Seitz v. Brewers' Refrigerating MacHine Co.

141 U.S. 510, 12 S. Ct. 46, 35 L. Ed. 837, 1891 U.S. LEXIS 2540
CourtSupreme Court of the United States
DecidedNovember 9, 1891
Docket61
StatusPublished
Cited by310 cases

This text of 141 U.S. 510 (Seitz v. Brewers' Refrigerating MacHine Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of the United States primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Seitz v. Brewers' Refrigerating MacHine Co., 141 U.S. 510, 12 S. Ct. 46, 35 L. Ed. 837, 1891 U.S. LEXIS 2540 (1891).

Opinion

Mr. Chief Justice Fuller,

after stating, the case, delivered the opinion of the court.

If the defence were solely that the defendant was - induced by false and fraudulent representations to enter into the contract in question, it is conceded that the Circuit Court did not. err in directing a verdict for the plaintiff, as there was no evidence of fraud in the case. • It is earnestly contended, however, that under the answer as amended, the defendant was-entitled to avail himself of the breach of an, alleged- contract of warranty or guaranty collateral to the contract of purchase and sale; or of an implied warranty that the machine should be reasonably fit to accomplish a certain result. Assuming the sufficiency of the pleadings to enable the questions indicated to be raised, we are nevertheless of opinion that the direction of the Circuit Court was correct.

The position of plaintiff in error is, in the first place, that the evidence on his behalf tended to show an agreement between himself and defendant in error, entered into prior to or contemporaneously with the written contract, independent of the latter and collateral to it, that the machine purchased should have a certain capacity and should be capable of doing certain work; that the machine failed to come up to the requirements of such independent parol contract; that this evidence was competent; and that the case should therefore have been left to the jury.

*517 Undoubtedly the existence of a separate oral agreement as to any matter on which a written contract is silent, and which is not inconsistent with its terms, may be proven by parol, if under the circumstances of the particular case it may properly be inferred that the parties did not intend the written paper to be a complete and final statement of the whole of the transaction between them. But such an agreement must not only be collateral, but must relate to a subject distinct from that to which the written contract applies; that is, it must not be so closely connected with th¿ principal transaction as to form part and parcel of it. And when the writing itself upon its face is couched in such terms as import a complete legal obligation without any uncertainty as to the object or extent of the engagement, it is conclusively presumed that the whole engagement of the parties, and the extent and manner of their undertaking, were reduced to writing. Greenl. Ev. § 275'.

There is no pretence here of any fraud, accident or mistake. The written contract was in all respects unambiguous and definite. The machine which the company sold and which Seitz bought was a No. 2 size refrigerating machine as constructed by the company, and such was the machine which was delivered, put up and operated in the brewery.- A warranty or guaranty that that machine should reduce the temperature of the brewery to 40° Fahrenheit, while in itself collateral to the sale, which would be complete without it, would be part of the description and' essential to the identity of the thing sold; and to admit proof of such an engagement by parol would be to add another term to the written contract, contrary to the settled and salutary rule upon that subject.

Whether' the written contract fully expressed the terms of the agreement was a question for the court, and since it was in this instance complete and perfect on its face, without ambiguity, and embracing the whole subject-matter, it obviously could not be determined to be less comprehensive than it was. And this conclusion is unaffected by the fact that it did not allude to the capacity of the particular-machine. To hold that mere silence opened the door to parol evidence ir that regard would be to beg the whole question.

*518 We are clear that evidence tending to.show the alleged independent collateral contract was inadmissible. Martin v. Cole, 104 U. S. 30; Gilbert v. Moline Plough Co., 119 U. S. 491; The Delaware, 14 Wall. 579; Naumberg v. Young, 44 N. J. Law (15 Vroom) 331; Conant v. National State Bank, 121 Indiana, 323; Mast v. Pearce, 58 Iowa, 579; Thompson v. Libby, 34 Minnesota, 374; Wilson v. Deen, 74 N. Y. 531; Robinson v. McNeill, 51 Illinois, 225.

Failing in respect of the alleged express warranty, plaintiff in error contends, secondly, that there was an implied warranty, arising from the nature of the transaction, that the machine should be reasonably fit to accomplish certain results, to effect which he insists the purchase was made. It is argued that the evidence tended to establish that the plaintiff knew that the defendant had been cooling his brewery with ice, and that the object of obtaining the machine was to render unnecessary the expense of purchasing ice for that purpose; and that unless the machine would cool it to the same extent, or about the same, as the ice did, it would be worthless, so far as he was concerned. It is not denied that the machine was constructed for refrigerating purposes, and that.it worked and operated as a refrigerating machine should; but it is said that it did not so refrigerate as to reduce the temperature of the brewery to 40° Fahrenheit, or to a temperature which would enable defendant to dispense with the purchase of ice.

The rule invoked is, that where a manufacturer • contracts to supply an article which he manufactures, to be applied to a particular purpose, so that the buyer necessarily trusts to the judgment of the manufacturer, the law implies a promise or undertaking on his part that the article so manufactured and sold by him for a specific purpose, and to be used' in a particular. way, is reasonabty fit and proper for. the purpose for which he professes to make it, and for which it is’ known to be required; but it is also the rule, as expressed in the textbooks and sustained by authority, that . where a known, described and definite article is ordered of a manufacturer, although it is stated by the purchaser to be required for a particular purpose, still, if the known, • described and definite *519 thing be actually supplied, there is no warranty that it shall answer the particular purpose intended by the buyer. Benjamin on Sales, § 657; Addison on Contracts, Book II, c. vii, p. *977; Chanter v. Hopkins, 4 M. & W. 399; Ollivant v. Bayley, 5 Q. B. 288; Dist. of Columbia v. Clephane, 110 U. S. 212; Kellogg Bridge Company v. Hamilton, 110 U. S. 108; Hoe v. Sanborn, 21 N. Y. 552; Deming v. Foster, 42 N. H. 165.

■In the case at /bar the machine purchased was specifically designated in the contract, and the machine so designated was delivered, put up and put in operation in the brewery.

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Bluebook (online)
141 U.S. 510, 12 S. Ct. 46, 35 L. Ed. 837, 1891 U.S. LEXIS 2540, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/seitz-v-brewers-refrigerating-machine-co-scotus-1891.