Thomas W. Simmons & Co. v. Northwestern Junk Co.

213 P. 485, 124 Wash. 61, 1923 Wash. LEXIS 842
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 8, 1923
DocketNo. 17601
StatusPublished

This text of 213 P. 485 (Thomas W. Simmons & Co. v. Northwestern Junk Co.) 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
Thomas W. Simmons & Co. v. Northwestern Junk Co., 213 P. 485, 124 Wash. 61, 1923 Wash. LEXIS 842 (Wash. 1923).

Opinion

Holcomb, J.

Plaintiff sued on five separate contracts entered into with defendant for the purchase of scrap steel, aggregating 500 gross tons of bolts and rivets, mixed, and 550 gross tons of old rectangular ship plates, % to % inches thick, two feet wide and up, and five feet long and up. Five separate causes of action were stated in the complaint. As a means of distinguishing these several different transactions, plaintiff adopted a system of numbering its orders by which it was assigned to each order, and following such number would appear the first letter in the name of the place to which the shipment was intended to be consigned. The number set forth in the first cause of action was “60-Y”, intended to be consigned to Yokahama; the number set forth in the second cause of action was “20-T”, indicating that the order was going to Tientsin; “57-H’.’ was consigned to Hong Kong, and so forth.

In its first cause of action plaintiff claimed that, because of having been compelled to pay additional ocean freight for transportation of freight purchased in lieu of material agreed to be furnished by defendant, but which it claims was not furnished, the contract was breached. It is set forth in that cause of action, and in the bill of particulars furnished thereto, that plaintiff, had purchased material from other sources to be used instead of the material which the defendant had failed to furnish, and had been compelled to pay a higher rate for the transportation thereof. This item of damage is made only in the first cause of action. [63]*63All five causes of action are for damages suffered by plaintiff on account of tbe alleged failure of defendant to deliver tbe steel scrap at tbe time and place contracted for in tbe five orders referred to. Tbe contracts provided that defendant should deliver tbe material during tbe month of March, 1920.

Defendant admitted tbe execution of tbe contracts, denied their breach, and alleged that tbe steel scrap contracted for was of a lower market value, at tbe time and place of delivery, than tbe price fixed by tbe contracts.

Defendant also set forth an affirmative counterclaim or cross-complaint, alleging that there was due it upon a number of items from plaintiff a balance in tbe sum of $1,411.21. Tbe allegations of tbe cross-complaint were denied by reply, and tbe issues under tbe cross-complaint and reply were tried by tbe court separately from tbe trial to tbe jury of tbe issues under tbe complaint of tbe plaintiff.

Both parties have appealed from adverse judgments against each, respectively, and are therefore designated in this opinion as plaintiff and defendant.

Plaintiff’s first assignment of error comprises tbe refusal of tbe court to allow plaintiff to show the profits that it would have made upon resale of tbe material purchased from defendant; tbe refusal of tbe court to allow plaintiff to show that tbe material was resold at a profit in tbe Orient; refusal of tbe court to-allow plaintiff to show the reasonable value or market value in the Orient of tbe material at tbe time that it could and would have been delivered if defendant had not breached its contract.

Under this assignment plaintiff urges that since, in its first cause of action, it alleged, that it purchased old steel plates for delivery under contract of sale by defendant of old steel plates, and under contemplation of [64]*64delivery as in the contract provided, and had arranged and contracted for the transportation of old' steel plates, all of which was known to defendant; and that it alleged under its contract, in the third and fourth causes of action, that it had purchased the steel ship plates for delivery of the same under contract of sale by it of old ship plates, which fact was well known to defendant; and that, in paragraph 5 of the fifth cause of action, it alleged that it purchased the holts and rivets for delivery of the same under contract of sale by it of the holts and rivets so purchased, which fact was known to the defendant; the damages sought by way of lost profits on resale were proper.

Plaintiff offered testimony at the trial to the effect that it had resold the material contracted from defendant at a profit, and that the same would have been delivered to its customers in the Orient if defendant had performed its contract. It offered to show the details of the prices at which it had resold the material contracted, in the Orient, which would show a difference of from $4.50 to $15 per ton between the contract price and the resale price.

To sustain its contention that a recovery of profits is the measure of damages on breach of contract, appellant cites the following cases: Cedro Veneer Co. v. Kwapil, 62 Wash. 385, 113 Pac. 1100; Waldron Co. v. Beattie Mfg. Co., 113 Wash. 533, 194 Pac. 557; Church v. Wilkeson-Tripp Co., 58 Wash. 262, 108 Pac. 596, 109 Pac. 113, 137 Am. St. 1059; Meyer Bros. Drug Co. v. Callison, 120 Wash. 378, 207 Pac. 670.

None of the cases cited are in point on this case. In the plaintiff’s complaint, it was not alleged that the scrap steel was purchased for resale in the Orient, and in the contracts alleged it was provided that the scrap steel was purchased to he delivered f. o. h. cars at Seat-[65]*65tie, or f. o. b. defendant’s yard at Seattle, or f. o. b. Argo Yards. In Waldron v. Beattie, supra, we held that the measure of damages for that ease was the difference between the contract price and the price plaintiff could have sold the same for at retail in the Seattle market, less the cost of resale. In Meyer Bros. Drug Co. v. Callison, supra, we held that no market price could be established for the raw product sold, under the evidence, except the market price in the east, which, with the freight and handling charges deducted, constituted the market price at the point of origin.

What was the basis of plaintiff’s contemplated damages as demanded in its complaint is shown by the allegations as to the item of damages in each cause of action. Each cause sets forth that the materials were “reasonably worth, and were of the market value of $.... per ton at the time and place of delivery as stipulated in said written contract, and plaintiff has been damaged by reason of the breach of said contract in the sum of $....,” (the‘amount being different in each cause of action). Computation shows the amount of damage pleaded was arrived at by multiplying the number of tons covered by each cause of action by the difference in the market value alleged and the contract price. The trial court very properly held that plaintiff had alleged its damages to be based upon the difference between the agreed price and the market value at the time of the alleged non-delivery in Seattle, and the allegations were supported by the several prayers for specific sums as being the amount to be recovered by reason of the difference between the contract price and the market value at Seattle. No special damages were alleged.

Plaintiff’s first assignment of error therefore cannot be sustained.

[66]*66The second claim of error by plaintiff is in denying recovery for additional ocean freight paid by it upon material purchased in lieu of material agreed to be delivered by defendant.

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Related

Waldron Co. v. Beattie Manufacturing Co.
194 P. 557 (Washington Supreme Court, 1920)
LeDoux v. Seattle North Pacific Shipbuilding Co.
195 P. 1006 (Washington Supreme Court, 1921)
Meyer Bros. Drug Co. v. Callison
207 P. 683 (Washington Supreme Court, 1922)
Meyer v. Campion
207 P. 670 (Washington Supreme Court, 1922)
James v. Riverside Lumber Co.
208 P. 260 (Washington Supreme Court, 1922)
Ingram v. Sauset
209 P. 699 (Washington Supreme Court, 1922)
Church v. Wilkeson-Tripp Co.
108 P. 596 (Washington Supreme Court, 1910)
Sedro Veneer Co. v. Kwapil
113 P. 1100 (Washington Supreme Court, 1911)

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Bluebook (online)
213 P. 485, 124 Wash. 61, 1923 Wash. LEXIS 842, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thomas-w-simmons-co-v-northwestern-junk-co-wash-1923.