McDonald v. Connell

158 So. 2d 780
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedDecember 18, 1963
Docket3487
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 158 So. 2d 780 (McDonald v. Connell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McDonald v. Connell, 158 So. 2d 780 (Fla. Ct. App. 1963).

Opinion

158 So.2d 780 (1963)

Horace F. McDONALD, Appellant,
v.
Everette E. CONNELL and Dean T. Davis, d/b/a Alva Fruit Co., Appellees.

No. 3487.

District Court of Appeal of Florida. Second District.

December 18, 1963.

W.W. Whitehurst and T. Hoyt Carlton, Wauchula, for appellant.

J. Hardin Peterson, Jr., Lakeland, for appellees.

SMITH, Chief Judge.

In the court below, the appellant was plaintiff and the appellees were defendants. This is an appeal from the trial court's Final Decree, entered in chancery, dismissing with prejudice the plaintiff's amended complaint.

*781 The complaint, as amended, was essentially for rescission and cancellation of the following contract:[1]

"FRUIT PURCHASE CONTRACT
"THIS AGREEMENT made and entered into by and between Alva Fruit Company * * *, party of the first part, and Horace F. McDonald, party of the second part.
"WITNESSETH: That the said party of the first part has this day bargained and sold to the said party of the second part all of the crop of good, merchantable fruit, consisting of approximately the following quantities and varieties at the following respective prices:
"Boxes          25,000
"Variety        Valencias Oranges
"Per Box        @ 50¢ lb. solids delivered
                M & O Corporation Plant, 12
                ratio, of Concentrate
                quality, Minimum
                of 11.00 solids
"Removal Date   not to start delivery
                before April 1,
                1962, or, unless
                otherwise directed
                by buyer
which said fruit is all of the crop for the season 1961-1962 now on the trees of the grove owned by the said party of the first part and known as the Various Groves grove, located about ____ miles ____ from ____, Florida.
"The sum of $12.500.00 is hereby paid by the said party of the second part to the said party of the first part to apply upon the purchase price of said fruit, the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged by the said party of the first part upon the said purchase price. It is mutually understood and agreed between the parties hereto that the balance of the purchase price shall be paid within 10 days after the fruit is picked.
"It is further understood and agreed that the said party of the second part shall have the right to enter the said grove to pick and remove the said fruit at all reasonable times.
"It is further understood and agreed that the word `merchantable,' as herein used, shall mean fruit free from frost, scab or other defects which would render it a cull and of such size or grade as will permit its shipment in Interstate Commerce under regulations issued by any State or Governmental authority.
"The said seller does hereby covenant and warrant that the said fruit is free from all liens and incumbrances and he has a lawful right to sell the same and to authorize its picking and removal.
"It is further understood and agreed between the parties hereto that the amount to be paid for said fruit shall be based upon the merchantable fruit so picked and removed by the buyer and not upon the crop as above estimated and in the event that the merchantable fruit received does not amount to as much as the advance payment the party of the first part agrees to pay any deficit, the loss by casualty or otherwise, if any, to be the loss of the said seller.
"The said seller agrees that he will not, until the removal of said fruit, fertilize or spray the said fruit or grove or permit the same to be done, with any fertilizer or materials that will injure said fruit or cause it to drop.
"The said seller agrees that in the event of strike, embargo, quarantine, acts of God or other conditions beyond *782 the control of the buyer, that the said buyer is prevented from picking the said fruit, that the said buyer shall have such additional time for the removal thereof as the said cause for delaying the picking and removing thereof. In the event that the vendor is a dealer, commonly known in the trade as fruit buyers, said vendor warrants that the fruit contracted for herein may be the fruit on more than one grove, which has been purchased from various growers and it warrants that it will deliver the said merchandise on the date specified, free and clear of all encumbrances.
"IN WITNESS WHEREOF the said seller has hereunto set his hand and seal and the said buyer has caused this contract to be executed by its authorized agent, this the 9th day of February, 1962."
[Signatures omitted.]

The essential allegations of the amended complaint were as follows: The plaintiff McDonald is president of M & O Company, Incorporated, which company has for many years been engaged in the business of processing citrus fruit for the production of juices. McDonald has for many years acted as purchasing agent for the company. In such capacity, McDonald has become fully acquainted with the defendants as citrus fruit buyers, and he well knew that the defendants have been engaged for many years in buying citrus fruit from growers and then re-selling the same to processors. McDonald recognized the reputation and ability of the defendants to furnish accurate estimates of the amount of citrus fruit growing in the groves from which they intended to purchase fruit for resale. In February of 1962, the defendants approached the plaintiff to negotiate a sale of valencia oranges which the defendants said they had purchased from certain groves located in Lee, DeSoto and Hardee counties. The defendants represented to McDonald that, according to their accurate estimates, there was a total of 25,000 boxes of valencia oranges in all of the groves referred to. McDonald, relying upon the defendants' aforesaid reputation, fully accepted as accurate the defendants' estimate that there were growing and in existence 25,000 boxes of valencia oranges in the groves. The plaintiff's company, in order to acquire enough fruit and then provide sufficient concentrate, and to insure both the quantity and quality thereof, has consistently required that its fruit purchase contracts provide a designation of each and every citrus grove in which the fruit to be purchased is growing and from which the same is to be harvested. For the same reasons, each of such contracts has contained a provision that the company, as purchaser and owner of the fruit, shall have the right to pick and remove the fruit at all reasonable times. There has consistently been a further provision that the citrus groves in which the fruit to be purchased is growing shall not be sprayed with any material which would injure the fruit or prevent it from being processed. Before entering into the contract in dispute here, the plaintiff McDonald informed the defendants that he would purchase the valencia oranges at the price offered, upon the condition that, pursuant to his company's aforesaid policy, the citrus groves in which such fruit to be purchased was growing should be fully designated and identified as to the owners thereof, and that such designation should be made a part of the contract. The defendants stated that they did not have with them a list of the groves identified by the names of the owners, but that they would furnish the plaintiff with such a list or schedule and make it a part of the contract.

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Bluebook (online)
158 So. 2d 780, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcdonald-v-connell-fladistctapp-1963.