Mark v. H. D. Williams Cooperage Co.

103 S.W. 20, 204 Mo. 242, 1907 Mo. LEXIS 66
Supreme Court of Missouri·Decided May 29, 1907·Published·Cited by 14 cases

Opinion

LAMM, J.

Plaintiffs, doing business as partners in Chicago, Illinois, on June 20, 1902, sued defendant, a domestic corporation doing business in Butler county, Missouri, for a balance due on the sale and delivery of certain black and galvanized pipe of sundry dimensions on two dates, to-wit, March 22 and April 11,1902. [249] The petition counts on the theory that the agreed selling price of the pipe was $2,232.30, and that defendant had paid thereon $1,829.13, leaving a balance due of $403.17, for which amount judgment was prayed.

At a trial in February, 1904, to the court without a jury, the issues were found against plaintiffs, they recovering nothing. On the other hand, the issues were found in favor of defendant on a counterclaim and defendant recovered a judgment of $9,046.30. From this judgment plaintiffs appeal.

Both appellants and respondent served and filed abstracts under rule 11. Further, under that rule, appellants filed objections to respondent’s purported “full and complete abstract,” the bone of contention being over the trial answer. A question being raised on the accuracy of said answer as abstracted, and it being contended, furthermore, that both of the' abstracts by misadventure were faulty, the matter came to a head by our ordering a duly certified copy of the amended answer to be sent up and filed here as part of the record., The record being perfected in this particular, no question is now raised but what we have before us the true trial answer, filed below on June 2,1903. Plaintiffs filed a motion below to strike out parts of the answer, which motion was sustained in part; but there is no record here giving metes and bounds to the parts of the answer stricken out. True, the court’s order in the premises refers to the answer as if divided into marked and numbered sections and paragraphs. But if there were any such sections or numbers, they rested only in the mind’s eye of court and counsel for purposes of their own, nisi; and, not being saved in the record, all identifying earmarks of excluded matter are absent and we have no light, unless we have recourse to mind-reading — a method of supplying record not recognized by the law and implying an appellate ability of doubtful existence and doubtful value. There[250] fore, as the answer taken by and large stated a good defense on paper, a review of the ruling on the motion to strike out is out of the question.

Questions are made here calling for some particularity in dealing with the answer. Attending thereto, it appears defendant joined issue by a general denial, excepting therefrom specific admissions — the admissions being its incorporation and its payment to plaintiffs of the said sum of $1,829.13, which sum the answer avers was more than was due. On the theory of full payment (setting forth the facts upon which said theory proceeds) the answer alleges plaintiffs’ failure to deliver 1284 feet of the pipe in suit, thus reducing the contract price by the value of such omitted pipe. Further, on such theory, it is averred that the contract of purchase made by plaintiffs and defendant was in the form of a written correspondence, consisting of a proposal asked, an offer made, followed by an acceptance; that by that contract defendant was to pay on a basis of a certain schedule or printed list price, less certain specified discounts, and the point to a line of defense pleaded is based upon the proper construction of such discounts. To sufficiently indicate this line of defense, it will be necessary to take only one item of a long account as a sample of many others. Thus: one offer was in the form of a discount from the price list of a certain kind of pipe of “48.15-5 and 2% per cent.” Defendant avers that the figures “48.15,” separated by a point as indicated, mean two discounts, one following on the heels of the other, to-wit: first, one of 48 per cent, and, second, one of 15 per cent — to be then followed by one of 5 per cent, one of 2 per cent and one ■ of y2 per cent. There is no difference between plaintiffs and defendant as to the meaning of the formula “-5 and 2y2 per cent;” but they lock horns on the figures “48.15,” which plaintiffs insist is one discount, ex[251] pressed in integers and a decimal, meaning in trade usiage the same as 48 i¥b .

With this explanation it will be sufficient to say that the answer, on defendant’s theory of the discounts, avers full payment of all the pipe delivered; that it accepted the offer on its theory of the discounts; that the custom of the trade was not to use the decimal system, but to use common fractions when any were called for in discounting schedule prices'of pipe; and, further, that if defendant did unintentionally misconstrue plaintiffs’ offer, then its defense is that plaintiffs mixed the decimal system of quoting discounts with common fractions for the very purpose of deceiving defendant, and did deceive defendant into accepting the offer. Or, if plaintiffs acted in good faith in confusingly mixing decimal and vulgar fractions in its discount, then the minds of the contracting parties never met on the price, and, on that theory, also, defendant pleaded payment of the full market price of the actually delivered pipe, even if it was sound and marketable. The answer at length then sets forth a counterclaim in the following language (stress, for appellate purposes, being somewhat laid on italicized parts):

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Mark v. H. D. Williams Cooperage Co., 103 S.W. 20, 204 Mo. 242, 1907 Mo. LEXIS 66 (Mo. 1907).

103 S.W. 20 (Mark v. H. D. Williams Cooperage Co.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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