Neal v. Shewalter

31 N.E. 848, 5 Ind. App. 147, 1892 Ind. App. LEXIS 202
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 28, 1892
DocketNo. 440
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 31 N.E. 848 (Neal v. Shewalter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Neal v. Shewalter, 31 N.E. 848, 5 Ind. App. 147, 1892 Ind. App. LEXIS 202 (Ind. Ct. App. 1892).

Opinion

Black, J.

The complaint of the appellees against the appellants contained three paragraphs. A demurrer to each paragraph was overruled. By assignment of error and by argument thereunder the appellants assail the rulings on demurrer, as to each paragraph, but it appears that while they excepted to the rulings as to the first and second paragraphs, [149]*149no exception was taken to the overruling of the demurrer as to the third paragraph.

A written contract filed with and made part of each of. the first two paragraphs was as follows :

“Portland, Ind., Aug. 18, 1887.
“ This memorandum of agreement, made and entered into by and between Neal Bros. & Co., of Jay county, Indiana, of the first part, and Shewalter & Adams, of the same place, witnesseth that Neal Bros. & Co-., agree to buy and Shewalter & Adams agree to sell 4,000 barrels, to be delivered at Neal Bros. & Co.’s mill by January 1st, 1888; Neal Bros. & Co. agree to buy all the barrels they use for one year from this date, of Shewalter & Adams, and when they use more than 500 barrels per week, Neal Bros. & Co. are to give Shewalter & Adams two weeks’ notice, so they will have said barrels ready. Shewalter & Adams agree to deliver said barrels to Neal Bros. & Co.’s mill in Portland, Indiana. Neal Bros. & Co. agree to pay Shewalter & Adams 33 cents per barrel for all of said barrels made, cash. Said barrels are all to be first-class flour barrels.
“ Neal Bros. & Co.,
“ Shewalter & Adams.”

In the first paragraph the appellees, describing themselves as partners doing business under the firm name of Shewalter & Adams, alleged that the appellants were partners doing business under the firm name of Neal Bros. & Co.; that the appellants were engaged in the milling business and the manufacture of flour, at the city of Portland, Jay county, Indiana, and were so engaged in 1887. The execution of said written contract, at its date, by each of said firms was alleged, and what each party thereby agreed to do was recited. It was alleged that in pursuance of the contract, and upon the order of the appellants under it, the appellees manufactured for the appellants and delivered to them, as requested by them, at their mill, in the city of Portland, under said contract, in the months of November and Decern[150]*150ber, 1887, one thousand barrels, which, at the contract price, amounted to the sum of $329.01; that the appellants paid to the appellees thereon the sum of $250, leaving a balance due the appellees from the appellants on said barrels so delivered to them under said, contract, in the sum of $79.01, which sum the appellants had wholly failed and refused to pay to the appellees; that the same was just, due, owing and wholly unpaid. Wherefore, etc.

The written contract was not a bargain and sale; it was an executory agreement to sell. The goods which were the subject of the agreement did not become the property of the buyer immediately upon the making of the contract. No specific ascertained existing goods were contemplated. . It was clearly the intention that property in the goods was not to pass to the buyer until a future time, and that some further act was required before the passing of title. It may be gathered from the language of the contract, and from the construction put upon it by the parties, as shown by this paragraph of the complaint, that it was intended that the seller should manufacture the barrels and deliver, them before they would become the property of the buyer.

When one thousand barrels were manufactured and delivered under and pursuant to the contract as it was construed and applied by the parties, and were in part paid for by the buyer, these specific barrels had been appropriated to the contract, and there was as to them an executed sale, and the seller was entitled to full payment at the contract price for the number of barrels so delivered.

It appears very plain that the contract was not, as seems to be claimed by the appellants, entire, so as to require the delivery of the four thousand that were to be delivered by a certain date, before the seller would be entitled to any payment.

It is contended that the pleading should have alleged that the one thousand barrels delivered were first-class flour barrels.

[151]*151There is much discussion in the briefs as to whether this stipulation constituted a warranty. While the contract remained executory, it was not a warranty. If it was a warranty, it became such when the contract was executed.

“A warranty is an incident only of consummated or completed sales, and has no place as a contract having present vitality and force in an executory agreement of sale.” Osborn v. Gantz, 60 N. Y. 540.

This was not an action for breach of the executory contract. The plaintiff did not complain of a refusal to receive the barrels. If, while the contract was executory, the stipulation in question amounted to a mere description of the kind and quality of the goods to be sold, the existence of which quality would be a condition precedent to the obligation of the buyer to accept, it was not necessary to allege its performance by him, for the reason that the sale had been consummated by delivery and change of ownership in the goods, and his action was one to recover the price.

If the stipulation should be regarded as an engagement on the part of the seller, which would survive the consummation of the executory contract of sale, and constitute a warranty, then it was a collateral undertaking, its object being to furnish a remedy to the buyer which he would not have under the contract to which it was collateral, and in an action to recover the price, it was for the buyer to set up a breach of it, and it did not devolve upon the seller in his action to recover the contract price, to specially allege performance of the collateral undertaking.

It was sufficient to show that there was an executed sale.

The introductory portion of the second paragraph of complaint was like the beginning of the first paragraph, except that it was expressly alleged that the appellees were engaged in the manufacturing of staves and barrels, and had been so engaged for a period stated, within which the contract was made. The making of the contract was alleged, and what was thereby undertaken by the parties respectively was [152]*152stated, as in the first paragraph.

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Bluebook (online)
31 N.E. 848, 5 Ind. App. 147, 1892 Ind. App. LEXIS 202, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/neal-v-shewalter-indctapp-1892.