Southwest Industrial Products, Inc. v. Entz

1962 OK 245, 376 P.2d 608, 1962 Okla. LEXIS 510
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedNovember 13, 1962
DocketNo. 39575
StatusPublished

This text of 1962 OK 245 (Southwest Industrial Products, Inc. v. Entz) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Southwest Industrial Products, Inc. v. Entz, 1962 OK 245, 376 P.2d 608, 1962 Okla. LEXIS 510 (Okla. 1962).

Opinion

BLACKBIRD, Vice Chief Justice.

In this action instituted by defendant in error, hereinafter referred to as plaintiff, he sought an accounting of such sums as due him under arrangements with plaintiff in error, hereinafter referred to as defendant, whereby said defendant corpora-ration, among other things, purchased, and was to pay him for, patent rights for certain equipment related to stone cutting.

The defendant corporation was organized, as contemplated in negotiations between plaintiff and a Mr. McCandless, to purchase two companies, plaintiff controlled, by the names of “Southwest Industries, Inc.”, and “Industrial Products, Inc.”, and, in whose names he had been manufacturing and marketing the articles covered by the patents.

The original “Purchase Contract” between plaintiff and defendant, dated November 20, 1956, provided generally that defendant would take over the manufacturing and marketing under said patents, and that it would pay plaintiff, for his assignment to it of the patents and all rights thereunder, a royalty of 10% of the “gross sales” of all machines and parts sold by it, its agents or assigns, until the sum of $136,-000.00 had been paid; and it further provided that thereafter, and until September 11, 1973, the royalty would be 2½% of “gross sales”.

In said contract’s paragraph “3”, defendant agreed to keep records reflecting all such sales, and agreed that said records, and/or books, would be open to inspection by plaintiff, his agents or assigns. The contract’s paragraph “5” provided that, within two months after the closing of its books at the end of each fiscal year, defendant would render plaintiff a full statement of the gross sales upon which such royalties were payable, and would pay him all accrued and unpaid royalties. By an ancillary contract, defendant agreed that it would also pay plaintiff a commission of 10% on all of the patented articles he sold for it, and, among other provisions of the purchase contract, its paragraph “7” provided :

“Gross sales as used herein shall be based on billings made by th corporation, less returns when made, including collections from lease-purchase and rental contracts, and royalty shall be predicated on actual collections, irrespective of any sales commissions paid or due to he paid.” (Emphasis ours.)

Thereafter, defendant supplemented its operating capital by making certain arrangements with two finance companies. The first of these arrangements was made with the Sequoyah Investment Company of Tulsa, and is evidenced by a letter dated October 25, 1957, which was modified by a subsequent letter dated January 9, 1958. Another and later arrangement was made with CIT Corp., evidenced by a letter from defendant to that corporation, dated August 3, 1958. The effect, if any, of the operation of these arrangements (which defendant refers to as “financing” agreements), on the operation of the above described Purchase Contract, and a later one superseding it on [610]*610February Í, 1959, and the amount of royalties, if any, to which plaintiff is entitled under each contract, is a major issue in the present controversy.

Defendant’s position, in regard thereto, is that, in transferring to the finance companies, in return for their money, the promissory notes certain of its customers had executed and delivered to it in purchasing some of the patented equipment, it was merely entering into “loan” transactions, or “borrowing” money on the notes. Plaintiff contends, however, that these transactions constituted “actual collections” on “gross sales”, as those terms were used in the above described Purchase Contract, and that, under said contract, he was entitled to royalty (at the rate provided in the contract) on said “collections” at the time they were made.

Another issue at the trial pertained to sales of machines, and/or equipment, in the closing of which sales defendant accepted from its customers, old machines and/or equipment, and allowed them credits therefor as “trade-ins”, which credits were deducted from the billing price of the new equipment sold. Plaintiff contended that, ■ under the original contract between the parties, such credits should be considered the equivalent of cash, in computing his royalty on “gross sales”. On the other hand, defendant-'took the position that the total of the gross sales, on which plaintiff was .entitled to royalty, should be reduced by the amount of such credits. Defendant further contended that plaintiff was entitled to no royalty on the re-sale of such “trade-ins”, while plaintiff contended that he was so entitled. He conceded, however, that he was entitled to no royalty on such sales after the original contract was superseded by the later one of February, 1959.

Another question involved in the controversy pertained to the proper means of ascertaining the correct amount of plaintiff’s royalty, on sales of patented articles, where, because of their'purchasers’ transportation of them, from defendant’s plant, to their quarries--or destinations, defendant, upon being relieved of this freight, or “hauling”, expense, deducted the amount thereof from the price collected from said purchasers.

The only other disputed question involved (as far as this appeal is concerned) was whether or not plaintiff was entitled to the specified royalty on the sale of “End Cutters” and “Masonry Cutters”.

Along with other evidence adduced at the trial, defendant, for the purpose of attempting to support its proposition concerning the meaning of the term “Gross Sales” as used in the original contract, elicited testimony from Mr. S (one of defendant’s attorneys, stockholders and directors) contemplated to show certain conditions about the market for the patented articles, and circumstances pertaining to defendant’s sale of them, at the time said contract was entered into. On motion of plaintiff, this testimony was stricken.

To support his position, plaintiff introduced certain documentary evidence, including copies of the defendant’s income tax returns and a firm of accountants’ annual audits of defendant’s books to show that defendant, itself, had considered, as valid obligations, liabilities and/or expenses, some of the royalties plaintiff was seeking to collect.

At the close of the evidence, the trial court rendered judgment in plaintiff’s favor, setting forth, in the journal entry thereof, its findings as to the principal phases of the controversy in separately numbered and entitled paragraphs.

Under paragraph “II”, entitled “FINANCE CONTRACTS”, the court found, in substance, that the term “gross sales” as it had been used, and interpreted, by the parties prior to November 1, 1959, included all amounts evidenced by “ * * * lease purchase contracts, instruments, contracts or other deferred payment contracts”; and that royalties on sales made under such contracts were due and payable the same as if they had been cash sales. The part of the judgment based on this paragraph of the findings was the sum of [611]*611$9,902.35, with interest thereon at 6% per annum from November 1, 1959.

In the judgment’s paragraph “III”, entitled “TRADE-INS AND SALES OF MACHINES ACQUIRED AS TRADE-INS”, the court found that under the parties’ contracts of November 20, 1956, and February 1, 1959, allowances for trade-ins should be treated as cash, in determining the royalties due plaintiff; and that, under the first of these contracts, unpaid royalty in the sum of $2,900.00 had accrued to plaintiff by November 1, 1958, on sales of such trade-ins.

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Bluebook (online)
1962 OK 245, 376 P.2d 608, 1962 Okla. LEXIS 510, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southwest-industrial-products-inc-v-entz-okla-1962.