Sunset Shingle Co. v. Northwest Electric & Water Works

203 P. 978, 118 Wash. 416, 1922 Wash. LEXIS 678
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 21, 1922
DocketNo. 16457
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 203 P. 978 (Sunset Shingle Co. v. Northwest Electric & Water Works) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sunset Shingle Co. v. Northwest Electric & Water Works, 203 P. 978, 118 Wash. 416, 1922 Wash. LEXIS 678 (Wash. 1922).

Opinion

Parker, C. J.

— The plaintiff, Sunset Shingle Company, commenced this action in the superior court for Grays Harbor county, seeking recovery of damages from the defendant Northwest Electric & Water Works, claimed as the result of a breach of a contract by the defendant. The contract in question was entered into between the.m on February 3, 1915, looking to the electrification by the defendant of the plaintiff ’s manufacturing plant, the construction of a steam electric plant by the defendant on ground to be conveyed to it by the plaintiff, from which the defendant was to furnish to the plaintiff electric power to operate the machinery of its plant, and also steam heat to [418]*418operate the dry kilns of its plant. The damages claimed by the plaintiff were for its loss from the diminished output of its plant during the years 1918 and 1919 because of the defendant’s failure to furnish power in quantity as agreed; for its loss for the failure of the defendant to furnish steam heat in quantity as agreed to efficiently operate its dry kilns, in that the shipping weights of its products were not reduced to normal weights, resulting in the necessity of paying excessive freight rates in the marketing of its products ; expenses it was compelled to incur for repairs to certain of its machinery, which under the contract it was the duty of the defendant to make; and depreciation of the value of its mill plant because of the change of its power from steam to electricity as the result of the contract.

The defendant by its answer denied that it had failed in any respect to do all that it was required to do by the terms of the contract, and denied that the plaintiff suffered any damages as the result of any such failure. These denials were followed by affirmative defenses set up by the defendant, which are in substance that it is a public service corporation “furnishing electricity for light, heat and power for hire to the city of Montesano and its inhabitants”; that the service agreed to he rendered to the plaintiff is a public service; that the contract therefore is void because the agreed charge therefor constitutes an undue and unreasonable preference as against the public service customers of the defendant in violation ■ of the regulatory provisions of our public service statutes. The cause was tried before the court sitting without a jury, and resulted in findings, conclusions and judgment made and rendered in favor of the defendant, denying to the plaintiff recovery in any amount; the trial judge concluding as matters of law that the con[419]*419tract “was made in violation of the statutes of the state of Washington” and “is void and of no effect.” Following the findings and conclusions upon which the judgment was rested, the trial judge further found:

“(1) That the plaintiff performed the contract on its part. To which defendant excepts and exception allowed. . . .
“(2) That the defendant breached the said contract upon its part and because of the defendant’s said breach the plaintiff suffered loss and damage in the sum of $67,764.32. To which defendant excepts and exception allowed.”

These findings were evidently made to the end that they might become the basis of a judgment to be rendered in favor of the plaintiff in the event of this court holding upon appeal that the contract, the breach of which is claimed as a basis of recovery by the plaintiff, is a valid and binding contract upon the defendant. The plaintiff, seeking reversal of the judgment, and the rendering of a judgment awarding to it damages in accordance with the findings of the trial court, above quoted, has appealed to this court.

There seems to us to be no room for serious controversy as to what we deem to be the controlling facts of the case, in so far as the validity of the contract in question is concerned. The involved nature of this problem, however, renders it necessary that we make a somewhat extended and comprehensive statement of facts. Appellant has been a corporation of this state ever since long prior to entering into the contract in question, and from about the year 1907 up until the time of the commencement of this action in November, 1919, has owned and operated a large shingle manufacturing plant, manufacturing shingles therein and marketing them therefrom upon a somewhat extensive scale. Its plant has at all times been located near the [420]*420city of Montesano, in Grays Harbor county. Up to a short time following the entering into of the contract, the power and heat necessary to operate appellant’s mill machinery and dry kilns were supplied by its own auxiliary steam plant constituting a part of its general plant.

Respondent has been a corporation of this state ever since the year 1912. Speaking generally, it may be said to be a public service corporation, in that its articles of incorporation indicate that to be its principal business, and in that its principal business since some years prior to entering into the contract here in question seems to have been the furnishing of electric light to the city of Montesano and its inhabitants in pursuance of a franchise granted by that city. It seems that respondent may have then furnished power, other than for light, to industrial and other plants in the city, though the record does not show to what extent such power had been so furnished. The record is silent as to respondent ever furnishing power to any person or corporation outside the city, other than to appellant and two other concerns; one being a machine shop, and the other being a certain gravel plant. The record does not inform us just how or where respondent acquired its electric energy which it furnished to the city and its inhabitants up to the time of entering into the contract; though up to that time and since then respondent seems to have been possessed of a generating electric plant some miles distant from the city.

About January, 1915, respondent’s representative approached appellant’s representative with a view of entering into negotiations looking to the electrification of appellant’s plant and the construction by respondent, upon ground to be furnished by appellant, of a [421]*421steam generating electric plant; to the end that snch steam electric plant, to he operated by respondent, should be furnished with fuel fropi appellant’s mill, and electric power be furnished from such steam electric plant for the running of appellant’s mill and steam heat to operate its dry kilns; it being contemplated that respondent would thereby be enabled to produce electric power from such plant in excess of that which would be necessary to operate appellant’s mill and dry kilns, to the end that such additional power might be disposed of by respondent at a profit.

The foregoing, wb think, is a fair statement in substance of the respective conditions we find these parties in when they entered into the contract on February 3, 1915. To the end that we have clearly before us the controlling purpose of that contract and just what each of the parties agreed to do, we quote therefrom, so far as we deem necessary for our present inquiry, as follows:

“This contract by and between Sunset Shingle Company, of Montesano, Washington, the first party, and Northwest Electric & Water Works, of the same place, the second party, Witnesseth:

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Bluebook (online)
203 P. 978, 118 Wash. 416, 1922 Wash. LEXIS 678, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sunset-shingle-co-v-northwest-electric-water-works-wash-1922.