Manhattan Milling Co. v. Manhattan Gas & Electric Co.

225 P. 86, 115 Kan. 712, 34 A.L.R. 176, 1924 Kan. LEXIS 337
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedApril 5, 1924
DocketNo. 24,826
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 225 P. 86 (Manhattan Milling Co. v. Manhattan Gas & Electric Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Manhattan Milling Co. v. Manhattan Gas & Electric Co., 225 P. 86, 115 Kan. 712, 34 A.L.R. 176, 1924 Kan. LEXIS 337 (kan 1924).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Burch, J.:

The action was one to recover money paid under duress. Plaintiff prevailed and defendant appeals.

On October 3, 1916, defendant contracted to supply electric cur[713]*713rent to operate plaintiff’s mill until December 31, 1921, at a rate of 1.1684 cents per kilowatt hour. The rate was established after test runs made under conditions existing at the time the contract was negotiated. Defendant’s power plant was not equal to the task of supplying its customers, and it was obliged to purchase electric energy from the Rocky Ford Milling & Power Company. In 1918, economic disturbances caused by the war made it necessary that the Rocky Ford company should advance its rates. The rates to several customers in Kansas were too low. Conferences were held looking to amicable adjustment, and'applicationTor relief from unremuner-ative rates, notwithstanding existence of time contracts, was filed with the Public Utilities Commission. The government of the United States agreed to a rate of 3.75 cents and believing the Public Utilities Commission would grant the Rocky Ford company’s application, defendant compromised with it on a' rate of 2.375 cents. This compromise was made about July 25, and appears to have been accompanied by some assurance of better service by the Rocky Ford company, than it had been giving.

On June 19, 1918, defendant wrote a letter to plaintiff explaining its situation and requesting permission to bill the current supplied to plaintiff at 2 cents per kilowatt hour, beginning July 1, and continuing until after close of the war. Correspondence followed in which plaintiff disclosed interest in the subject and willingness to discuss it further. Plaintiff asked for defendant’s station cost. In a letter dated June 29, enclosing the desired information, defendant said:

“You know that the contract with your company was based on contract with the Rocky Ford Milling & Power Co., and it is not being carried out by them. Therefore, we can do nothing else than ask you to share part of our increased cost. We have carried your load on our plant at numerous times at a very material loss. We have been in hopes that Rocky Ford would take care of their contract or that conditions would improve, neither of which are immediately probable.”

On July 1, plaintiff asked for more information. A portion of the letter follows:

“We also desire to have you advise us if your company, The Manhattan Gas and Electric Company, comes under the supervision of the Public Utilities Commission. We are informed that the Utilities Commission has granted a raise to Wichita plant to basis of 90 per kilowatt. Inasmuch as we are now on contract basis of llio0 Per kilowatt, do you think the Commission would interfere to increase the rate?”

These questions were not answered in defendant’s reply dated [714]*714July 3. Response was made to other inquiries, and the reply closed as follows:

“Trusting that we hear from you soon giving your approval of the increase asked, which will put us in position to continue your service.”

On July 25, plaintiff’s manager participated in a conference of persons interested in power distribution by the Rocky Ford company. In that conference a rate of 2% cents to apply to plaintiff was mentioned. The service plaintiff had been receiving was highly unsatisfactory. . Frequent interruption of current caused much pecuniary loss. Plaintiff’s manager was not unwilling to consider paying more if service could be improved, but he thought the suggested rate too high for a steady supply, twenty-four hours of the day, six days of every week. More correspondence followed, but no agreement was reached. In October, the motor which defendant had installed in plaintiff’s mill burned out and service was discontinued until July 1,1919.

Current for July, 1918, was billed to plaintiff at 2 cents, and for August and September at 2% cents. Following wheat harvest the milling business is particularly active and plaintiff was wholly dependent on defendant for power. Plaintiff’s own power plant was both inadequate and out of service, and it neither had nor could procure a coal contract. Defendant had control over service to the mill by means of a switch located in defendant’s plant. The contract provided that if default in payment for service continued for 30 days, defendant might cancel the contract on 30 days’ written warning, and might discontinue delivery of current without cancellation of the contract, on a 5 days’ written warning. Plaintiff paid the bills by voucher check'marked “Paid under Protest”; and the overcharge was included in plaintiff’s prayer for relief.

On September 6, plaintiff notified defendant that plaintiff was losing $10.50 per hour for all time the mill did not run for lack of power and that defendant would be held responsible unless continuous 24-hour service was supplied. In some subsequent correspondence plaintiff’s manager' wrote defendant that the 1918 bills had been paid “because we had no other option.” . When those bills were paid defendant probably had not satisfied itself that its contract could not be affected by action of the Public Utilities Commission.

This first chapter of the history of the relations between plaintiff and defendant may be considered separately.

[715]*715We have traveled far from the common law duress of bodily imprisonment or fear of loss of life or member or of imprisonment, to the modern doctrine of involuntary payment. There must be unlawful coercion; but we are no longer restricted to goose flesh producing agencies, and the mythical man of ordinary courage and firmness is no longer invoked as a standard. It is sufficient that the constraint, in the particular instance, destroy free agency to pay or not to pay according to one’s own will, whether relief were formerly obtainable by common law action for duress, or by suit in equity for wrongful compulsion. (Williamson v. Ackerman, 77 Kan. 502, 94 Pac. 807.) Although the old definition of duress has been referred to occasionally since the decision of the Williamson-Ackerman case, it is clear no fixed or serviceable standard of courage and firmness can be derived from common experience, and timid persons of weak resistance are entitled to redress if their free agency has been wrongfully destroyed, to their detriment.

In this instance, defendant was not seeking to take any advantage of plaintiff’s necessities. Defendant was under coercion itself and, as its letter of June 29 frankly stated, felt obliged to pass on to plaintiff part of the increase in its own rate, which it could not successfully resist. Events, however, frequently turn fair bargains into hard bargains, and defendant had no legal justification for charging more than its contract called for. Plaintiff’s situation was precarious. It was suffering from bad service and hesitated to commit itself to a specific agreement to pay more until guaranteed it would get what it paid for. Defendant’s letter of July 3 was ominous. It indicated the advance in price was necessary to put-defendant in position to continue service. The consequences of closing the mill, with contracts outstanding to accept delivery of purchased wheat, and with contracts outstanding to deliver flour sold for export as well as for domestic consumption, were too full of portent to be weighed against price of current necessary to keep the mill going.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
225 P. 86, 115 Kan. 712, 34 A.L.R. 176, 1924 Kan. LEXIS 337, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/manhattan-milling-co-v-manhattan-gas-electric-co-kan-1924.