Northwest Auto Co. v. Harmon

250 F. 832, 163 C.C.A. 146, 1918 U.S. App. LEXIS 1974
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedMay 6, 1918
DocketNo. 3057
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 250 F. 832 (Northwest Auto Co. v. Harmon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Northwest Auto Co. v. Harmon, 250 F. 832, 163 C.C.A. 146, 1918 U.S. App. LEXIS 1974 (9th Cir. 1918).

Opinion

ROSS, Circuit Judge

(after stating the facts as above). [1] The main contention on the part of the plaintiff in error is that the contract was not assignable, for the reason that it entered into it because of the personal characteristics of F. E. Harmon, relying on'his ability to sell the Reo machines; that every one has the right to select and determine with whom he will contract, and cannot have another thrust upon him without his consent. Conceding to the fullest the latter proposition, it does not apply to this case, for this contract was not made with F. E. Harmon individually, but with the Harmon Motor car Company of which, according to the express terms of the contract, he was president. In their brief counsel for the plaintiff' in error say:

“Tbe Hannon Motorcar Company mentioned in said contract was supposed by the plaintiff in error, the Northwest Auto Company, to he a corporation, and the record shows that there had formerly been a corporation known as the MeKenna-Harmon Company. Mr. McKenna afterwards retired, and it was sought to change the name of the company to the Harmon Motorcar Company, and papers seem to have been prepared with that end in view; but such, consummation seems never to have been brought about, owing to the fact that the papers were n,ever legally filed. The business, however, of what had formerly been the MeKenna-Harmon Company, continued to be transacted under the name of the Harmon Motorcar Company. As above stated, the plaintiff in error assumed, in dealing with the Harmon Motorcar Company, that it was a corporation, and that F. E. Hannon was the president and general manager of the same, and it was in full reliance upon F. E. Harmon individually having full control of the management and operation of the business that said eon-', tract was entered into. No negotiations were made with any person in con-' nection with said contract other than E. E. Harmon. If the Harmon Motorcar Company was not a corporation under the facts as they exist, 'then the ■Harmon Motorcar Company was, so far as the plaintiff in error was concerned, merely the trade-name of F. E. Harmon.”

It is not contended, either in the pleadings or proofs, that the contract as executed was not the mutual agreement of the parties, nor that any mistake or false representation was at any time made.. Indeed, we find in the record this admission of counsel for the plaintiff in error:

“The evidence clearly shows that the Harmons believed implicitly they were a corporation organized under the name of the Harmon Motorcar Company. Now, it is fundamental they couldn’t deceive anybody actionably, unless they did it deliberately and knowingly.”

The contract was exécuted by each party as a corporation, and contained no provision regarding the personal services of F. E. Harmon or any other particular person. Without conflict the evidence shows that a corporation called MeKenna-Harmon Company was engaged in the business of selling motorcars, having commenced such business in 1912, and that McKenna shortly thereafter sold his stock in that corporation to F. E. Harmon and his wife (the present defendant in error), and that steps were thereafter taken to change the name of the corporation to Harmon Motorcar Company, and that papers were executed to cany that intention into effect and left with an attorney to be filed, who neglected to do so, of which fact neither [837]*837of the parties to the contract here involved had knowledge until Feb - ruary, 1915 — it being theretofore supposed by both parties to this contract that the papers referred to had been filed. The parties having contracted and dealt with each other as corporations, each is estopped to deny the corporate capacity of the other. Whitney v. Wyman, 101 U. S. 392, 25 U Ed. 1050; Ivy Press v. McKechnie, 88 Wash. 643, 153 Pac. 1067.

[2] It appears without dispute that the contract was prepared by the plaintiff in error, expressly reserving therein the right to cancel it in but two instances, to wit, in those instances specified in paragraphs 2 and 8. The contention that the right of cancellation on the part of the plaintiff in error also arose from that clause of paragraph 3 by which the seller reserved the right to reapportion the territory at any time during the life of the contract, if in the opinion of the seller the dealer was not properly promoting the sale of the cars, is without merit. It is apparent from the mere reading of that clause that it was designed only to secure to the seller proper effort on the part of the dealer to make sales of the cars, and in the event the latter did not, in the opinion of the seller, make such effort, then to con • fer upon the seller the right to again apportion the territory it had by the contract assigned to the dealer within which to make sales. Such is the clear and only meaning that can be properly drawn from the express language of that clause. It had no reference even by inference to any cancellation of the contract, which was expressly provided for, as has been shown, in paragraphs 2 and 8.

[3, 4] Nor, according to the record, did the evidence in the case afford the slightest ground for complaint of any lack of effort on the part of the dealer to sell the cars within the allotted territory. On the contrary, it shows without conflict that the Harmon Motorcar Company was well equipped for the business it undertook under the contract, having one of the best locations in the city of Seattle, sub-agencies in various parts of the territory assigned to it, a well-equipped service and repair shop and garage in Seattle, promptly sold all the cars the plaintiff in error delivered to it, had procured purchasers for a large number of the remaining cars the plaintiff in error had contracted to deliver, and had made urgent and repeated requests of the plaintiff in error for such delivery without avail, and there was evidence given tending to show that it could and would have easily sold, within the allotted territory and within the time specified in the contract, the whole of the remaining number of cars the plaintiff in. error agreed to sell and deliver to it. For the appellant’s default in that regard we therefore regard it as clear that the defendant in error was properly awarded by the jury damages in the amount that she and her predecessor in interest would have realized, had the plaintiff in error performed its part of the contract. Fifty-seven of the 100 cars the plaintiff in error contracted to sell and deliver to the Harmon Company the latter company had, according to the uncontradicted evidence, actually sold, while the plaintiff in error actually delivered but 9 of them; and there was abundant evidence to justify the jury [838]*838in finding in effect that the remaining 43 cars could and would have been sold within the stipulated time, had the plaintiff in error observed its agreement to- deliver them. That such reasonably certain profits are recoverable as damages is well settled. Anvil Mining Co. v. Humble, 153 U. S. 540, 14 Sup. Ct. 876, 38 L. Ed. 814; United States v. Behan, 110 U. S. 338, 4 Sup. Ct. 81, 28 L. Ed. 168; Wakeman v. Wheeler & Wilson. Mfg. Co., 101 N. Y. 205, 4 N. E. 264, 54 Am. Rep. 676; Federal I. & B. B. Co. v. Hock, 42 Wash. 668, 85 Pac. 418.

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Bluebook (online)
250 F. 832, 163 C.C.A. 146, 1918 U.S. App. LEXIS 1974, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/northwest-auto-co-v-harmon-ca9-1918.