issue made by the pleadings the burden of proof was primarily cast, to introduce in evidence a written proposition made by plaintiff to the defendant and by the latter accepted, to the effect: First. That it would place in defendant’s school building two number 61 furnaces complete, set in brick with all proper connections necessary to heat said building for the sum of $440. Second. That it would guarantee that said furnaces should be free from emitting gas or smoke into the building; and third, that said furnaces would heat said building to seventy degrees Fahrenheit when the temperature would be zero; The introduction [376]*376of this contract in evidence did not tend to prove that alleged in the answer. Evidence showing a contract to deliver two number 61 furnaces for $440 with the specific guarantees therein enumerated to be free from emitting gas and smoke, and of a certain heating capacity, would not in the least tend to prove the contract alleged in the answer for the delivery of two number 71 furnaces for $850 with guarantees therein specified. There is a wide variation between the two.

It is insisted that the parol contract for the delivery of the two number 71 furnaces for $850 was made after that in writing which was admitted in evidence, and that the former is but a modification of the latter. No doubt this is a correct view of the matter, but the diffi- • culty is that the answer pleads no such written contract and parol modification thereof. It is the law of this state that parties by a parol agreement upon sufficient consideration may modify or change the terms of a written contract. Bunce v. Beck, 43 Mo. 266; Henning v. Ins. Co., 47 Mo. 425. But when they do so they must declare on the agreement as it stands modified. This is usually done by setting out the original agreement and the modification of it. Every substantive fact which the plaintiff must prove to maintain his action should under the practice act be alleged so that an issue can be made'thereon. Harrison v. Railroad, 50 Mo. App. 332; Lanitz v. King, 93 Mo. 513. Here the allegata and probata do not correspond. It is necessary to allege the original contract’and the modification thereof, for otherwise it would be impossible in any case to determine just what the contractual obligations of the parties really are. The original contract not having been alleged it could not be proved. If the original written contract and the subsequent modifications of it had been alleged as it should have been, then the con[377]*377tract introduced in evidence would not have been subject to objection.

The defendant’s first instruction told the jury that it is admitted by both plaintiff and defendant in this case that the original contract as to the furnishing and putting in the furnaces in controversy was in writing, and the jury are further instructed by such written contract the plaintiff agreed and guaranteed that it would put' in defendant’s school building two number 61 hot-air furnaces, and that such furnaces should heat the building to a temperature of seventy degrees Fahrenheit when the thermometer should be at zero as shown by the temperature outside; also that said furnaces should not emit smoke or gas into the building; and if you further believe and find from the evidence, that after making the aforesaid written contract the plaintiff’s agent, James Halpin, inspected and examined the school building and thereupon concluded that furnaces of larger capacity were required for heating the building, and proposed a modification of said original contract, and that said proposed modification was only as to the size and heating capacity of the furnaces, which were to be number 71 instead of number 61, and as to the price of such larger furnaces, which were to be $850 instead of $440; and if you further believe that such proposed modifications were accepted by defendant, and that the terms of the original written contract as to furnaces as to heating the building and as to not emitting gas and smoke still remained a part of the modified contract, then you are instructed that if the furnaces put in by plaintiff did not comply with the agreement and guaranty as" to heating the building and as to emitting gas and smoke, your findings will be for defendant.

The assumption by this instruction that it is admitted by the pleadings by both plaintiff and defendant [378]*378that the original contract for putting in the furnaces was in writing, we do not find sustained by an inspection of the pleadings. This instruction submits to the jury the proper theory of the case, if such had been the structure of the pleadings. It presents a very plain exposition of the provisions of the written contract and then leaves it to the triers of the fact to determine whether plaintiff and defendant entered into a subsequent parol modification thereof as to the size, heating capacity and price, etc., of said furnaces. It is quite clear that the essential facts embraced in its hypothesis ai-e not within the limits of the pleadings, and for this fault-it must be condemned. Aultman-Taylor Co. v. Smith, 52 Mo. App. 351; Wright v. Fonda, 44 Mo. App. 634; George v. Railroad, 40 Mo. App. 433; Moffatt v. Conklin, 35 Mo. 455; Bank v. Murdock, 62 Mo. 73; Crews v. Lackland, 67 Mo. 621; Leonx v. Harrison, 88 Mo. 495; Merrett v. Poulter, 96 Mo. 240; Noll v. Railroad, 97 Mo. 74; Bender v. Dungan, 99 Mo. 130. And the defendant’s other instructions, except the sixth and seventh, are subject to a like infirmity.

No error is perceived in the action of the eour int-refusing plaintiff permission to pi’ove an agreement entered into between plaintiff and defendant whereby the latter promised to repair the said building and the-flues therein. The replication alleged no such agreement. If this was one of the modifications of the original written contract and the plaintiff desired to invoke its provisions he should have pleaded it, and not having done so he is pi’ecluded from' making the proof he offered.

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Bluebook (online)
54 Mo. App. 371, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/james-halpin-manufacturing-co-v-school-district-of-california-moctapp-1893.