Loxtercamp v. Lininger Implement Co.

125 N.W. 830, 147 Iowa 29
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedApril 9, 1910
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 125 N.W. 830 (Loxtercamp v. Lininger Implement Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Loxtercamp v. Lininger Implement Co., 125 N.W. 830, 147 Iowa 29 (iowa 1910).

Opinion

Weaver, J.

At the date of the transaction under inquiry the plaintiff was a retail dealer in farm implements at Carroll, Iowa, and the defendant a wholesale dealer at Omaha, Neb., in like merchandise, including the Kemp manure spreader, manufactured by a concern known as the Richardson Manufacturing Company at Worcester, Mass. Plaintiff gave defendant a written or printed order for a Kemp spreader, in which the only reference to a warranty or representation of quality is in the following words: “We agree to receive the following mentioned below and settle for the same on arrival by notes due as per terms marked below. . . . All goods subject to the warranties published in factory’s catalogue and circulars.” There is evidence to the effect that the Richardson Manufacturing Company in its advertising literature described the virtues and triumphs of the Kemp spreader in the following terms: “The Worcester Kemp manure spreader has had nearly thirty years of this field experience. Every part has been demonstrated in actual field work; it is strong, simple and mechanically right. It does its work with a certainty that is not disturbed by any possible local conditions. The Worcester Kemp is well built in every detail. Every particle of material has its office to perform, and forms its part of the magnificent whole.” The machine was shipped to plaintiff, who, after having it in store for a time, made a tentative sale thereof to one Schwaller for use on a farm. On being tested by Schwaller, it proved to be incapable of doing good work, and was returned to the plaintiff, who, after [32]*32•unsuccessful appeals first to the defendant and later to the Nichardson Company to remedy the defects, brought this action for damages, declaring both upon a breach of a written warranty and a breach of an implied warranty of fitness. The defendant answered, admitting the sale of the machine to plaintiff, but denying that it gave the plaintiff any warranty, express or implied, concerning said machine, and alleging that “whatever warranties, express or implied, were made, if any were made, were not those of the defendant but of the' makers of the machine' in controversy;” and it further avers that, if any implied warranty did or could have arisen from the sale to plaintiff, yet as it is conceded that such sale was made to him for the purpose of resale, and as he had the machine in his possession for a period reasonably sufficient to enable him to inspect it and ascertain its quality before selling to Schwaller, the office of such warranty had been accom-’ plished, and no action would thereafter lie against - defendant for its breach.

At the close of the testimony, the trial court withdrew from the jury the issue upon the alleged' express warranty, but submitted the case for a verdict upon the alleged breach of an implied warranty. On this question it instructed the jury in substance that if the machine was ordered for the purpose of resale, and at the time of such order plaintiff had no opportunity to inspect and ascertain the quality of such spreader, the law would imply a warranty that it was reasonably fit for the purpose for which it was designed, and was in a merchantable condition, and that, if on a reasonable trial it proved to be materially defective in the respects named, plaintiff was entitled to recover his damages so sustained. The jury found for the plaintiff.

[33]*33implied warranty. [32]*32Stated in brief terms-, the position of appellant is that under the circumstances of this case there was no implied warranty in the sale of the machine; or, if such [33]*33implication did arise, it was fully satisfied and discharged, when plaintiff had held it in possession a sufficient time for inspection of its quality x and character before making a resale. Was there an implied warranty? We do not understand counsel to deny the proposition that, generally speaking, in an executory contract for sale of personal property when the thing sold is not present for inspection and delivery, or where a dealer undertakes to furnish an article to fill the order of one who buys for resale or for any other known or specified use, a warranty is implied that it is of merchantable quality, and this is ordinarily held to mean or include an assurance that such article (if a product of manufacture) is well made, of good material, and reasonably well fitted for the uses for which it is constructed or furnished. Davis v. Sweeney, 75 Iowa, 45; Russell v. Critchfield, 75 Iowa, 69; Blackmore v. Fairbanks, 79 Iowa, 282; Checkrower Co. v. Bradley, 105 Iowa, 537; Parsons v. Mallinger, 122 Iowa, 703; Bank v. Dutcher, 128 Iowa, 413. In some states the rule may be somewhat narrower than is here stated, but it is too well settled in our own jurisdiction to admit of question.

2 Same-warranty: ISfpfíSd °f warranty. It is argued, however, that the terms of the written order are such as to exclude any implication of warranty. This position is grounded on the clause, “all goods subject to warranties contained in .the factory’s catalogues and circulars.” It is said, in substance, that here is an express written warxanty which includes all the terms and liabilities which in any case could arise from an implied warranty, and therefore under the rule of Bucy v. Pitts, 89 Iowa, 464, the implied warranty must be considered as merged in the writing, and the latter be taken as expressing the entire agreement. At the same time it is strenuously insisted that the written warranty, so called, is not the agreement, representation, or warranty of the [34]*34defendant, but of the “factory” which made the machine, which was in no manner a party to the contract of sale in controversy, and is not a party to this action. This defense appears to us to be untenable. To give the clause referred to any reasonable construction or effect as an express warranty by any person would require us to say that the appellant thereby adopted as its own warranty the representations, if any, found in the publications of the manufacturer. It could not reasonably be said that the appellee was buying upon a warranty to him by the Richardson Manufacturing Company, for that company was a stranger to the transaction. If there be any warranty expressed in the writing, it must be that of the appellee, who alone was filling the order.

3' chan¿eao?eaL theory. But defendant denies that the language constituted an express warranty on its part, and, having succeeded in inducing the trial court to so hold, it can not be permitted in this court to es- ... • . cape liability on the ground that its implied warranty has been merged in an express warranty which it never gave.

4' excess and' implied. Moreover, even if it should be held that this writing contains an express warranty, we are not prepared to say that it is such as excludes the idea of an implied warranty. Though such is not the universal ' holding, it is the rule in this state that a . written contract of sale and written warranty do not necessarily deprive the buyer of the benefit of an implied warranty. Bucy v. Pitts, 89 Iowa, 464; Checkrower Co. v. Bradley, 105 Iowa, 537; Heating Co. v. Kramer, 127 Iowa, 142. Our attention is directed to nothing in the writing which is inconsistent with the existence of an implied warranty.

[35]*35inspection by purchaser: waiver of defects. 5. Same: breach of warranty:

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Bluebook (online)
125 N.W. 830, 147 Iowa 29, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/loxtercamp-v-lininger-implement-co-iowa-1910.