Park Bros. & Co. v. Kelly Axe Manuf'g Co.

49 F. 618, 1892 U.S. App. LEXIS 1217
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedJanuary 29, 1892
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 49 F. 618 (Park Bros. & Co. v. Kelly Axe Manuf'g Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Park Bros. & Co. v. Kelly Axe Manuf'g Co., 49 F. 618, 1892 U.S. App. LEXIS 1217 (6th Cir. 1892).

Opinion

Jackson, Circuit Judge,

ft appears from the record in this case that

on December 9, 1887, the plaintiff in error submitted to the defendant in error, a Kentucky corporation, located and doing business at Louisville, in said state, the following written proposition:

“We propose to supply you with all the axe and hatchet steel, of good and suitable quality, you will use in your works prior to December 81,1888, not to exceed 125 net tons, nor be less than 100 net tons, at 8|- cents per pound. The above price is guarantied against our own and association decline on the undelivered portion of this contract at the date of said decline. Terms: Four-months note, or 3 per cent, discount for oash in 30 days from date of shipment. Deliveries to be made f. o. b. Pittsburgh, less freight to Louisville, Ky. To be specified for as follows, at the rate of 10 tons per month. In the event of serious fire, strikes, or delays, unavoidable or beyond our control, the provisions of this contract shall cease until such cause shall have been removed. In case any shipment ot steel proves unsuitable, it is understood that you will immediately discontinue its use, and advise you (us) of the facts, that we may have the opportunity of deciding what shall bo done under the circumstances, so that possible loss and damage to either you or ourselves shall be prevented.”

This proposition was signed, “Park Brothers & Co., (Limited.) John A. Hi tton,” and was dated at Louisville, Ky., where it AA’as submitted to and accepted in writing by the Kelly Axe Manufacturing Company. Thereafter, plaintiff' proceeded with the delivery of the steel, and when 80,097 pounds thereof had been received, the defendant declined and refused to accept the balance, amounting to 119,903 pounds, which plaintiff alleges Avas duly tendered. Partial payments were made by defendant on 80,097 pounds received, leaving a balance due thereon of $1,756.54 according to the contract price, which defendant refused to pay. The plaintiff thereupon instituted this suit in July, 1889, against the defendant, to recover the sum of $5,120.32, Avith interest thereon from January 1, 1889, as the damages sustained by its alleged breaches of said contract. The first count of the original petition or declaration claims the sum of $3,363.78 as the not profit the plaintiff Avould have made upon the 119,903 pounds of steel Avliich Avas tendered to and refused by defendant; said not profit being the alleged differences between the cost of producing that quality of steel, with the freight thereon to Louisville, Ky., from Pittsburgh, and the contract price of 8a cents per pound to be paid therefor. The second count of the petition seeks to recover the unpaid balance of $1,756.54 on the 80,097 pounds received and accepted. In the petition or declaration the plaintiff avers that it is and was at all times a corporation established and existing by and under authority of the law of the state of Pennsylvania, with power and rights, under the laws of said state, to contract and be contracted with, to sell and be sold; that since its creation it has had and still has its office and place of business at Pittsburgh, in said state of Pennsylvania, of which it is a citizen. The defendant is alleged to be a corporation and citizen of Kentucky.

[620]*620The defendant demurred to this petition, setting up as grounds of demurrer — First, that the sum claimed in either or both paragraphs (or counts) of the petition was not sufficient in amount to bring the subject-matter within the jurisdiction of the court; second, that said petition, and neither paragraph thereof, states facts sufficient to constitute any cause of action as against defendant. This demurrer was properly overruled and disallowed by the court, for the reason that the petition claimed more than $2,000 for the alleged breach of the contract, and because, if the two counts could be regarded as presenting two distinct causes of action, they could properly be joined in one suit under the Kentucky Code, so as to make the matter in dispute ” sufficient to give the court jurisdiction. The theory of the demurrant was that the measure of damage set up in the first paragraph of the petition for non-acceptance of the 119,903 pounds of steel tendered, was stated in a way that would only entitle plaintiff to nominal damages, which, added to the $1,756.54 •dairned-by the second paragraph, would be less than the $2,000 requisite to confer jurisdiction. This was clearly an erroneous view to take of the petition, which claimed against defendant the sum of $5,120.32 for the breaches complained of, and the court below was right in overruling the demurrer.

Thereafter the plaintiff, by leave of the court, amended the first paragraph of its petition, and alleged, in substance, that defendant’s refusal to accept the 119,903 pounds tendered it under the contract was not because of any alleged uusuitableness of said steel; that, by reason of said refusal, plaintiff had been compelled to and had disposed of said 119,-903 pounds of steel at the best market price procurable for the same, which was 51 cents per pound; and that after allowing defendant credit for the sum thus realized, and the further credit of $233.31 as the freight on said quantity of steel to Louisville, Ky., and charging it with the contract price of 8i cents per pound on the same, the difference amounted to $3,064.02, which, with interest since December 31, 1888, constituted plaintiff’s damage for the non-acceptance by defendant of the 119,903 pounds of steel. To the petition as thus amended the defendant interposed several defenses. By the first paragraph of its answer, it denied plaintiff’s corporate existence. By the. second, after admitting the written agreement sued on, and its acceptance thereof, it denied that plaintiff had prepared or offered to it axe and hatchet steel in quantities of 10 tons per month, or any quantity, during the period covered by said agreement, of good and suitable quality, needed in its work; that plaintiff had tendered the 119,903 pounds of steel free on board the cars at Pittsburgh, or any part of it, good or suitable for use in its factory; that it had refused any tender of such steel; that the cost of manufacturing such steel was 5 cents per pound; that there was any profit to plaintiff in making such steel, as claimed; that its refusal to accept the steel was not caused by its unsuitableness; that plaintiff had the right, under said •contract, to deliver within the year ending December 31, 1888, the 119,-903 pounds of steel, or any part thereof, or to receive 81 cents per pound therefor; that plaintiff was, by its refusal or failure to accept said steel, [621]*621compelled to dispose of the same; that the market price thereof, after its alleged refusal to accept, was 5J cents per pound; that the steel was disposed of at that price; and that the sum claimed by plaintiff was due from it.

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Bluebook (online)
49 F. 618, 1892 U.S. App. LEXIS 1217, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/park-bros-co-v-kelly-axe-manufg-co-ca6-1892.