McCool v. Hoover Equipment Company

1966 OK 95, 415 P.2d 954
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMay 17, 1966
Docket40924
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 1966 OK 95 (McCool v. Hoover Equipment Company) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McCool v. Hoover Equipment Company, 1966 OK 95, 415 P.2d 954 (Okla. 1966).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

This appeal has been taken to review a judgment of the District Court of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, rendered against the defendant, M. C. McCool, d/b/a M-C-M Machine Works, et al., in the sum of $4,019. 06. The original action was filed by Ploover Equipment Company, a corporation, as plaintiff, and they have cross-appealed seeking a recovery greater than that rendered by the trial court.

Plaintiff dealt in second-hand crankshafts for caterpillar equipment which it sold to its customers to be installed in their equipment. Defendant was in the business of chroming used crankshafts. Defendant furnished plaintiff ten (10) crankshafts upon which it had applied the chroming process for plaintiff. These crankshafts all' failed during early stages of use, the longest operation period for any one shaft being 280 hours. The evidence of plaintiff established that the normal life expectancy of a chromed crankshaft was from 3,000 to 10,000 hours. Plaintiff contends that the cause of such failures was due to> a defective chroming job by the defendant which resulted in the chrome peeling off the shafts. Damages were sought for these ten (10) crankshafts based on the cost of the total parts, labor and expenses incurred in removing the defective shafts from customers’ equipment and replacing them with new parts and a proper shaft.

In addition, plaintiff had nine (9) other shafts in its possession which defendant had *957 chromed for the plaintiff. Plaintiff sent these shafts to a concern in Denver, Colorado, to be rechromed after suffering the failures on the initial ten (10) crankshafts. Damages were sought for these nine (9) shafts for the cost incurred in having them rechromed which the parties stipulated to be in the amount of $1,135.70.

The action was tried to the court and after all evidence was submitted, the trial court rendered judgment for plaintiff on four (4) of the ten (10) crankshafts used by plaintiff for a total money judgment of $2,833.36. Judgment was entered for defendant on the other six (6) crankshafts actually used by plaintiff. In addition, the court granted a $1,135.70 judgment to the plaintiff for the nine (9) crankshafts not used that were rechromed by the Denver concern.

Defendant appeals from the judgment granted plaintiff and plaintiff cross-appeals seeking damages for the six (6) shafts wherein recovery was denied.

Plaintiff’s theory for recovery is that an implied warranty arose out of the contract between plaintiff and defendant. Plaintiff contends that whether the contract be characterized as one for sale of goods or as one for the furnishing of labor and materials is immaterial. The defendant contends that plaintiff’s evidence showed only a contract for a work and labor job and no showing of a sale.

Upon examination of the evidence, it appears that the transaction between plaintiff and defendant did not constitute a sale. The plaintiff would send crankshafts which it had removed from customers’ equipment to defendant to have the chroming process applied to them. Defendant would then furnish a crankshaft which had undergone the chroming process. There was some confusion in the testimony as to whether defendant returned the same identical crankshafts furnished by plaintiff or whether defendant would pull another crankshaft which it had already chromed from its stock and furnish it to the plaintiff. The testimony of plaintiff’s first witness. its shop foreman, reveals that the transaction between plaintiff and defendant was effectuated with the understanding that they were receiving back the crankshafts which were originally sent to the defendant for the chroming process. The plaintiff’s shop foreman testified as follows :

“The Court: Well, where did they get them to rechrome them, tho, is what I am trying to get to?
Answer: They are from—
The Court (continuing) : From you or from other people and sell you some that other people have had?
Answer: Well, the deal, I was under the impression that they were rechroming our crankshafts that we sent to them.
Mr. Satterfield: That’s right.”

Under these circumstances, it is apparent that no sale of the crankshafts themselves was intended or took place. The testimony of other witnesses indicates that the transaction between plaintiff and defendant was purely one whereby the defendant was performing chroming work on crankshafts which it furnished to the plaintiff. They merely applied a chroming process to the crankshafts and furnished a chromed crankshaft, be it the same one delivered to it by plaintiff or a similar crankshaft upon which the defendant had performed the chroming work. The defendant cites the 4th and 5th syllabus from the case of William H. Wise & Company, Inc. v. Rand-McNally and Company, 195 F. Supp. 621, as follows:

“A ‘sale’ is generally a transfer of interest in property, but not every transfer of personal property constitutes a sale.”
“Where service predominates and transfer of personal property is only hx-cidental to transaction, it is ‘contract for work, labor and materials’ and not a sale.”

Under the facts in the instant case, we conclude that the above authority is applicable to the transaction between plaintiff and defendant and, thus, the dealings between these parties constituted a contract for work and labor and not one of sale.

*958 A portion of both parties’ briefs is devoted to discussion of authorities as to whether there is an implied warranty on the sale of second-hand goods. Our conclusion that no sale was actually intended or consummated between the parties precludes the necessity of a review of the authorities concerning implied warranty on the sale of second-hand articles.

The question to be answered by this court is whether under the facts and the applicable law did defendant impliedly warrant its work and labor performed in chroming the plaintiff’s crankshafts? If so, did the plaintiff’s evidence establish a breach of the warranty and the damages flowing therefrom?

The defendant contends that plaintiff has changed its theory on appeal to that of impliedly warranted goods and services rather than that of a sale. We disagree with this proposition. The petition filed by plaintiff contained no reference to reliance on a sale nor did the evidence presented by plaintiff attempt to establish such. It appears that plaintiff relied from the beginning on the theory that the defendant had furnished defective crankshafts and breached an implied warranty made to the plaintiff that same would be fit for a particular purpose. After hearing all the evidence, the trial court found as follows:

“ * * * that under the facts and circumstances present in this case, defendant impliedly warranted to plaintiff that the rechromed crankshafts furnished by it would be reasonably fit for use as crankshafts in machines for which said crankshafts were originally manufactured to fit.”

In the case of Cox v. Curnutt, Okl., 271 P.2d 342, we held:

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1966 OK 95, 415 P.2d 954, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mccool-v-hoover-equipment-company-okla-1966.