Van Wyck v. . Allen

69 N.Y. 61, 1877 N.Y. LEXIS 797
CourtNew York Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 20, 1877
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 69 N.Y. 61 (Van Wyck v. . Allen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Van Wyck v. . Allen, 69 N.Y. 61, 1877 N.Y. LEXIS 797 (N.Y. 1877).

Opinion

Folger, J.

This case turns upon the question whether the defendant so represented to the plaintiff that he had, and would sell to him, a kind of cabbage seed known as the early flat Dutch Van Wycklin cabbage seed, as that the defendant selling and the plaintiff buying, the law will charge the defendant with a warranty that the seed sold and delivered were of that kind.

It is substantially conceded that the article sold, though seed, and in likeness of that kind of cabbage seed, were in tact totally unproductive of cabbage.

The jury gave their verdict for the plaintiff. There was *65 sufficient in the testimony to warrant it. They could say that Gleason, the agent of the defendant, affirmed to the plaintiff that the defendant sold only Van Wyckliu’s flat Dutch, raised at ISTew Lots, on Long Island, and that the plaintiff relied upon that ’affirmation and was induced by it to make his purchase; they could say, also, that the plaintiff, in his written order for the seed, designated what he offered to buy as Van Zicklen’s (i. e., Van Wycklin’s,) flat Dutch, or early flat Dutch; and that the defendant in selling and shipping it to him, designated it in writing as Long Island early flat Dutch Van Wycklin cabbage. They could also find that the plaintiff had no previous knowledge of the seed, and that inspection of it when it ivas received Avould not enable him to ascertain whether it agreed Avith Avhat he had tried to buy, and that he needs must rely upon the knowledge and experience of the defendant in that respect.

If no error was made upon the trial, the verdict and the judgment entered upon it should stand.

After a careful examination of the case, and consideration of the points made in this court by the appellant, we are of the opinion that the verdict and the judgment should stand.

We have already indicated that there was sufficient in the testimony to warrant a verdict for the plaintiff. It folloAAs, that it Avas correct for the court to refuse to direct a verdict for the defendant, and to decline to charge the requests made by him to the same import.

The most important questions to be given to the jury were what was in fact the warranty made by the defendant, and from what facts the kw Avould charge a warranty upon the defendant.

The court, in the first instance, told the jury that the question, of what Avas in fact the warranty, involved the inquiry Avhethcr it was asserted by the defendant that the seed was raised by Van Wycklin on Long Island. But, further on in the charge, after noticing certain positions taken by counsel, the court said to the jury that it did not regard the question one of any great importance whether this seed was *66 raised on Long Island or not, and that they must find the warranty made to have been that it was of the Van Wycldin variety, and early flat Dutch cabbage seed; that the material question was whether the seed supplied agreed with the demand which was made; and further, if it was actually good seed which had been raised by him on Long Island, or had been the product of his crop raised elsewhere, and turned out to have been such seed, the plaintiff had no cause of complaint; that the chief consideration was, was it the kind of cabbage seed that was sold to him, or represented to have been sold to him.

It is manifest that the question on this branch of the case, finally and fully left to the jury, was: Did the defendant, in fact, warrant to the plaintiff that the seed sold and delivered to him was seed of the Van Wycklin variety, and of early flat Dutch cabbage.

In instructing the jury what facts they need to find before they would be authorized by the law, to find that the defendant made the warranty, they were told that, if this was sold as a particular article, known in the market by a particular name, the law implies that in such case, the article is of that kind, character and description ; and so, too, if one goes to another and says to him, that he desires an article for a certain purpose, and that other, knowing that the first one relies upon his complying with his desire, furnishes an article, the law implies that that article is delivered with a warranty that it accords with the desire. When the court in the first part of this instruction said, “ If this was sold as a particular article, etc., etc.,” it meant, and it was understood by the jury to mean, “ If this seed was, on this occasion, sold as a particular article, etc., etc.” The jury had, as facts, to which to apply this rule, the conversation of the plaintiff with Gleason, the letters of the plaintiff to the defendant, with the specific designation of the seed which he wanted, and the bags from the defendant to the plaintiff, with the specific label upon them. Such facts were enough to bring into play the rule stated by the court. Without other cita *67 tions, it is enough to name Whitney v. Sutton, 10 Wend., 412, and Hawkins v. Pemberton, 51 N. Y., 198, where many cases are synopsized by Earl, C. The second part of this instruction is sustained by the decision in Jones v. Bright, 5 Bing., 533. It is to be borne in mind that neither did the plaintiff have opportunity for inspection, nor would inspection have disclosed anything to him.

The plaintiff made some requests tp charge which were disposed of by the court, and to which the defendant took exception. If they be taken entirely isolated from the case, as abstract propositions, we would not accede to them. Thus it would not be correct to téll a jury to base a verdict upon the sole fact that the cabbage seeds were not in good condition, and reasonably suited for the planting and growth of cabbage. But it is idle to assume that a jury would understand that all that had passed before them in the trial, and the charge from the court, were to go as naught, and, that upon that fact alone, if found, whether there were warranty or not, the plaintiff must recover. The jury must have understood that these other questions as to warranty and the like being found as directed by the court, then if this other tact was found, the plaintiff' ought to recover.

The rule of damages given to the jury was, the fair value of the crop that could have been raised had the seed been as asserted, limited by certain inquiries, wdiich, however, do-not enter into the defendant’s exceptions. We do not understand from the exceptions taken by the defendant, nor from the points presented by him in this court, that the rule of damages laid down in Passinger v. Thorburn (34 N. Y., 634), is questioned by him ; so that we are not called upon to consider that case, and to express either concurrence with it or dissent from it. It seems to have been taken at the trial by the defendant as the law of the case, and is so cited here. The trial court was not asked to depart from it. And it is urged here as error that the trial court departed from the rule in that case laid dowii, in not directing a deduction from the value of the crop, of the cost of producing it; so *68 that we are to assume for the purposes of this case that the decision in Passinger v. Thorburn is not erroneous.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
69 N.Y. 61, 1877 N.Y. LEXIS 797, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/van-wyck-v-allen-ny-1877.