Paul O'Leary Lumber Corp. v. Mill Equipment, Inc.

332 F. Supp. 1144, 1970 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11009
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Mississippi
DecidedJuly 8, 1970
DocketCiv. A. No. 1474
StatusPublished

This text of 332 F. Supp. 1144 (Paul O'Leary Lumber Corp. v. Mill Equipment, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Paul O'Leary Lumber Corp. v. Mill Equipment, Inc., 332 F. Supp. 1144, 1970 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11009 (S.D. Miss. 1970).

Opinion

WILLIAM HAROLD COX, District Judge.

After extensive negotiations between the parties (manufacturer, seller and buyer), on September 29, 1964, Paul O’Leary Lumber Corporation (called buyer) purchased from Wilco Machine Works, Inc. (called seller) some sawmill equipment which the seller agreed to and did install on buyer’s plant site near Meridian. The time sales price for this equipment was $111,614.25, evidenced by a promissory note and secured by a title retention or conditional sales contract. On September 1, 1965, the indebtedness was reduced to $81,984.25, evidenced by a promissory note and secured by a chattel mortgage on the five pieces of sawmill equipment. The principal item of equipment is described as a No. 2 selectric beaver, complete with attachments, which cost $48,850. This piece of equipment was new to the sawmill industry and was manufactured by Mill Equipment, Inc. (called manufacturer).

This controversy stems solely from the late delivery and unsatisfactory perform[1147]*1147anee of the beaver machine, which the seller agreed to deliver and install on or about January 15, 1965. The buyer has sued the seller and the manufacturer for damages claimed to have accrued to it under an implied warranty of fitness of this equipment by reason of the failure of the selectric beaver to perform as represented and for damages for delay in installing it. For various reasons, the manufacturer was unable to deliver the equipment to the seller for installation as agreed. This piece of beaver equipment was purchased to perform two operations simultaneously: It operated as a chipper of % chips and was expected to construct 2X4 pieces of merchantable lumber. The knives on this piece of equipment were not made of hard enough steel, or were not properly placed on and securely fastened to the machine for effective and efficient operation, and continuously caused trouble by shutdowns and for the replacement of knives.

The manufacturer denies any responsibility to the buyer for this sale in which it did not finally participate as seller directly with the buyer. This machine was new and incorporated some novel innovations in the sawmill industry and carried an appeal to the failing business of the buyer. The manufacturer challenges the jurisdiction of this court under the Mississippi longarm statute and denies the existence of the requisite minimal contacts for doing business in Mississippi.

■ The seller interposes many defenses to this suit, but basically contends that it is not liable for the damages claimed, or any substantial part thereof. It contends that it was known not to be the manufacturer of this equipment, and that it made no implied warranty as to fitness of such equipment, and that it made express warranties with this sale as to material and workmanship only, which excluded all implied warranties thereasto. It counter sued the buyer for the unpaid balance due on its purchase contract and for additional supplies sold on open account. The seller likewise asserted its demand against the manufacturer for any liability it may have incurred to the buyer solely by reason of the manufacturer’s fault.

The court heard extensive testimony and received voluminous evidence from the parties on these issues without the intervention of a jury. This case is fraught with myriad complications of facts and governing principles of law. In limine is presented the question of the jurisdiction of this court of this Seattle, Washington manufacturer. This foreign corporation never qualified to do business in Mississippi, and is not subject to suit here unless it was doing business in Mississippi as provided in the act. The testimony in this ease shows to the satisfaction of this court that the manufacturer and the seller made it their business to interest this buyer in this equipment, and to do everything within their power, as they did, to induce the purchase of said equipment. The manufacturer initiated the drawings and plans for the installation of the plant and sent their representatives into Mississippi to counsel and supervise such installation, and to make every effort to meet all complaints and make said equipment operate satisfactorily to stimulate public acceptance of its new product. Those facts and circumstances and reasonable inference deducible from them lead this court to the firm conclusion that the manufacturer has thus availed itself of more than the minimal contacts with Mississippi to satisfy all requirements of fair play under the due process clause of the federal constitution. It is the opinion of this court that it has jurisdiction in this case of this defendant as manufacturer, and its motion to dismiss will be overruled.

This transaction in its entirety must be viewed in context. This buyer was engaged and had been engaged in the business of selling lumber for several years in which it was losing money. It became interested in this beaver machine as a means of converting its losses into profits in a new business centered around the products produced by this newly devised and novel piece of equip[1148]*1148ment manufactured in the extreme northwest area of the United States and primarily for use with spruce timber. Southern pine timber is substantially twice as hard as spruce and no doubt accounts for much of the difficulty encountered with the knives on this equipment. None of these parties are novices in the business world and that fact accounts for the extensive negotiations between the parties and the efforts expended by the buyer to see a like piece of equipment in operation on pine timber at the Del Connor Lumber Company plant in a northwestern state before buying said equipment. The facts in this case about its operation and the pictures of this machine show that it is an extremely complicated and very large piece of very expensive equipment. The buyer knew absolutely nothing about the equipment or its capabilities except what he was told by the seller and the manufacturer, and his inspection of such equipment in operation elsewhere foretold him nothing about his expectations and the experience which befell him with this equipment in its own plant here.

There are some basic and fundamental principles which lie at the threshold of this problem. It is a general principle of universal law that when negotiations result in a formalized contract, that such negotiations are merged into the contract. Here the negotiations were extensive and continuous and were unabated after the contract and effectually result in a modified performance of the formal contract by inducing action on the part of the buyer in response thereto, and such negotiations may not be disregarded as an integral part of the entire agreement between the parties. It is not within the province of any court to make a contract for the parties by judicial fiat, but it is very positively the responsibility of the court to examine and consider the contract of the parties in context for a proper determination of their intentions and rights and liabilities.

In this ease, only the beaver piece of equipment never operated satisfactorily, and it could not be made to operate efficiently and effectively by anybody. Nevertheless, the buyer never sought a reeision of the contract, but continued to operate and use said equipment at great expense and loss. The testimony shows that these knives on this equipment cost $138.00 apiece and that the buyer had returned $4,000 worth of them for reimbursement under the express warranty, and is being sued here for $14,000 worth of knives sold and used on this equipment during its relatively short operation.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
332 F. Supp. 1144, 1970 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11009, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/paul-oleary-lumber-corp-v-mill-equipment-inc-mssd-1970.