Stranahan Bros. Catering Co. v. Coit

55 Ohio St. (N.S.) 398
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 8, 1896
StatusPublished

This text of 55 Ohio St. (N.S.) 398 (Stranahan Bros. Catering Co. v. Coit) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stranahan Bros. Catering Co. v. Coit, 55 Ohio St. (N.S.) 398 (Ohio 1896).

Opinions

Spear, J.

The questions arising on the record are: 1. Whether or not Coit is liable for the acts of Miller which produced the injury? 2. Whether or not the plaintiff’s damages,in case the jury found it' sustained damages, could embrace all the injury arising from the adulterated character of the milk delivered? 3. Tf not, whether in any view the true rule is that, in case the jury found that the milk was adultered by Miller maliciously, to injure Coit, and was without Coit’s knowledge, so delivered to the factory adulterated, plaintiff was entitled to a rebate for the water, so that Coit would be liable only for the amount of the water delivered, because it was not milk ?

The inquiry involves, primarily, a consideration of the liability of the master, although reduced to its last analysis, it is an inquiry as to the proper rule of damages. Upon the face of things it is apparent that the question regarded as the controlling one, is, whether or not Coit is in any way responsible for the acts of Miller. ,

Let us first consider what result would follow if the case made is the same as though the claimed injury had arisen from Coit’s own negligent act. What, under such circumstances, would be the proper rule?

The petition alleged a contract. It was in the nature of a proposal and acceptance, Coit proposing and ag'reeing’ to deliver at the factory milk, which should be milk of first quality, meaning, at the very least, milk not adulterated, and the com[404]*404pany assenting, and in consideration of the offer, impliedly, if not expressly, agreeing to receive and pay for such milk as should be delivered, the price of first quality milk. The acceptance of the milk so delivered was a sufficient consideration for Coit’s promise. It may be that, so far as the agreement was executory it was unilateral and, that had Coit failed to deliver any milk the company could not have recovered damages for such failure; but we need not be concerned with that consideration, for milk was delivered, and nothing can be clearer than that when Coit deliv ered he was bound by the terms of his accepted proposal. Benjamin on Sales, 51; The Great Northern Ry. Co. v. Witham, L. R. 9, C. P., 16

Inasmuch, therefore, as the evidence of plaintiff tended to sustain the allegations of the petition, the jury was justified in finding this contract. That is, a. contract by which Coit agreed to deliver milk of first class, or superior quality, i. e., pure milk and to further find that Coit had knowledge that the milk he delivered would be mixed with milk of other patrons, for the manufacture of butter and cheese in part, and in part skimmed for the cream, the product of which would be used by plaintiff in its business as caterers, etc.,'and in part sold in the market; and that the milk delivered was under this contract. Such a contract carries with it a warranty that the goods shall be, and are, what they are agreed to be, for no particular form of words is required to constitute a warranty. As held in Pasley v. Freeman, 3 T. R., 57: “An affirmation at the time of a sale is a warranty, provided it appear on evidence to have been so intended.” To which may be added, upon equally good authority, that “a positive affirmation of a material fact, intended [405]*405to be relied upon as such, and which, is so relied upon, constitutes in law a warranty, whether the vendor mentally intended to warrant or not; and that his intention is immaterial.” Am. Note to Benjamin on Sales, 6th Ed., 625; Hawkins v. Pemberton, 51 N. Y., 198; Reed v. Hastings, 61 Ill., 266; Kenner v. Harding, 85 Ill., 264. It is clearly sufficient if the declarations and agreement are so understood and acted upon by the parties; and, if made at the time of the sale, and as part of or inducement to the sale, as in this ease, no other consideration is necessary, the price to be paid being a sufficient consideration. Am. Note to Benjamin on Sales, 6th Ed., 622. The liability of Coit was as broad under a breach of this contract as though there had been an express warranty by him of every lot of milk as it was delivered. Moore v. King 64 Hun. 224. The proper rule of damages for a breach in such a case would be such damages as may fairly and reasonably be considered either as arising naturally from a breach, or what the parties might reasonably be supposed to have forseen, to have had in contemplation, when they entered into the con-. tract. The rule is that if the special circumstances under which a contract is actually made are known to both parties, the damages resulting from the breach, which they would reasonably contemplate, would be the amount of injury which would ordinarily follow from a breach of such a contract under the special circumstances. Hadley v. Baxendale, 9 Ex., 341. Plaintiff and defendant, were both handling milk extensively, and it is but fair to assume that each knew the effect of mixing impure milk with that which was pure, and the consequent result to the product. So they may be reasonably held to have had such damage in con[406]*406templation when they contracted, in case of breach. Probably, also, an- implied warranty would be presumed, in view of the knowledge of the purpose, that the milk should be reasonably fit for that purpose; but this is not essential, nor is it important to pursue it at length, inasmuch as there was a contract.

Under breach of such a contract it is manifest that the vendee’s damage should be at least compensation, and if the mixture of the impure milk with that which was pure, and its use in the factory, resulting in impairing the value of the product, it is equally manifest that compensation could not be awarded without taking that fact into the account.

Cases illustrative of the point are numerous. Wilcox v. McCoy, 21 Ohio St., 655, was based upon a claim for damages arising from a sale of sheep represented to be sound but which were affected by a disease known as the foot rot, whereby other sheep of the plaintiff were infected and injured. The claim was sustained. A number of similar cases are digested by Mr. Sedgwick in his work on Damages, sections 769, 765, 766 and 768, as follows: Where animals sold are warranted free of disease, loss through communication of disease to other animals of the purchaser may be recovered. Mullet v. Mason, L. R., 1 C. P., 559, and other cases. It is not necessary to the recovery of damages to show that the vendor knew that the diseased animal was to be placed with others belonging to plaintiff. Packard v. Slack, 32 Vt., 9. The defendant is presumed to anticipate that the animals he sells will be placed with others as a natural consequence of his act. Sherrod v. Langdon, 21 Iowa, 518. The expense of nursing and curing other animals, which contract disease [407]*407from those sold, may also be recovered. Long v. Clapp, 15 Neb., 417. In Randall v. Newson, 2 Q. B. D., 12, the plaintiff had bought of defendant a pole for his carriage. In driving, the horses swerved and the pole broke short off at the carriage and the horses were injured. The court held that the question should have been left with the jury whether the injury to the horses was or not a natural consequence of the defect in the pole. Where coloring matter, purchased for the purpose of coloring ice cream by a manufacturer of that article proved to be poisonous, the purchaser was allowed to recover the value of the ice cream lost through the use of the poisonous coloring matter, and also compensation for injury to business.

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Related

Sherrod v. Langdon
21 Iowa 518 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1866)
Hawkins v. . Pemberton
51 N.Y. 198 (New York Court of Appeals, 1872)
Jones v. George
61 Tex. 345 (Texas Supreme Court, 1884)
Wright v. J. & S. Wilcox
19 Wend. 343 (New York Supreme Court, 1838)
Packard v. Slack
32 Vt. 9 (Supreme Court of Vermont, 1859)
Craker v. Chicago & Northwestern Railway Co.
36 Wis. 657 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1875)
Long v. Clapp
15 Neb. 417 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1884)
Reed v. Hastings
61 Ill. 266 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1871)
Kenner v. Harding
85 Ill. 264 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1877)
Quick v. Milligan
9 N.E. 392 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1886)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
55 Ohio St. (N.S.) 398, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stranahan-bros-catering-co-v-coit-ohio-1896.