Vulcan Iron Works Co. v. Roquemore

175 F. 11, 99 C.C.A. 77, 1909 U.S. App. LEXIS 4922
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedDecember 21, 1909
DocketNo. 1,926
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 175 F. 11 (Vulcan Iron Works Co. v. Roquemore) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Vulcan Iron Works Co. v. Roquemore, 175 F. 11, 99 C.C.A. 77, 1909 U.S. App. LEXIS 4922 (5th Cir. 1909).

Opinion

SHELBY, Circuit Judge

(after stating the facts as above). The contract of sale contains an important provision for the benefit of the seller which limits the right of the buyer to reject the second shovel because it does not conform to the contract:

“If during said trial test, any part of said Utile Giant Special Steam Shovel shall prove defective, or any change necessary to be made, we are to have a reasonable time to replace such parts or to make such changes as we find necessary.”

This sentence secures to the seller the right not only to repair or to remove defects, but to “make any change necessary to be made” and "to replace such parts” as are found to be defective or such parís as fail to comply with the contract. The seller is to have a reasonable time to do this. In sustaining the demurrers to the sixth and eighth pleas, we are of opinion that the court unduly limited the effect and meaning of this provision of the contract. The buyer cannot recover for a breach of the contract if he refused to let the seller perform it. If the facts stated in the pleas are true, he did so refuse.

And the charge of the court is subject to the same objection. The court said:

“Suppose you find that the contract was made for a 54-inch boiler, as specified, and the machine sent down here had a 48-inch boiler, then that contract to try it don’t apply lo that sort of a machine. It applied only to the one that conformed to the stipulations of the plaintiff’s contract.”

We are of opinion that the seller would have had the right within “a reasonable time” to replace the boiler, when if was found during the trial test to be too small, with a larger one, as required by the contract.

These conclusions are applicable to other rulings upon demurrers to other pleas, and, also, to other alleged defects in the machine furnished.

The following excerpts from the charge of the trial court will indicate the directions given the jury as to tlie measure of damages:

“Now, the plaintiff (Roquemore) didn’t pay anything- on this conlract. The $1,500 he didn’t pay. The machine that was to make the balance of the pay-[16]*16meat, lie didn’t deliver; lie lias still got it Tou take tlie $1,500 and tlie value of that machine and deduct that from the $0,250, and that -would be the measure of recovery. * * *
“The measure of damages, I repeat it, the $1,500 he has not paid, yon take that out, and he has kept the machine, you take that out. Now the value of that and the $1,500 is the amount to be deducted from the $6,250, with interest from the end of that trial test, and the freight.”

Evidence was received tending to show that the first shovel, which was agreed to he received as part payment for the second shovel, was not worth the value put on it by the parties in the written contract sued on. Some of the evidence tended to show that it was not worth more than $1,500. Exceptions were reserved by the plaintiff in error to the admission of this evidence, and also to the charges quoted as to the measure of damages. The two exceptions will be considered together.

For the breach of the seller’s agreement to sell, the measure of the buyer’s damages, if he has not paid any part of the price, is the difference between the agreed price and the market value of the goods or article sold at the time and place of delivery. This is unquestionably the general rule. 2 Mechem on Sales, § 1736. If the machine delivered is defective, the measure of the buyer’s damages is the actual cost of supplying the deficiency. Marsh v. McPherson, 105 U. S. 709, 26 L. Ed. 1139. AVhere the thing sold is of a kind that has no market value, as is sometimes the case, then the actual value must be determined by the best evidence available; but the measure of damages would be the same—the difference between the contract price and the value of the thing at the time and place of delivery. The value in such cases is sometimes ascertained by proof of what it would cost the purchaser, acting in good faith and with diligence, to procure, in the condition required by the contract and delivered at the place named for delivery, the kind of article or goods contracted for. Grand Tower Co. v. Phillips, 23 Wall. 471, 479, 23 L. Ed. 71. It may be that there is no sufficient evidence in the record as to the market value of the second shovel, but it does not appear that the plaintiff could not have offered such evidence. It is indicated by the record, however, that there were other manufacturers of shovels besides the seller, and there seems to be no reason why the buyer could not have shown what it would reasonably have cost him to procure a shovel like the one contracted for. The buyer, in his letter of March 30, 1906, refers to “other manufacturers of steam shovels” who have “not made any advance in their price over what they were a year ago. * * * ” This indicates that, if it were impracticable to make the usual proof of market value, proof could have been adduced to show what it would have cost the bfiyer to procure a shovel from other manufacturers like the one he had contracted for. There is nothing therefore in the case presented by the record now before us to require a departure from the settled rules as to the measure of damages, unless it can be found in the terms of the written contract of sale.

There is nothing unusual in the contract of sale that can be cited as bearing specially on the question of the measure of damages, unless it is that the buyer was permitted to pay part of the price by the delivery to the .seller of a named article at a fixed value. The contract [17]*17snerl on is a sale of the second shovel for $6,250, to be paid as follows: $1,500 in cash, and the balance, $4,150, by the delivery to the seller of the first shovel. It should be kept in mind that the price of the thing sold is fixed in money, $6,250; part to be paid in cash, and the remainder, $4,750, a fixed sum, to be paid by the delivery by the buyer to the seller of a named article. For the purposes of this suit, as bearing on the question now considered, is the moneyed value placed on the first shovel binding on the parties? This is a suit by the buyer for breach of contract. First, look at the question in a suit by the seller against the buyer for the purchase money. If the Vulcan Company were suing Roquemore on the contract for the purchase money, he having accepted the second shovel, but not having paid the cash payment nor delivered the first shovel according to agreement, can any one doubt that the Vulcan Company would be entitled to judgment for the agreed price, $6,250? Roquemore could not, in that case, hold the first shovel, and yet say that it veas almost worthless, and obtain an abatement of the agreed price to be paid for the second shovel. If he did not pay the $4,750 by the delivery of the first shovel, he would have to pay it in money. Whether or not the seller has the right to decline to take money and require the delivery of the article as agreed is a question not involved in this case. The effect of the contract was to permit the buyer to pay a certain amount of the purchase money by the delivery to the seller of the first shovel; if he failed to so pay it, he must pay it in money if the seller requires it. Heywood v. Heywood, 42 Me. 229, 66 Am. Dec. 277; Smith v. Coolidge, 68 Vt. 516, 35 Atl. 432, 54 Am. St. Rep. 902; Dunman v. Strother, 1 Tex. 89, 46 Am. Dec. 97; New York News Publishing Co. v.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
175 F. 11, 99 C.C.A. 77, 1909 U.S. App. LEXIS 4922, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vulcan-iron-works-co-v-roquemore-ca5-1909.