Siegel, King Company v. Penny Baldwin

2 S.W.2d 1082, 176 Ark. 336, 1928 Ark. LEXIS 679
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 20, 1928
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 2 S.W.2d 1082 (Siegel, King Company v. Penny Baldwin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Siegel, King Company v. Penny Baldwin, 2 S.W.2d 1082, 176 Ark. 336, 1928 Ark. LEXIS 679 (Ark. 1928).

Opinion

Smith, J.

On the 15th day of September, 1926, R. H. Baldwin, a member of a copartnership doing business as Penny & Baldwin, hereinafter réferred to as the plaintiffs, came from Searcy, where they were engaged in the performance of a paving’ contract, to appellants’ place of business in the city of Little Rock, in quest of secondhand pipe, to be used in running a water-line in connection with a paving project.

Baldwin testified that he saw Mr. Siegel, a member of appellant firm,, which is a copartnership doing business as Siegel, King & Company, hereinafter referred to as the defendants, at the defendants’ office in Little Rock. Baldwin advised Siegel that he wanted to buy enough pipe to furnish a pipe line a mile and a half or more in length, to be used in pumping water from a creek, and that sound pipe which did not leak would be required for the purpose. Siegel advised Baldwin that he could fill the order, and they went into defendants’ storage yard, where they saw several piles of pipe. No test of the pipe was made at the time.

A contract was entered into, which was evidenced by the following writing:

“Little Rook, Arkansas, September 15, 1926.
“It is hereby understood that Penny & Baldwin of Searcy, Arkansas, have this day bought of Siegel, King & Company of Little Rock, 10,560 feet of two-inch secondhand pipe, as inspected by Mr. R, II. Baldwin, at the price of $.09 per foot f. o. b. cars Little Rock.
“This pipe is to be good serviceable condition, with .no leaks from end to end.
‘ ‘ Terms: Sight draft bill of lading attached.
“Couplings are to be furnished.
“Prompt shipment.”

The pipe was loaded for shipment to Searcy, and a draft with a bill of lading attached was drawn on Penny & Baldwin, which was duly paid, and the pipe was delivered in Searcy about four days later.

When the pipe was received, Penny & Baldwin were engaged in laying brick, as called for by their paving contract, and it was three or four weeks before they required the use of the pipe line. When the construction of the pipe line was begun, it was found that fifty per cent, of the joints were worthless, and that the pipe leaked at and around the joints and between the joints so that the pipe was worthless for the purpose for which it was purchased. Such is the testimony on the part of the plaintiffs, but it was developed in the cross-examination of plaintiffs’ witnesses that only about nine hundred feet of the pipe was connected up, and it is insisted that the bad results obtained were due to the lack of skill on the part of the laborers who made the connections of the pipe joints.

Plaintiffs brought suit, and alleged that the pipe was worthless, and prayed judgment for $950.40, the' amount paid for the pipe, for $82.90 freight paid, and $50 for unloading and handling. The jury returned a verdict for $950.40, the amount of the purchase price, and from a judgment accordingly is this appeal.

Numerous errors are assigned for the reversal of the judgment, those requiring discussion being as follows : That there was no restitution or tender of the pipe within a reasonable time; that, when a tender was made, the pipe had deteriorated from exposure and could not be returned in the. condition in which it was when sold; that error was committed in refusing certain instructions; and in admitting and in excluding certain testi-' mony.

The first and most important question is, of course, whether there was a breach of the express warranty that the pipe was in good serviceable condition, with no leaks from end to end. The testimony summarized above supports the finding that there was a breach of the warranty, and the law applicable to that condition is restated in the case of Keith v. Fowler, 169 Ark. 176, 273 S. W. 706, by quoting- from the case of Courtesy Flower Co. v. Westbrook, 146 Ark. 17, 225 S. W. 3, as follows:

“ ‘The law on the subject is that, where chattels are purchased under express warranty as-to quality, the purchaser may rescind on discovering- the inferior quality of the article sold, but is not bound to dó so, and, on the contrary, may retain the articles purchased and sue on the warranty, or recoup the damages when sued for the price. In case, however, the contract is to deliver goods of a particular description or quality, without express warranty, and the purchaser accepts them after inspection and discovery of the inferior quality, or after having-had a fair opportunity to make such inspection, he waives the right to claim damages for defects or inferiority of the goods sold.’ ”

The instructions given by the court required the jury to find that the pipe was not serviceable and leaked before finding for the plaintiffs, but it is insisted that, even though the testimony supports the finding- that the pipe was not serviceable and leaked, there was no sufficient tender to the appellants of the pipe, nor was the tender made within a reasonable time.

As we have said, three or four weeks elapsed before any test of the pipe was made by attempting to use it, and, when this test was made, it was found that the pipe did not hold water, and complaint was made of that fact to defendants, who advised plaintiffs to take the pipe to a blacksmith or a plumber. Later plaintiffs took up with defendants the resale of the pipe, and defendants offered them $15 per ton for the pipe f. o. b. delivered at Little Rock. Siegel testified that the pipe would weigh about twenty tons, and that the offer for the pipe amounted to about $300, less the reloading and freight charges. The negotiations for a settlement were fruitless, and on December 21,1926, plaintiffs advised defendants that the entire contract would be rescinded and the pipe would be held in Searcy subject to the plaintiffs’ order, and Baldwin testified that the pipe was in as good condition as when shipped.

It thus appears that- three months elapsed between the date of the sale and the date of a definite announcement of an intent to rescind, and it is insisted that the court should have declared as a matter of law that this offer was not made within a reasonable time. The court told the .jury that plaintiffs could not rescind unless that offer was made within a reasonable time, and, the jury having found as a matter of fact that the offer was made within a reasonable time under all the circumstances, we are unwilling to hold to the contrary as a matter of law.

It is insisted that a rescission could not be effected without a tender of the article sold in Little Rook, but all the testimony shows that such a tender would have been refused if made, as the defendants have at all times insisted, and now. insist, that there was no breach of the warranty.

The test of the pipe which the warranty contemplated could only be made-by an attempt to use the pipe in Searcy, and, to make this test, plaintiffs were required to pay both freight and unloading charges, which items were not included in the jury’s verdict.

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Bluebook (online)
2 S.W.2d 1082, 176 Ark. 336, 1928 Ark. LEXIS 679, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/siegel-king-company-v-penny-baldwin-ark-1928.