Stiner v. Tennessee Copper Co.

176 A.D. 209, 161 N.Y.S. 986, 1916 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8342
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedDecember 1, 1916
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 176 A.D. 209 (Stiner v. Tennessee Copper Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stiner v. Tennessee Copper Co., 176 A.D. 209, 161 N.Y.S. 986, 1916 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8342 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1916).

Opinion

Laughlin, J.:

The complaint contains twelve causes of action separately stated and numbered. The 1st, 2d, 4th, 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th causes of action are to recover damages for breaches of a contract in writing made between the parties on the 1st day of September, 1915, by which defendant agreed to deliver at the plaintiffs’ works in Buffalo, N. Y., a certain quantity of sulphuric acid during each of the months of December, 1915, and the eleven succeeding months. By the express terms of the contract the shipment agreed to be made each month was to be treated as a separate and independent contract; and these causes of action are for damages for failure to deliver the quantity agreed during eight months of the period. The other causes of action are based on the same contract but they are for breaches of warranty with respect to the quality of the sulphuric acid delivered in four of the months. The ground upon which the warrant of attachment was granted is that the defendant was a foreign corporation. The grounds upon which the warrant of attachment evidently was vacated, and upon which it is sought to sustain the order, are that the moving papers fail to show that the defendant was a foreign corporation, and are insufficient to show the damages sustained by the plaintiffs by the breaches of the contract to deliver the quantity of sulphuric acid agreed to be delivered and for breaches of warranty with respect to the quality of the sulphuric acid delivered.

The complaint, which is verified, alleges, not upon informa[211]*211tion and belief, but positively, that at all the times mentioned in each cause of action the defendant was and still is a foreign corporation duly organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the State of New Jersey. The contract which is annexed to the complaint recites that the defendant is a corporation but it does not show under the laws of what State or country it was incorporated. The warrant of attachment was issued on the verified complaint, and on the affidavit of the plaintiff who verified it, and of one Gibbs who was associated with the plaintiffs. The plaintiff who made the affidavit, in his affidavit made the complaint and all the facts stated therein part of his affidavit “ with the same force and effect as though the same were fully incorporated herein; ” and again states unqualifiedly that the defendant is a foreign corporation organized under the laws of the State of New Jersey, having its principal place of business in the city of Jersey City, N. J.; and that he “has actual personal knowledge of this fact from the transactions which he had with the defendant on behalf of said firm, and from the conversations which he had with the officers of the defendant, including statements made to him by L. D. Vorce, the vice-president of the defendant.” Gibbs, in his affidavit, states that he personally conducted most of the transactions between the plaintiffs and the defendant and is thoroughly familiar with all of the dealings between them, and that he “has personal knowledge of the fact that the defendant is a foreign corporation organized under the laws of the State of New Jersey, having its principal place of business in the City of Jersey City, State of New Jersey.” It is quite clear that the allegations of the complaint and the statements in the affidavits are sufficient to show that the defendant is a corporation, for by virtue of the provisions of section 1776 of the Code of Civil Procedure the plaintiff, unless a verified answer should be interposed containing an affirmative allegation that the defendant is not a corporation, would not be required to prove that defendant is a corporation. That section of the Code of Civil Procedure was construed by this court in Steele v. Gilmour Manufacturing Company (77 App. Div. 199) as applicable to an allegation that the defendant was a foreign corporation; and on that ground we [212]*212held, in effect, that a positive averment in the complaint or in an affidavit that the defendant was a foreign corporation was sufficient to sustain an attachment on the theory that the defendant was a foreign corporation. It has been held that one of the tests for the determination of the question as to whether the papers upon which a warrant of attachment is granted are sufficient is whether the evidence presented thereby would justify a verdict for the plaintiff {Anthony & Co. v. Fox, 53 App. Div. 200); and in a well-considered opinion in Simons v. Lehigh Mills Co., Ltd. (53 Mise. Rep. 368), it was held that the positive allegations of the complaint to the effect that the defendant was a foreign corporation would warrant a recovery on that theory unless there was an affirmative allegation to the contrary in the answer. In McMahon v. Roseville Trust Co. (159 App. Div. 640) this court held, reversing an order vacating a warrant of attachment, that’an affidavit to the effect that the defendant was a corporation organized and existing under the laws of New Jersey, stating that the sources of the affiant’s knowledge and information with reference thereto was a telegram from the Commissioner of Banking and Insurance of New Jersey, a copy of which was annexed to the affidavit, and the statements of the Bankers Register ” was sufficient to sustain the attachment on the ground that the defendant was a foreign corporation. It is to be borne in mind that the affidavit by the representative of the plaintiffs who for them transacted the business with the defendant, and the affidavit of the plaintiff who verified the complaint, unqualifiedly state that the defendant’s principal office for the transaction of its business is in Jersey City. Those affidavits tend to sustain the averment that the defendant is a foreign corporation. Of course, the conversations with officers of the defendant which are not set forth have no probative force. It is somewhat difficult to present hastily for the purposes of obtaining a warrant of attachment conclusive evidence that a corporation is a foreign corporation for that would ordinarily require a duly certified copy of its certificate of incorporation; and, therefore, particularly in view of the provisions of section 1716 of the Code of Civil Procedure, to which reference has been made, the rule with respect to the [213]*213proof required that the defendant is a foreign corporation is not as stringent as that laid down by this court in Cousins v. Sclilichter (135 App. Div. 779) with respect to an individual defendant being a non-resident. I am of opinion, therefore, that the moving papers sufficiently show that the defendant is a foreign corporation to confer jurisdiction to issue the warrant of attachment.

With respect to the damages for the failure to deliver sulphuric acid the plaintiffs allege generally in each count that they sustained the amount of damages stated therein. The affidavit of the plaintiff who verified the complaint shows the number of tons which the defendant failed to deliver during the months to which each of such causes of action relates; that the market value of the acid at the time when it should have been delivered was eighty dollars per ton; and that by such failure on the part of the defendant to deliver the acid the plaintiffs have sustained damages in the sum of seventy-nine thousand seven hundred and sixty-five dollars and thirty-five cents.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
176 A.D. 209, 161 N.Y.S. 986, 1916 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8342, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stiner-v-tennessee-copper-co-nyappdiv-1916.