Standard Oil Co. of Indiana v. Amiesite Asphalt Co. of Kansas City

25 F.2d 666, 1928 U.S. App. LEXIS 3048
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedApril 3, 1928
DocketNo. 7883
StatusPublished

This text of 25 F.2d 666 (Standard Oil Co. of Indiana v. Amiesite Asphalt Co. of Kansas City) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Standard Oil Co. of Indiana v. Amiesite Asphalt Co. of Kansas City, 25 F.2d 666, 1928 U.S. App. LEXIS 3048 (8th Cir. 1928).

Opinion

VAN VALKENBURGH, Circuit Judge.

Defendant in error, hereinafter designated as plaintiff, is a Missouri corporation engaged, at Kansas City, Mo., in the business of manufacturing, compounding, and selling material for use in the construction of paved roadways. In this material, known as Amie-site, asphalt is an essential constituent. Pri- or to July 7,' 1925, plaintiff had been using a Mexican asphalt called “Norco,” a New Orleans Mexican Company product. On that date it entered into a written contract with the plaintiff in error, hereinafter designated as defendant, whereby it agreed to buy from defendant such petroleum products therein named as it might need for use in its plant or plants at Kansas City from July 6, 1925, until December 31,1925. The products named are thus specifically described:

“Quantity. Price.
“850 Tons 80-90 penetration Stanolind paving asphalt..........'........$18.50
“P. o. b. Sugar Creek.
“(80-90 penetration Stanolind paving asphalt to be obtained from Wood River, HI., at $18.50 per ton f. o. b. Wood River until July 20, 1925.)”

The seller agreed to furnish the products named on the terms and at the price stated, guaranteeing the same to be uniform in quality and at all times up to its (defendant’s) [667]*667standards. Plaintiff’s reasons for entering into this contract are thus stated by its president: “I wanted to buy Standard asphalt for this reason: That they have a general sales organization, and they stated, if I would buy Standard,. they would promote the sale of my manufactured product. The people that I was buying from had no sales organization. * * * There was this further benefit buying from the Standard; they had a plant at Sugar Creek. I was buying from New Orleans. I could get two days’ service from Sugar Creek, and it took nine to ten days from New Orleans.”

Sugar Creek is near Kansas City, and the reduced freight charge was an additional consideration. The contract provided for supply from Wood River, Ill., for a brief period until the Sugar Creek plant should be in full operation. With that provision we are not here concerned. Two cars were shipped by defendant from Sugar Creek, and it is claimed by plaintiff that the asphalt product delivered would not cohere with the other material employed in the Amiesite process, and that the resulting mixture was a failure for paving purposes. There was much testimony to support this allegation. Whether this failure was due to inherent defect in the asphalt, or to change in plaintiff’s mixing process, whereby the asphalt was rendered more fluid by the addition of a lighter oil as a liquifier, was a matter of conflict in the testimony, apparently resolved against defendant by the jury.

In its petition plaintiff charged generally that at the sale of these cars defendant warranted the same to be as good or better than the Mexican asphalt which had previously been used by the Amiesite Company, and that, with knowledge of the nature of plaintiff’s business, defendant warranted the asphalt it was selling to be adapted to the purposes for which the product was being bought and used. It was alleged by plaintiff that the asphalt purchased of the Standard Company was a failure for paving purposes; that plaintiff lost what it had paid for the asphalt, for the materials used in the mixture, its expense in disposing of what was left on hand, and the demurrage paid on cars of Mexican asphalt, which could not be unloaded until the alleged worthless material had thus been removed. The suit originally was for $8,856.42.

The defendant oil company by its answer stated that the asphalt was sold under a written contract which provided for the sale of 850 tons 80-90 penetration Stanolind paving asphalt, price $18.50 f. o. b. Sugar Creek. It further alleged that the two cars in question were furnished under this written contract, which contained no warranty of the nature sued on. It also interposed a counterclaim, about which there is no dispute, and which need not further be considered. To this answer no reply was filed; but at the trial it was contended that, having heard that a ear of this same character of asphalt, shipped to Kansas City, Kan., had been found to be unadapted to the purpose for which it was shipped, plaintitff advised the oil company that it would not accept shipments under the contract; that thereafter it was assured by the sales agent of defendant that the asphalt was guaranteed or warranted to do the work required; that plaintiff was thereby induced to enter upon what it termed a now contract to buy two ears under this warranty and entirely independently of the original written contract. It therefore sued for breach of warranty alleged to bo contained in this later contract. The court’s charge embraced a submission o£ this theory of plaintiff. The jury returned a verdict for plaintiff in the sum of $5,697.47, to be reduced, however, by $810.85 found by agreement on the counterclaim of defendant.

The written contract does not embrace the warranty sued on. Plaintiff’s right to recover depends upon the establishment of a new oral contract which it alleges superseded and displaced the written contract and which is alleged to have contained that warranty. The evidence upon which plaintiff’s contention is based is substantially as follows:

Some time after the written contract was executed the plainttiff company heard that a car of defendant’s asphalt, shipped to Kansas City, Kan., had proved unsatisfactory for the paving purposes for which it was intended. It does not appear that the Kansas City, Kan., paving was to bo laid under the Amiesite process. Mr. Kealy, plaintiff’s president, left Kansas City on his wedding trip July 13, 1925, returning July 22d or 23d. Meantime defendant was on the point of shipping to plaintiff from Sugar Creek two cars of asphalt, one for Fortieth and Summit streets, in Kansas City, Mo., and one to Lees Summit, Mo. In the absence of its president, plaintiff objected to receiving these cars from Sugar Creek, because, as stated above, it had hoard that a car shipped from Sugar Creek had not given satisfaction in Kansas City, Kan. The officers in charge of the plaintiff company insisted that the matter be held in abeyance until the return of its president. After Mr. Kealy’s return, [668]*668the substance of what took place is disclosed by the following excerpts from his testimony:

“Q. Let me ask you, then, to further refresh your recollection, that, after having this matter brought to your attention, this matter at Kansas City, Kan., you did not get into communication with the Standard Oil Company, and if at your instance and request a test was not made of the asphalt by the Kansas City testing laboratory ? A. Yes ; that was after the Kansas matter was brought to my attention. '
“Q. Yes; that is, after the Kansas matter was brought to your attention, you then took it up with the Standard Oil Company? A. Yes, sir; about Sugar Creek shipments.
“Q. And they told you — you said you wanted a test made on it, and they told you that all material that went out of the refinery was tested, and you then stated there had been some observation made to you about that from Sugar Creek? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. That observation came from whom, Colonel? A. From the parties; well, the name of the individual was Mr. Kodebusch. He was the contractor.
“Q.

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Bluebook (online)
25 F.2d 666, 1928 U.S. App. LEXIS 3048, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/standard-oil-co-of-indiana-v-amiesite-asphalt-co-of-kansas-city-ca8-1928.