Penn-American Plate Glass Co. v. Harshaw, Fuller & Goodwin Co.

90 N.E. 1047, 46 Ind. App. 645, 1910 Ind. App. LEXIS 146
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 24, 1910
DocketNo. 6,582
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 90 N.E. 1047 (Penn-American Plate Glass Co. v. Harshaw, Fuller & Goodwin Co.) 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
Penn-American Plate Glass Co. v. Harshaw, Fuller & Goodwin Co., 90 N.E. 1047, 46 Ind. App. 645, 1910 Ind. App. LEXIS 146 (Ind. Ct. App. 1910).

Opinion

Myers, C. J.

Tbe appellee in tbe court below, upon a complaint in two paragraphs, recovered a judgment against appellant for $411.75. Appellant’s demurrers to the first paragraph and tbe amended second paragraph of complaint were overruled, and these rulings are assigned as error.

The first paragraph states “that defendant is indebted to plaintiff in the sum of $381.25 for goods and merchandise sold by plaintiff to defendant, bills of particulars of which are filed with, made a part of this complaint and marked 'Exhibit A’; that said sum is now due and wholly unpaid, and judgment is demanded. ‘Exhibit A’ was as follows:

[647]*647“Harshaw, Fuller & Goodwin Company sold to Penn-American Plate Glass Co.
December 16, 1905,
1-Bbl. Powd “F” Double Washed Saxony Manganese 908 pounds @ 2{c pound........... $20.43
December 13, 1905,
21 kegs arsenic
11,522
420
11,102 pounds @ 3Jc pound.......... 360.82
$381.25.”

Against this paragraph it is argued (1) that it does not show a delivery of the goods, but merely a contract of sale; (2) that it does not show.a performance; or a readiness and willingness to perform the contract on the part of plaintiff.

1. 2. The strength of the pleading before us is to be tested by the rule that omitted facts are to be considered as adverse to the pleader, “under the general presumption that a party will set forth all the facts favorable to his case.” Cushman v. Cloverland Coal, etc., Co. (1908), 170 Ind. 402, 16 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1078, 127 Am. St. 402. The paragraph in question proceeds upon the theory of a sale and delivery of certain goods by the seller to the purchaser. There is no allegation that the goods were ever furnished.

In the case of Bricey v. Irwin (1890), 122 Ind. 51, it is said: “It is not sufficient, where the action is for services rendered or goods furnished, to state, by way of recital, that the services and goods were of a designated valúe, but it must be directly averred as a traversable fact that the services were rendered and that the goods were furnished. It cannot be possible that a complaint to recover for the value of services rendered or goods furnished, can be good, on demurrer, without a direct averment of per[648]*648formance, and where there is no allegation that the services were rendered or that the goods were furnished, there is no averment of performance.”

If this paragraph be considered as counting upon the recovery of the contract price of the goods alleged to have been sold to appellee, it fails to state facts within the principle reaffirmed in the case of Fell v. Muller (1881), 78 Ind. 507, 512, where it is said: ‘ ‘ ‘ It is conceived that in all cases of contracts for the sale of personal property, where it has any market value, the vendor, before he can recover of the vendee the .contract price, must have delivered the property to the vendee, or have done such acts as vested the title in the vendee, or would have vested the title in him, if he had consented to'accept it; for the law will not tolerate the palpable injustice of permitting the vendor to hold the property and also to recover the price of it.’ [Pittsburgh, etc., R. Co. v. Heck (1875), 50 Ind. 303]”

The rule seems to be that in an action by the seller of personal property as upon a sale and delivery, he must allege and prove not only a sale, but delivery as well; for until there is a delivery of the goods sold, or an excuse shown exempting the seller from making a delivery, there is a lack of performance of the contract upon the seller’s part. Indianapolis, etc., R. Co. v. Maguire (1878), 62 Ind. 140; Hayden v. Demets (1873), 53 N. Y. 426; Gaar, Scott & Co. v. Fleshman (1906), 38 Ind. App. 490; Gardner v. Caylor (1900), 24 Ind. App. 521; Dwiggins v. Clark (1884), 94 Ind. 49, 48 Am. Rep. 140.

3. So far as appears from the pleading in question, the contract of sale was an oral one, and the contract price exceeded the sum of $50. And, as has been suggested, there is no allegation in the complaint taking the contract out of the statute of frauds. §7469 Bums 1908, §4910 R. S. 1881. See Porter v. Patterson (1908), 42 Ind. App. 404. For the reasons suggested, appellant’s [649]*649demurrer to the first paragraph of the complaint should have been sustained.

4. The amended second paragraph of complaint alleges that appellant and appellee entered into a contract, in writing, by letters and correspondence during the months of October, November and December, 1905, by the terms of which contract appellee agreed to sell and deliver to appellant 11,102 pounds of arsenic at three and one-fourth cents per pound; that by the terms of said agreement appellant is indebted to appellee for such goods and merchandise in the sum of $381.25; that said sum is wholly due and unpaid. Copies of letters, alleged to have been written by each party to the other, are made a part of this paragraph by exhibit. These letters show a proposal on the! part of appellee to furnish appellant twenty-five kegs of arsenic “f. o. b. Cleveland at $3.25 per hundred, net 30, 1 per cent, 10,” and that appellant accepted appellee’s proposal.

Appellant insists that the demurrer to this paragraph should have been sustained, for the reason that it fails to set forth the essential terms of the contract; that it fails to show that the letters so written were enclosed'in an envelope, directed, stamped and mailed to and received by the parties for whom they were intended, and that it fails to allege performance on the part of appellee. None of these objections is well taken. The transaction between the parties is stated in the body of the complaint in general terms. The alleged written instrument is made a part of it, and may be considered to relieve it from the defect of uncertainty. Deane v. Indiana Macadam, etc., Co. (1903), 161 Ind. 371.

The several letters from one party to the other appear to have been signed, and, combined, constituted the written contract relied on by appellant, and, together, made up the written instrument containing all the essential elements of [650]*650a contract (Justice v. Lang [1870], 42 N. Y. 493, 1 Am. Rep. 576), which was the foundation of the action. Considering the letters as expressing the terms of sale and purchase between the parties, and being a part of the complaint, they speak for themselves in aid of the general allegations as to the terms of the contract.

As was said in the case of Mercer v. Herbert (1872), 41 Ind. 459, 462: “When a pleading is founded upon a written instrument, and a copy is referred to in, and filed with, such pleading, it becomes a part thereof, and in determining the sufficiency of such pleading, such instrument is regarded and treated as composing a part thereof. Wlien an instrument is thus made a part of a pleading, it speaks for itself, and it is not incumbent on the pleader to state the substance thereof.” See, also, Blount v. Rick (1886), 107 Ind. 238, 243; Miller v.

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Bluebook (online)
90 N.E. 1047, 46 Ind. App. 645, 1910 Ind. App. LEXIS 146, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/penn-american-plate-glass-co-v-harshaw-fuller-goodwin-co-indctapp-1910.