Stark v. George

237 S.W. 948, 1922 Tex. App. LEXIS 235
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 11, 1922
DocketNo. 8115. [fn*]
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 237 S.W. 948 (Stark v. George) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stark v. George, 237 S.W. 948, 1922 Tex. App. LEXIS 235 (Tex. Ct. App. 1922).

Opinion

DANE, J.

This suit was brought by appel-lee, R. B. George, against appellant, D. D. Stark, to recover upon two promissory notes, each for the sum of $1,345.00, dated July 23, 1917, together with interest and attorney’s fees, and for a foreclosure of a mortgage lien upon one traction engine, one oil tank, and certain other property described in the plaintiff’s petition. Both of said notes, on their face, were made payable to the order of the Twin City Company, a Minnesota corporation, and by transfer made payable to appel-lee George.

The defendant, L. D. Stark, sought to defend upon the allegations: That the notes sued upon were given as part of the purchase price of the above-mentioned property, which was sold to him by one C. S. Durham, sub-agent for appellee George, who was in such sale acting as state sales agent for the Twin City Company. That the property so sold consisted of an oil burning tractor, one set of plows and an oil tank, for which appellant agreed to pay the total sum of $4,035. That the consideration to be paid for said articles were as follows: For the tractor, ^3,300; for the plows, $608; and for the tank, $127. That notwithstanding these agreed prices, appellant actually paid to said company $1,470, cost, and executed and delivered the two notes sued upon, aggregating $2,690, and in addition thereto paid the freight on the plows, amounting to $90.72, thereby paying $215.72 in excess of the contract price. That said tractor, plows, etc., were sold under a written contract consisting of one of the printed forms of the Twin City Com-1 pany, upon the back of which was printed the following warranty:

“The seller warrants the machinery for one year to be well made of good material', and durable if used with proper care. If within one year from date of shipment, of said machinery, any' part shall fail by reason of defective maternal or workmanship, the Twin City Company will furnish a new part free of charge f. o. b. factory, provided the broken part is delivered to the factory of the said company, transportation prepaid, with satisfactory evidence that its failure was due to defective material and workmanship.
“The tractor is further warranted to develop its full rated horse power when properly operated, under favorable conditions.
“If upon three days’ trial after the said machine is first started, with proper care and under favorable conditions, it fails to work, the purchaser shall immediately give notice by registered mail or wire to the seller at its office in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and to the agent through whom it was purchased, stating wherein the machine fails, and shall allow a reasonable time for a competent man to be sent to put it in good order, and the purchaser shall render necessary and friendly assistance to t operate it. If the machine cannot then be' made to work under ordinary conditions, thc!^ purchaser shall immediately return it to sadS’1 agent in as good order as when received (te&sl cept for ordinary wear). The company wilDeRt ther furnish another machine with thfinSam?) above warranty or (at its option) all egsj) a,p,d.T notes paid on the purchase price shall be.ffl¥tte> with refunded to the purchaser, which shall' constitute a settlement in full of both buyer and seller arising out of this contract. Fail-' ure to give notice within the three days specified shall operate as an acceptance of said machine and a complete fulfillment of this warranty.
“The spark plug, magneto and belting are of standard make, and the buyer is protected by the manufacturer’s warranty only.
“The above warranty does not apply to secondhand machinery, all of which is sold without warranty of any kind.
“This instrument comprises the entire contract between the parties hereto, and any verbal representations and agreements outside of, or contradictory to, the foregoing terms and warranty are hereby agreed to be void for all purposes whatsoever.”

That had said tractor been in compliance with the warranty, it would have been of the reasonable market value of $3,300, but that in truth and in fact it was not well made, of good material, and was not durable or suitable for the purpose for which it had been purchased, and was not worth exceeding the sum of $500. That appellant had expended for repairs, which under the terms of his contract he was entitled to have furnished free of cost and which became necessary as the result of his efforts to operate the defective machine, a sum in excess of $200.

*950 Appellant sought by this pleading to offset against the notes sued upon the damages occasioned by the breach of the warranty, consisting of the difference between what the tractor was actually worth and what it would have been worth if it had been as warranted, and also the $200 expended by him in the purchase and replacement of defective parts. He also sought credit for the said sum of $215.72 excess payment. He alleged that the tractor so sold to him was not such as was warranted, in that it was defective in workmanship and material.

By his first supplemental petition appellee admitted the execution of the warranty pleaded by appellant, and alleged full compliance on the part of the seller with the terms and provisions thereof, but that the defendant L. D. Stark, had wholly failed to comply with the obligations incumbent upon him in the contract of sale and warranty, in that the contract and warranty required him to test the machine, and within three days to give to the Twin City Company, or its duly authorized agent, notice of any defects in materials or parts or that the machine was not satisfactory. That the defendant did test said machine, used it in plowing his lands, gave no notice of dissatisfaction, returned no parts to the factory, and made no complaint of any kind until after his first note fell due and about 15 months after the delivery to him of the engine in question. That by reason of the long and continued use of said machine, without complaint, the defendant had accepted the same as satisfactory, and waived any claim for a breach of the warranty and was estopped from claiming either rescission or damages for the alleged breach of warranty.

Appellant, Stark, testified that he purchased the tractor in controversy from one C. S. Durham, subagent of George, for which he executed the two notes in part payment; that the tractor worked all right when he first got it, and did so for about three weeks; that Durham worked with them a few days, and taught appellant’s son how to run the engine; that after the first two weeks they did a good deal of work with the tractor, and that it worked all the fall' of 1917, but that they had a good deal of trouble with it, and they had Mr. Boren,- a hired man, to work on it and fix it when it got out of repair; that the principal trouble he had that fall was with the bearings; that to enable him to operate it that fall he had Mr. Boren, who operated it, to fix it by putting in new bearings ; that during the fall of 1917 they broke about 500 or 600 acres of very hard land with the tractor, and that in the spring of 1918 he put in 200 or 300 acres of wheat, that is, that the tractor broke about 600 acres in the fall of 1917 and 300 acres in the spring of 1918; that O. S. Durham helped him at times during the fall of 1917 and spring of 1918 when anything got wrong with the tractor, and that when he wanted any piece or part of the machinery Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
237 S.W. 948, 1922 Tex. App. LEXIS 235, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stark-v-george-texapp-1922.