Jordan v. Morgan

154 S.W. 599, 1913 Tex. App. LEXIS 281
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 30, 1913
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 154 S.W. 599 (Jordan v. Morgan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jordan v. Morgan, 154 S.W. 599, 1913 Tex. App. LEXIS 281 (Tex. Ct. App. 1913).

Opinion

LEVY, J.

(after stating the facts as above). The rights of the parties here are to be measured entirely by the terms of a written contract, sued upon by appellee and admitted to have been executed by appellants. According to the terms of the contract, appellee was to manufacture the lumber from his own logs and to stack and pile it on his own millyard so that it could seasonably dry out before delivery to appellants at their planer, about six miles distant from the mill. The lumber was not to be delivered io appellants, or to be accepted by them after being cut, until it was dried out by the methods agreed upon. The method and mode to be used by appellee in drying out the lumber after taking it from the saw were stipulated to be as follows: “Air-dried lumber to be stacked with strips not to exceed 4. inches in width; there must be a distance of 5 feet between each stack of lumber, and the foundation of each stack must be built so as to have an inch drop per foot so as to thoroughly drain itself. The lumber must be stacked so as to give a five-inch flue. * * * Each length to be piled separately by itself.” It was conclusively shown that it takes1 about 60 days for lumber taken fresh cut and green from the saw to dry out, and that by following the stipulated way of drying it a better class of lumber for use and a more valuable grade in the market was obtained. As the burden was on appellee to show a compliance with these terms of contract incumbent on him to perform, the findings of the jury in respect thereto determine the appeal.

[1] The court submitted to the jury the following issue: “Did the plaintiff, W. D. Morgan, comply with the contract in evidence! If not, give a detailed statement of *601 the provisions he failed to comply with, if any.” And at the request of appellants the court further submitted to the jury the -following questions, as material here, for answer: “(2) Was the lumber cut by W. D. Morgan well manufactured? (3) Was the lumber cut by plaintiff correct -sizes?” “(7) Was all air-dried lumber stacked with strips not exceeding 4 inches in width? (8) Was there a distance of 5 feet between each stack of lumber? (9) Was the foundation of each stack built so as to have an inch drop per foot? (10) Was the lumber stacked so as to give a 5-inch flue?” “(13) Did the plaintiff pile each length of lumber separately to itself both at sawmill and planer?” Each of the several questions was in reference to the stipulations of the contract to be performed by appellee, and an issue made by the evidence. The jury made the answer of “yes” to the question submitted by the court, and answered the questions requested by appellants, respectively, as follows: (2) “Yes.” (3) “Yes.” (7) “Not all.” (8) “No.” (9) “Yes.” (10) “Not all.” (13) “No.” By considering the first question above in connection with the succeeding questions, in order to properly construe the findings of the jury there is no conflict or inconsistency of findings by the jury. By answering the first part of the first question “Yes,” and 'then later following up that answer by specific answers in respect to the special provisions complied with and the special provisions failed to be complied with, as done, it was manifestly intended by the jury to make the finding of fact that appellee did comply with his contract except in the four particulars specified.

[2] As so construed and given effect, the verdict is consistent and in accordance with the undisputed evidence of the witnesses. The testimony, as seen, admittedly shows, as found by the jury, a failure on appellee’s part to stack the lumber with strips 4 inches wide, to pile separately the different lengths of lumber, and to have the piles 5 feet apart. The appellee testified as follows: “I would not say that they were stacked with strips not to exceed 4 inches in width. We stacked the lx4’s all together with strips 4 inches wide. After working off the old stacks, we commenced stacking the stacks 5 feet. * :]! * At the mill the lumber was not all piled each length separate to itself. It was in everything except 2x4, 1x4, and 1x6. It was not stacked separately because I didn’t have the room; I didn’t have the ground. I had all the ground I could get at the place.” He further says: “To come right down to the scratch, I don’t expect I ever did carry out any single paragraph of the contract.” McKee, who after April 3d operated the mill for Morgan, testified: “When I went down there to the yard, I found different lengths of lumber stacked together, that is, some of it, and some of it stacked all right. * * * I found some of the lumber there stacked with wider than 4-ineh strips. * ’ * * I found some of the stacks of lumber closer together than 5 feet. I think the fall of one inch to the foot was all right. * * * Part of the. lumber was stacked so as to give a 5-inch flue, and part of it was not.” Jordan, the manager of the lumber company, testified: “I went down to the millyard and found, I suppose, 700,000 or 800,000 feet of lumber on the millyard. I found about 50,-000 or 60,000 feet of B and better out of the 700,000 or 800,000 feet. I went out there a few days after the receivers took charge of it, and they hadn’t cut over two or three days and hadn't dried any lumber. I looked over the stock of lumber there. I found plenty of lumber stacked with strips more than 5 inches wide; it was stacked with strips of its own width; stacks of lxl2’s would be cross-stripped with lxl2’s, and lx6’s would be stripped with lx6’s. We did not find the flues to be 5 inches. I found different lengths in the same stack, the greater portion of it that way. There might have been a few stacks that were stacked with even lengths. I could not say that lxl2-20’s were stacked with 1x12-20, but in some stacks the 18 and 20’s were stacked together, and 16 and 14’s and 14 and 12’s were stacked together in the same pile.” By further findings of the jury, .and in accordance with the undisputed testimony, the promiscuous piling together of the different lengths of lumber entailed an extra cost of 50 cents per 1,000 feet to separate them into piles of the same length, and a failure to stack the lumber while green with strips not exceeding 4 inches in width worked a difference in value of the lumber of 10 per cent, less than the contract price. So by the verdict of the jury and under the evidence there is established the fact of nonperformance by appellee of material and valuable stipulations in the contract with respect to stacking and piling the lumber at the mill-yard. It is not . doubted that if appellee failed to comply with the substantial requirements of his obligation as to drying the lumber and stacking and piling it at the millyard, and the lumber company did not waive the performance by appellee of these methods so stipulated, then appellee has not shown himself entitled to recover of appellants any damages by reason of their refusal to take the lumber on the millyard.

[3] While the jury made answer that “not all” of the air-dried lumber was stacked with strips not exceeding four inches in width, and that “not all” of the lumber was stacked so as to give a 5-inch flue, still by the further evidence in the record giving appellee the most favorable view of it, it could only be said that 72,000 feet of the 800,000 feet on the millyard was piled and stacked in accordance with the contract, and no other finding is warranted. If there be doubt as to *602

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Bluebook (online)
154 S.W. 599, 1913 Tex. App. LEXIS 281, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jordan-v-morgan-texapp-1913.