St. Joseph Loan & Trust Co. v. Studebaker Corp.

66 F.2d 151, 1933 U.S. App. LEXIS 2572
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedJune 30, 1933
DocketNos. 4813, 4878
StatusPublished

This text of 66 F.2d 151 (St. Joseph Loan & Trust Co. v. Studebaker Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
St. Joseph Loan & Trust Co. v. Studebaker Corp., 66 F.2d 151, 1933 U.S. App. LEXIS 2572 (7th Cir. 1933).

Opinion

SPARKS, Circuit Judge

(after stating the tacts as above).

We are first met with appellee’s contention that appellants’ bill of exceptions is not properly in the record. That contention is based on the assumption that the time for presenting and filing it expired on July 20, 1932, and was not enlarged, and the hill was not signed by the court until October 6, 1932. The record, however, shows that on July 20, at the request of both parties, the time was enlarged to August 20, 1932. The bill had been served and filed on July 30, but in the meantime, the ease had been docketed in this court on July 20. Hence when the bill was presented to the trial court for approval, the judge declined to grant it for the reason that that court was without jurisdiction. On October 1, 1932, on appellants’ motion, the cause was remanded by this court to the District Court, and time to settle and certify the bill of exceptions was enlarged to October 28, 1932. It was signed by the trial court on October 6, and the ease was redocketed in this court, and the transcript filed on the following day. All of this occurred prior to the expiration of the term at which judgment was rendered. Under these circumstances we hold the hill of exceptions to be properly in the record.

It is first contended by appellants that the court erred in not allowing a portion of its claim for the hauling of dirt which it alleges was due under the contract in addition to the allowances made by the court. This contention involves a construction of the words “haul average” and “overhaul” as used respectively in items IS and 2B in Schedule A of the contract. Appellee epntended, and the trial court held that “average haul” meant 2,500 feet as an average for the total hauls,, and that “overhaul” meant any haul in excess of the average haul, and that those terms applied to all dirt excavated from the race track proper, and also from the borrow pit. In other words, if the total length of all the hauls did not average more than 2,500 feet for each haul then there would be no overhaul. However, if the total hauls averaged more than 2,500 feet for each haul, then the Contractor was to be paid in addition to seventy cents for each cubic yard excavated and hauled, the further sum of two cents per cubic yard for each 100 feet the dirt was. hauled in excess of the average haul of 2,500 feet. Appellants argue that the word “average” was used by the parties in the sense of maximum, and that the word “overhaul” was erroneously used in item 2B of the contract instead of “haul over” as used in item 2A o£ Exhibit B of the proposals, and that it was intended by the parties to mean any haul. Under that interpretation appellants contend that appellee -was obligated to pay Contractor seventy cents for each cubic yard of earth excavated from the race track and hauled not over 2,500 feet, and in ease any of the earth excavated from the race track was hauled more than 2,500 feet, the Contractor was to receive an additional sum of two cents for each cubic yard for each 100 feet the earth was hauled in excess of the 2,500 feet. With reference to the borrow pit, appellants contend that under item 2S of the contract the Contractor was entitled to seventy cents for each cubic yard excavated, and inasmuch as there was no express limitation of hauling distance in that item, they insist that under item 2B of the contract the Contractor was entitled to receive two cents per cubic' yard for each 100 feet the earth was hauled regardless of the distance.

In order to clarify the intention of the parties, the trial court admitted in evidence the Contractor’s original proposals in which,, as shown in Exhibit B, the words now in controversy, or their variants, were first used by the Contractor. In the proposals the words “haul average of 2,500 feet” applied to all excavations both from the speed track and the borrow pits at a price of seventy cents per cubic yard for each unit; and item 2A was “for hauls over 2,500 feet mass average” at a price of two cents per cubic yard. Appellants insist, however, that the words “hauls over” in the proposal were erroneously changed to “over-haul” in the contract, although in all other respects the changes were intentional. They further claim that the limitation of 2,500 feet and the words “haul average” and “overhaul” cannot be applied to any items or units of the contract except those in which they appear. With these contentions we are not in accord. There is no evidence to support the contention that the parties used the word “average” in the sense of maximum, and they are not synonymous in any respect. We see no reason why the word “average” should not be given its plain, ordinary meaning, and when used in the combination of words and figures, “excavation * * * haul average 2,500' feet 70 cents per cubic yard,” we think it means that ap[156]*156pellee was to pay Contractor seventy cents per cubic yard for each yard excavated where the average haul of the entire amount did not exceed 2,500 feet. See Long v. Ottumwa Railway & Light Co., 162 Iowa 11, 142 N. W. 1008. That intention is quite manifest in the proposals submitted by the Contractor, and it was therein expressly applied to all excavations in the special borrow pits as well as in the race track.

We think the intention of the parties was the same when they executed the contract, for unless this be true, items 2H, 2S, and 2B of the contract are unintelligible. Especially is this true if, as appellants insist, each item or unit is to be literally construed without reference to any other item. Appellants, moreover, are not entirely consistent in demanding such a literal construction, for in their interpretation of the items last mentioned which deal with “special borrow” and “over haul,” they freely and correctly use the word “excavation” from item IS when in fact that word nowhere appears in the items which they thus seek to interpret. The result o'f appellants’ construction, if correct, would be to allow the contractor seventy cents for each cubic yard excavated from the borrow pits, and the additional sum of two cents per cubic yard for each 100 feet for hauling the dirt thus excavated, regardless of the distance hauled. We think appellants’ contention in this respect is not sound. It .is hardly conceivable that the parties had any such intention, in view of the fact that the Contractor had proposed to excavate and haul the dirt from the borrow pits at the same price as from the bed of the track, and the record does not disclose that one was more difficult or expensive than the other. If it be conceded that the word “overhaul” was erroneously inserted in 2B of Schedule A of the contract, instead of the words “hauls over” in item 2A of Exhibit B of the proposals, we are unable to see how a correction in that respect would in any way benefit appellants, for the distinction sought to be drawn in their meanings seems to be imaginary rather than. real.

Although not expressly stated, it would seem from appellants’ argument that the words “hauls over” as used in the proposal were used by Contractor’s engineers as a compound word, with a meaning of “all hauls” when applied to excavations from the borrow pits. However, it is to be observed that “hauls over” in the proposals is not used as one word or a compound word with a technical meaning, but it is used in connection with a specified distance in the phrase, “For hauls over 2,500 feet mass average,” and clearly is not subject to any technical construction when thus used. It is also to be observed that if there were any obligation resting upon the Contractor to-haul the earth excavated from the race track in excess of 2,500 feet, and any corresponding obligation.

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Bluebook (online)
66 F.2d 151, 1933 U.S. App. LEXIS 2572, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/st-joseph-loan-trust-co-v-studebaker-corp-ca7-1933.