Schuller v. Robison

139 A.D. 97, 123 N.Y.S. 881, 1910 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2131
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedJune 24, 1910
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 139 A.D. 97 (Schuller v. Robison) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Schuller v. Robison, 139 A.D. 97, 123 N.Y.S. 881, 1910 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2131 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1910).

Opinions

Laughlin, J.:

At the close of the plaintiff’s case, on motion of counsel for the defendants, the court dismissed the complaint as against the defendant Seine Robinson. The plaintiff does not seek to review that dismissal on this appeal, but he contends that if the judgment be reversed and a new trial be granted as against the other 'defendant, the judgment for costs in favor of the defendant Seine Robinson should also be reversed. It appears that the action is brought on a liability of the copartnership firm of Gr. Robinson & Son. It is alleged in the complaint that Gr. Robinson died and that the defendant Seine Robinson is, now a member of the firm. There is no allegation or proof that she was a member of the firm at the time the liability arose, or that she assumed the obligations of the firm, but it appears that she answered jointly with the other defendant, and, therefore, by the express provisions of section 3229 of the Code of Civil Procedure, if the plaintiff recovered in the action, she would not have been entitled to costs. If the dismissal of the complaint as against .her ipso facto constituted a severance of the action, or the true construction of said section 3229 be that it has reference to the.rights of the parties as they appear at the time judgment is originally éntered, then, doubtless, the judgment may be permitted to stand in her favor unaffected, by. subsequent proceedings. We have held that' where the cause of action is severable .and [99]*99the parties might be severally liable, and the complaint is dismissed as to one defendant and there is a disagreement as to the others, the one in whose favor the complaint was dismissed may enter judgment on the theory that the act of the court constitutes a severance of the action. (Tanzer v. Breen, 131 App. Div. 654. See, also, Code Civ. Proc. §§ 456, 1204, 1205; Draper v. Interborough Rapid Transit Co., No. 2, 124 App. Div. 357.) Since, however, the parties answered jointly, and the general rule is that only one judgment may be entered in an action at law, it would seem that the right of the respondent Seine Bobinson to costs must ultimately depend on whether plaintiff succeeds in the action, but of course the dismissal as to her stands.

The action is on an assigned claim of the Kunstseide-Yerkaufskontor, a limited liability corporation of Cologne, Germany, on a liability of the copartnership firm of G. Bobinson & Son of Sew York city, and it is now an action against Louis Bobinson alone on said liability, and for brevity he will be referred to as the defendant, although, as has been .seen, there are two defendants. At the close of the evidence the learned justice directed a verdict in favor of the defendant and an exception was duly taken. On uncontroverted facts, in the main formally stipulated, questions arise with respect to whether the plaintiff is debarred from maintaining the action on' the ground that there was an accord and satisfaction between the parties, and if not, then with respect to the extent of the liability of the defendant,

Prior to the 28th day of June, 1906, a verbal contract was made between the plaintiff’s assignor and defendants at the city of Cologne by which the former agreed to sell and the latter agreed to purchase 5,000 kilos of artificial silk at the price of fifteen marks per kilo, “to be delivered in part shipments as requested by the purchaser prior to the end of the year 1906,” and it was further agreed that should' the plaintiff’s assignor “ reduce the price for artificial silk for America under similar conditions, such reduced price should be applied to the uncalled for balance of the order.” The sales agent of the plaintiff’s assignor also undertook to procure for said firm 1,500 kilos of meteor, which is artificial horsehair. There had been prior dealings between the parties! It is stated in the stipulated facts that on the 2Sth day of July, 1906 -—I presume [100]*100the twenty-eighth day of June was intended — the plaintiff’s assignor inclosed to defendants by mail two sales memoranda with respect to the artificial silk and the meteor, in accordance with the ¡d a rol agreement. These memoranda of sales and the stationery used by the plaintiff’s assignor in its correspondence with said firm contained a.memorandum in German which iii English isas follows: “ Cable address, Kunstseide. Lieber’s Code. ABC Code, Fifth Edition.” All cablegrams between the parties were in the cipher of the ABC Code, Fifth Edition. On the 13th day of July, 1906, • the defendants cabled plaintiff’s assignor as follows: “Majorquin can use ponzia each tubize blue label piamater deepsome recondes.” This cablegram when given the meaning df the code words was as follows: “ The market appears to . have collapsed. Can use 10 cases, each tubize bluelabel. 13 marks. Immediate delivery. Reply immediately by A B O Code, 6th Edition.” The word piamater meant, according to said code, thirteen marks. On the day tlie cablegram .was sent defendants wrote plaintiff’s assignor that the market appeared to have collapsed and that, they could “ use 10 cases each tubize and bluelabel at M. 13. Immediate delivery. Reply immediately A. B. O.. Code, 6th Edition,” and expressed the hope that the offer-would be accepted inasmuch as the goods were being sold here for two dollars per pound and had been offered lower, and that the cutting of prices was done by some of plaintiff’s assignor’s old customers. This letter was not delivered in Cologne until the 24th day-of July, 1906. The cablegram was delivered to plaintiff’s assignor the next .day after it was sent, and in -it as delivered the word “ pramater” was used instead of “ piamater,” and that word was not in said code and was meaningless, but plaintiff’s assignor made no effort to ascertain what the mistake wás. . On the ninth day of July the defendants wrote plaintiff’s assignor inclosing a draft in.payment for certain bills not under this contract, and requested a shipment at once of “ 500 Kilo Tubize roll 150'Denier,” and which evidently was to be under this contract therein stated that the goods of the plaintiff’s assignor, both in artificial silk and meteor were “being sold by our competitors at and below cost, figuring, artificial silk at M. 15 and Metéor at M. 20 per kilo, which as you know, is what the goods cost us. We will write,more about this in our next letter.”’ It does not appear when this letter was [101]*101delivered, but it is stipulated that the usual period of transmission by ordinary course of mail was from eight to twelve days. On the sixteenth day of July the defendant cabled to plaintiff’s assignor: “ Please wire reply to our telegram of last Friday. Cannot take orders unless yon accept,” and the message was delivered the next day. On the day this cablegram was received, plaintiff’s assignor cabled defendants as follows: “ 10 cases bluelable, 5 cases tubize to-day, 5 cases by steamer next week.” On the eighteenth day of July plaintiff’s assignor wrote defendants with respect to the cablegram and this shipment, but did not refer to the meaningless word in the cablegram. After receiving the cablegram of July seventeenth, and before the twenty-fifth of'the same month, the defendants relying thereon and expecting to receive, not only the twenty cases ordered by cable, but further consignments at thirteen marks instead of fifteen marks per kilo, contracted to sell 3,800 kilos of artificial silk. On July twenty-fifth the defendants cabled plaintiff’s assignor as follows: “ How and when were the goods shipped?. Telegraph name of steamer. Repeat last order. You may ship by first steamer.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
139 A.D. 97, 123 N.Y.S. 881, 1910 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2131, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/schuller-v-robison-nyappdiv-1910.