National Cash Register Co. v. Dehn

102 N.W. 965, 139 Mich. 406, 1905 Mich. LEXIS 947
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 21, 1905
DocketDocket No. 71
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 102 N.W. 965 (National Cash Register Co. v. Dehn) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
National Cash Register Co. v. Dehn, 102 N.W. 965, 139 Mich. 406, 1905 Mich. LEXIS 947 (Mich. 1905).

Opinion

Blair, J.

(after stating the facts). The principal question in this case arises upon assignments of error challenging the correctness of the court’s instructions to the jury that the order signed by the defendants never became a binding contract, because not accepted by the plaintiff .in writing, and that plaintiff could not recover unless they should find that the defendants had accepted the registers. We do not consider it necessary to discuss the authorities cited with much learning by counsel in this case relative to the legal status' of the order prior to performance on the part of plaintiff, since the order clearly became a binding contract between the parties when the cash registers were actually delivered to and received by the defendants, provided they were the kind of machines selected and which the order properly described. National Cash Register Co. v. Blumenthal, 85 Mich. [410]*410464; Hallwood Cash Register Co. v. Millard, 127 Mich. 316. This proposition is not disputed.

Counsel for defendants says in his brief:

“Plaintiff’s third contention, that the delivery of the registers in question by plaintiff to defendant is a sufficient acceptance by plaintiff, is conceded to be the law, and there can be no doubt of that proposition as far as it goes; but we contend that this is not the question — the real question — at issue. * * * It was not disputed in the court below, it will not be disputed here, but that the plaintiff made out such a case in the lower court as might have warranted a verdict for breach of contract in refusing to accept the registers; but that is not the claim in the declaration, nor was that feature of the case in any way before the court, the action being for the entire purchase price of the registers sold, there being no count for breach of contract.”

In National Cash Register Co. v. Blumenthal, supra, this court said, speaking of a similar order:

“ It contains all the material stipulations of a contract, and when accepted and acted upon by the National Cash Register Company was binding and conclusive upon both parties.”

Whether title passed or not is of no consequence in determining plaintiff’s right to sue for the entire amount to be paid. It was provided in the contract itself that title should not pass until the machines were paid for, and the title would not have vested in the defendants if they had accepted the machines under the contract. The right of the plaintiff to sue for the entire amount does not depend upon the vesting of title in defendants, but upon the promises of defendants contained in the contract. Defendants agreed to pay, upon the delivery of the machines, $45, and the balance of the purchase price to be paid $30 a month, for which notes were to be given. They further agreed that, should they fail to so pay or execute the notes, “that the full amount of the purchase price shall at once become due and payable.” The plaintiff delivered the machines, and, if they were the ones ordered, it at once became the duty of defendants to pay and give the notes [411]*411as they had agreed. They refused to pay or to give the notes, and thereupon the entire purchase price became due and demandable. The plaintiff has properly declared upon this clause of the contract providing that the full amount of the purchase price shall become due and payable upon default, and it is entitled to recover, provided it has furnished the machines which were ordered.

In 2 Mechem on Sales, appears the following:

“ Sec. 1415. By Contract Payment May be Due Before Title Passes. There is, moreover, no reason why the parties may not stipulate that payment shall be made even before the title passes. As is said in a recent case: ‘ If a man is willing to contract that he shall be liable for the whole value of a chattel before the title passes, there is nothing to prevent his doing so, and thereby binding himself to pay the whole sum.’ ”

As authority for this doctrine, the author cites White v. Solomon, 164 Mass. 516 (30 L. R. A. 537). In this case the opinion was written by Justice Holmes, now of the Supreme Court of the United States. The action was based upon the following contract:

Gentlemen: Please deliver according to shipping directions given below, one White’s Physiological Manikin, Medical Edition, price $35. In consideration of its delivery for me, freight prepaid, at the express office specified below, I promise to pay the sum of $35, as follows: $10 upon delivery at the express office, and the balance in monthly payments of $5.00, each payable on the first of each and every month thereafter until the whole amount is paid, for which the publishers are authorized to draw when due. It is expressly hereby agreed that in case of the failure to pay any one of the said installments after maturity thereof, all of said installments remaining unpaid shall immediately become due and payable, and the said Jas. T. White & Co. may take or cause to be taken the said manikin from the possession of the said-or their representatives, to whom he may have delivered the same, without recourse against said Jas. T. White & Co. for any money paid on account thereof. It being expressly agreed that the money paid on account shall be for the use and wear of said manikin.”

[412]*412Justice Holmes, speaking for the court, said:

“The main question is whether the judge who tried the case ought to have ruled that ‘ the plaintiffs are not entitled to recover the price of the article in question, but must offer evidence to the court upon the question of damages for the alleged breach of said contract.’ A majority of the court are of opinion that this ruling properly was refused. We assume in favor of the d efendant, but without deciding, that the title to the manikin did not pass by delivery at the express office, but that assumption does not dispose of the case. In an ordinary contract of sale the payment and the transfer of the goods are to be concurrent acts, and if the buyer refuses to accept the goods, even wrongfully, he cannot be sued for the price, because the event on which he undertook to pay the price has not happened; and although the fact that it has not happened is due to his own wrong, still he has not promised to pay the price in the present situation, but must be sued for his breach of contract in preventing the event on which the price would be due from coming to pass. The damages for such a breach necessarily would be diminished by the fact that the vendor still had the title to the goods. But in the case at bar the buyer has said in terms that, although the title does not pass by the delivery to the express company, if it does not, delivery shall be the whole consideration for an immediate debt (partly solvendum in futuro) of the whole value of the manikin, and that the passing of the title shall come as a future advantage to him when he has paid the whole. The words ‘ in consideration of its delivery ’ are not accidental or insignificant. The contract is carefully drawn, so far as to make clear that the vendors intend to reserve unusual advantages and to impose unusual burdens. We are not to construe equities into the contract, but to carry it out as the parties were content to make it. If a man is willing to contract that he shall be liable for the whole value of a chattel before the title passes, there is nothing to prevent his doing so, and thereby binding himself to pay the whole sum.”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
102 N.W. 965, 139 Mich. 406, 1905 Mich. LEXIS 947, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/national-cash-register-co-v-dehn-mich-1905.