Punteney-Mitchell Manufacturing Co. v. T. G. Northwall Co.

97 N.W. 1040, 70 Neb. 688, 1904 Neb. LEXIS 315
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 6, 1904
DocketNo. 13,291
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 97 N.W. 1040 (Punteney-Mitchell Manufacturing Co. v. T. G. Northwall Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Punteney-Mitchell Manufacturing Co. v. T. G. Northwall Co., 97 N.W. 1040, 70 Neb. 688, 1904 Neb. LEXIS 315 (Neb. 1904).

Opinion

Barnes, O.

During the season of 1898 the plaintiff, Punteney-Mitehell Manufacturing Company of Kansas City, Missouri, sold and delivered to the defendant, the T. G. Northwall Company of Omaha, Nebraska, ten Diamond corn cultivators at $10 each, and forty-three Diamond disc cultivators at $15 each. The defendant was a jobber of agricultural implements, and the evidence shows that the goods were [689]*689bought for the sole purpose of resale to. retail dealers, which purpose was known to the plaintiff at the time of said purchase and sale. The cultivators were warranted to be first class in quality and construction, and it was represented that they would do the Avork for which they were intended, as Avell as any other first class cultivators. It was also understood, at the time the contract was made, that the disc cultivators should be resold to the trade at from $19 to $20 each. A considerable number of these cultiAators were, at the defendant’s request, shipped direct to retail dealers, rvhile the others were delivered to the defendant at Omaha; and it appears that all of them were resold to retail dealers at $19 each. It was soon discovered that the disc cultivators Avere defective in material and construction, and would not do the work for Avhich they were designed, and they were all returned to the defendant, Avho, in turn, tendered back forty-two of them to the plaintiff. The Diamond corn cultivators gave entire satisfaction to the persons purchasing them, and for these the plaintiff was entitled to receive from the defendant the sum of $100. This suit was brought in the district court for Douglas county to recover the full price of all of the cultivators. The defendant, in its answer, alleged a credit of $25.61 on account of an overcharge of freight, which was conceded by the plaintiff. It also pleaded, as a counterclaim, damages to the amount of $35.50 for freight charges, Avhich were agreed upon, and the further sum of $168 loss of profits on the resale of forty-two disc cultivators by reason of a breach of warranty. The case was tried to a jury and resulted in a verdict and judgment for the defendant for $62.10. The plaintiff prosecuted error, and on the hearing in this court the judgment was reversed and the cause remanded for a new trial. Punteney-Mitchell Mfg. Co. v. Northwall Co., 66 Neb. 5. By our former decision, all questions relating to the breach of warranty and the sufficiency of the offer to return the cultivators in question were disposed of, so nothing was left for trial but the question of damages. [690]*690After the mandate was returned, the cause was again tried in the district court for Douglas county, without the intervention of a jury, and the defendant had judgment for $149.47, from which the plaintiff again prosecutes' error.

But one question is presented for our consideration and that is the correct rule of damages to be applied to the facts above stated. The trial court found that “It was expressly understood that the Diamond disc cultivators were to be sold by defendant to retailers at $19 to $20 a cultivator, and the same were so sold and delivered to the retail dealers at the price of $19 each,” and the court thereupon held that the defendant was entitled to recover the sum of $4 as his profit on the resale of each of the cultivators. It is now contended by the plaintiff that the evidence does not sustain the finding of the trial court above quoted, and that the profits above mentioned were not a proper element of damages. We will dispose of the first point before we determine the question of the measure of damages.

T. Gf. Northwall, the president of the defendant company, testified as follows:

Q. You may describe, in your own way, the conversation you had Avith Mr. Peacock, the agent of the plaintiff, and the time Avhen you had the conversation.
A. My recollection is that it Avas in January of 1898, early part of January; the exact words of the conversation I could not give; it was in reference to the contract, or the making of a contract Avith. Punteney-Mitchell Manufacturing Company for some disc cultivators and some Diamond listing cultivators; the details Avere gone over about the work they avouM do, and the work they would do in comparison with any other first class goods of the same class; also in reference to the selling price, Avhich Avas agreed on to be from $19 to $20 to the dealer, Avhich Avas based on the average price of the same class of goods of other make.
Q. Hoav many of these Diamond disc cultivators did your firm sell to the dealers in the spring of 1898?
A. Forty-three.
Q. At what price?
[691]*691A. $19. I wish to add that there might possibly have been some sold at $20, but if there were it was some single case; none were sold for less than $19.
Q. And none were bargained to be sold at less than $19?
A. No, sir.
Q. It Avas stipulated and agreed between you and the Punteney-Mitcliell Manufacturing Company that none should be sold for less than $19?
A. It was not provided, in the contract; it Avas gone over the same as is always done Avith the factory in making a contract Avith the factory what the goods should be sold at.
Q. There was no contract made except the Arerbal contract you speak of?
A. No contract made on the price; no.
' Q. It Avas agreed betAveen you and the Punteney-Mitcliell Manufacturing Company that you should sell none for less than $19 ?
A. It Avas agreed” that the price they should be sold at should be $19 or $20. If Ave chose to sell for $15 I presume Ave could have done so, or sold for $25. It Avas agreed that the profits should be based on $19 to $20.
Q. All these forty-three cultivators which Avere returned to you Avere sold for $19 each?
A. They Avere sold for $19 or more, possibly some Avent at $20.

This evidence is not disputed or questioned in any manner, and it seems to be sufficient to sustain the finding complained of.

We come noAV to the question of damages. It may be stated at the outset, that Ave are firmly committed to the rule that “Damages in the nature of anticipated profits on conjectured, expected or hoped for sales can not be recovered. Such damages are too speculative, remote and consequential; they lack the element of certainty necessary to authorize a recovery therefor.” Silurian Mineral Springs Co. v. Kuhn & Co., 65 Neb. 646. This is our latest expression on this question, and is the result of our holdings in numerous other cases of a like nature. We approve of [692]*692these decisions, and shall not attempt to question the correctness of this rule in the present opinion. We are also committed as firmly to another rule,-that what are sometimes denominated consequential damages, but which were in contemplation of the parties when the, contract was made, may be recovered in an action for a breach of warranty, if they are certain and determinate in their nature or amount, or can be rendered so by evidence, and are directly attributable to the breach of the contract as their cause. This question was before the court in Burr v.

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Bluebook (online)
97 N.W. 1040, 70 Neb. 688, 1904 Neb. LEXIS 315, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/punteney-mitchell-manufacturing-co-v-t-g-northwall-co-neb-1904.