LeSueur v. Franklin Limestone Co.

14 Tenn. App. 67, 1931 Tenn. App. LEXIS 18
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedAugust 1, 1931
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 14 Tenn. App. 67 (LeSueur v. Franklin Limestone Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
LeSueur v. Franklin Limestone Co., 14 Tenn. App. 67, 1931 Tenn. App. LEXIS 18 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1931).

Opinion

CROWNOVER, J.

This was a suit to recover the sum of $1784.96, the cost • of reconstruction of certain concrete curbing on Charlotte Avenue, in the City of Nashville, in the construction of which had been used crushed stone and screenings purchased from the defendant, and which curbing had been condemned by the City.

*68 Tlie bill alleges that at the time complainant purchased said crushed stone from defendant said defendant represented and warranted, expressly or impliedly, to complainant, said stone and screenings to be suitable and fit for constructing concrete curbing; and that complainant was induced to purchase said stone and screenings by the representations and warranties of said defendant, and that said crushed stone and screenings contained shale, marl or dirt, the presence of which caused disintegration of the concrete.

Defendant answered and denied that any warranty whatever was made by the defendant as to the kind or quality of stone and screenings furnished by defendant on this piece of construction work, or that the stone was defective in any way, or that the disintegration of the concrete was caused by the presence of any foreign substance in the material sold, and alleged that the disintegration of the concrete was caused by improper mixture or unskillful workmanship.

The Chancellor found that there was no warranty, express or implied, but that at the time the contract of purchase was entered into Bodes, the president of the defendant company, put LeSueur on notice that the materials he was buying would not be accepted by the City Engineer. Complainant’s bill was dismissed.

Complainant' has appealed from said decree to this court and has assigned errors, which are, in substance, that the Chancellor erred:

(1) In holding that there was no express or implied warranty that the crushed stone furnished by appellee was free from shale, marl or dirt, and was suitable for the construction of the curbing.
(2) In failing to hold that the distintegration of the curbing was due to the shale, marl or dirt in the crushed stone furnished from the Franklin quarry.

J. E. LeSueur, the complainant in this cause, in May, 1922, entered into a written contract with the City of Nashville, whereby he agreed to construct certain concrete curbing on Charlotte Avenue, and executed a $2000 bond.

Mr. LeSueur called on Mr. J. E. Bodes, president of the defendant company, and asked for prices on the crushed stone to be used in the construction of the Charlotte Avenue curbing.

Mr. LeSueur was at the time- over eighty years of age. He had been engaged in the contracting business for fifty years and had been doing concrete construction work for eighteen or twenty years. He had done a great deal of concrete work for the City of Nashville, but had never used crushed stone in concrete work.

Mr. Bodes stated to Mr. LeSueur that his company was operating two quarries, one at Franklin, Tennessee, and one at Whitehead, Tennessee, and that he would sell him the Franklin stone at $1 a ton f. o. b. cars at Franklin, from which point the freight rate was 57c per ton, or would sell him the Whitehead stone af $T.25 *69 per ton, from which point the freight rate was 75c per ton. Mr. Rodes stated to him “that Mr. Southgate (the City Engineer) objected to his using Franklin screenings on city work,” but that the L. & N. Railroad and many other people used it “and got good jobs 'out of it, but it took the required amount of cement to do it.” ¡

The Franklin quarry has a stratum of shale or marl two feet thick. This shale is soft and contains seven to nine per cent of dirt. In spite of efforts to keep this shale out of that crushed stone and screenings sold for concrete work some small particles pass into the screenings.

The City Engineer in the city street construction work had previously found that some concrete made of screenings from the Franklin quarry was not satisfactory. He went to the Franklin quarry, examined the ledge of shale, and told Mr. Rodes that he would not allow screenings from the Franklin quarry to be used on the city street work while this condition obtained.

Mr. Rodes testified that he did not sell or allow a salesman to sell any stone or screenings from the Franklin quarry without telling the customer that there were some particles of shale or marl in the stone.

Mr. LeSueur purchased three car loads - of Franklin stone. Before he had finished using the third car the City Engineer noticed a pile of screenings on the street and condemned it because it contained shale, ma-rl or dirt. Mr. Rodes, when advised of this by Mr. LeSueur, removed the rest of this third car, about 15.60 tons, and replaced it with stone from the Whitehead quarry. After this, eight cars of Whitehead stone were used on the Charlotte Avenue curbing.

It appears that the Whitehead stone was entirely satisfactory, and there is no complaint about it.

The three ears of Franklin stone were shipped first and used before the Whitehead stone was shipped.

During the first w'inter after the completion of the work, the concrete began to deteriorate or disintegrate in about sixty different places in a distance of about eleven blocks, the defective sections ranging in length from a few feet to more than a hundred feet. The City Engineer condemned 2725 feet on the north side of the street and 64 feet on the south side and demanded that Mr. LeSueur reconstruct the condemned portions of the curbing. This was done by him at a cost of $1784.96, for which this suit was brought.

1. We are of the opinion that what Rodes said to LeSueur did not amount to an express warranty of the quality of the stone furnished, and that under the circumstances there was no implied warranty.

Mr. LeSueur merely testified that he informed Mr. Rodes of the particular purpose for which the stone was required. He says that *70 in making the purchase of the stone he talked to Mr. Rodes and told him that he wanted to use it in the construction of the curbing on Charlotte Avenue, but there is no evidence that Rodes knew that LeSueur had not before used crushed stone in making concrete.

The contract between Mr. Rodes and Mr. LeSueur was verbal.

After the deposition of Mr. LeSueur was taken, Mr. Rodes testified that Mr. LeSueur came to the office of the Franklin Limestone Co. and made inquiries about prices on stone; that he personally conducted the negotiations because he had had a very troublesome law suit with Mr. LeSueur when he was a subcontractor for a portion of the Lewisburg & Northern Railroad in Williamson County. He stated that he told Mr. LeSueur that he was operating two crushed stone quarries, one at Franklin and one at Whitehead, and that he could sell him the stone from either place provided he paid cash, and that the Franklin stone could be purchased at a lower price than the Whitehead. He testified: "I stated to him that Mr. Southgate objected to using Franklin screenings on city work, but that the L. & N. Railroad used it and we used it, and many other people used it .and got good jobs out of it, but it took the required amount o'f cement to do it.

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Bluebook (online)
14 Tenn. App. 67, 1931 Tenn. App. LEXIS 18, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lesueur-v-franklin-limestone-co-tennctapp-1931.