Loubat Glassware & Cork Co. v. Costas

157 So. 740
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 4, 1934
DocketNo. 1403.
StatusPublished

This text of 157 So. 740 (Loubat Glassware & Cork Co. v. Costas) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Loubat Glassware & Cork Co. v. Costas, 157 So. 740 (La. Ct. App. 1934).

Opinion

MOUTON, Judge.

Plaintiff alleges, in its original petition, that it sold to defendant, on October 22,1930, goods, wares, and merchandise described in an itemized account for the sum of $525. It is further alleged that these goods, under specific agreement, had to be manufactured for the account of defendant, who was notified six months thereafter that they were ready for delivery. The price for the goods is alleged to be $525.

In an amended petition, it is alleged by plaintiff, as originally averred, that the goods had to be specially manufactured, but with this qualification: That delivery could not be made until about six weeks thereafter, instead of six months, as was first stated. The averments of the original petition were accordingly corrected in this respect.

The defendant admits he purchased the goods or fixtures which were to be installed, in his Walthall Hotel Café at Jackson, Miss. He testifies that the price for these fixtures was about $400, and the balance of the $525 *741 claimed by plaintiff was for tbe expenses it bad to disburse for their installation, and there is no contrary evidence in this record.

The sale was made to defendant by Mr. Shurmier, salesman for plaintiff company. Defendant testifies that under verbal agreement with Mr. Shurmier they were to be delivered in two weeks from the date of the contract, while it was stated by Mr. Shur-mier that this delivery was to be in six weeks, and he testifies it was understood between him and defendant, at the time of the sale, that the fabrication of the goods and their shipment could not be made in a shorter period of time.

Defendant says he requested the delivery of the goods in two weeks because he wanted •to have them installed for a state fair which they were to have some time in October. It is pointed out by counsel for plaintiff that, as the sale was made on the 22d of October, if the delivery had been fixed two weeks thereafter, necessarily the time for the delivery would have been at about the 6th of November.

In testifying on that subject, defendant says the fair “opened sometime in October, I think.” There is nothing positive in this statement, and it is proper to observe was made in February, 1934, over three years after the date of the sale, when this ease was heard below.

On the other hand, Mr. Shurmier, the salesman, testifies that these fixtures could not be manufactured or fabricated and shipped to defendant in less time than six weeks from the sale, and in this he is positive.-

Mr. Surdich, who had been a salesman for plaintiff company, explains that some of the fixtures in question were kept in stock by the company and that a few of the articles had to be manufactured. He says the articles which were to be furnished by plaintiff company to defendant could have all been delivered in ten or twelve days from the date of the contract; and so is the testimony of Mr. Davis‘and Mr. Appel, both in the restaurant equipment business, and without any interest whatsoever in the outcome of this case.

The testimony of the three foregoing named witnesses is therefore in direct contradiction of the allegations of plaintiff’s petition, and of the testimony of Mr. Shurmier given in support thereof, that six weeks were required for delivery.

Counsel for plaintiff, in questioning the credibility of defendant, as a witness, refers to the allegations in the answer filed by him that he had never signed an order for the fixtures and to his testimony where he says he had signed an order. He points out to the contradiction between this averment and the evidence of defendant about signing an order as proof of his lack of veracity,

On this subject defendant testifies that his counsel may have misunderstood him in preparing his answer, and in that way accounts for the discrepancy between the allegation in the answer and his testimony as a witness.

On the other hand, we have, on the part of plaintiff company, the allegation in the original petition that these fixtures could not be fabricated and delivered in less than six months from the date of sale, whereas in the amended petition it is averred that the time required was six weeks from the date of the contract; this averment being made to correct the error of the first petition.

In the original petition, the price'for these fixtures is alleged to be for $525, and no change is made in that particular in the amended petition.

In his testimony Mr. Shurmier admits that the price demanded for the articles included the expense of “setting them up” in the Walthall Hotel of defendant in Jackson, Miss., and defendant testifies that the expenses which would have been required for this installation would have amounted to about $125, and this statement is not contradicted.

These goods or fixtures were never delivered, as appears from the allegations in plaintiff’s petition of tender thereof and the repeated refusals of defendant to accept.

Claiming $525 for the price of the fixtures, without including the expense for their ⅛ stallation in the hotel, may be ascribed to an error made in the preparation of plain* tiff’s demand, as appears in the original and amended petitions.

The errors on the part of plaintiff in preparing its pleadings were, we presume, the result of some tnisunderstanding between plaintiff and its attorney, and likewise the denial by defendant in his answer that he had signed an order may be fairly presumed to have resulted in a misunderstanding by his counsel.

Counsel for plaintiff assails the testimony of .the defendant because he made inconsistent statements as to first coming to Baton Rouge by himself, next time with Mr. Shur-mier, and thereafter testifying that he had come to Baton Rouge by himself several times before coming with Mr. Shurmier.

*742 ' As pointed out by counsel, defendant made these contradictory statements, but Mr. Shur-mier was also flatly contradicted by the testimony of three witnesses in reference to the time which was really required to manufacture and ship the fixtures, which constituted one of the material facts in the case.

This suit was filed in January, 1933, more than two years after the sale made in October, 1930.

' The delay for the demand on defendant Mr. Shurmier explains by saying that time was granted to him on various occasions at his request, and that finally it was understood that the price for these fixtures would be absorbed in a sale of restaurant goods which he contemplated to make to defendant for a business he intended to open in the city of Baton Rouge.

All of that is denied by defendant.'

The testimony of defendant is that he had written a letter to the plaintiff company canceling the order he had given for these fixtures, as they had not been delivered in time, and that this cancellation had been accepted by plaintiff.

Mr. Shurmier testifies that he “had no knowledge of any letter from Mr. Costas can-celling the order at any time.” This is the only testimony offered by plaintiff company bn this issue, and is no contradiction of the assertion by defendant that he had written such a letter.

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157 So. 740, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/loubat-glassware-cork-co-v-costas-lactapp-1934.