Walker v. Grout Bros. Automobile Co.

102 S.W. 25, 124 Mo. App. 628, 1907 Mo. App. LEXIS 261
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 30, 1907
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 102 S.W. 25 (Walker v. Grout Bros. Automobile Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Walker v. Grout Bros. Automobile Co., 102 S.W. 25, 124 Mo. App. 628, 1907 Mo. App. LEXIS 261 (Mo. Ct. App. 1907).

Opinion

BLAND, P. J.

(after stating the facts). — 1. The points relied on for a reversal of the judgment are error of the court in refusing plaintiff’s instruction No. 1, and granting No. 2 for defendant. Plaintiff’s evidence shows that defendant guaranteed the automobile to require no labor to operate it, to be easily run and operated by a lady and to' be reliable in every way, and that defendant would make the machine satisfactory to plaintiff, or that it should be satisfactory to her. The court refused to instruct that if the machine was not satisfactory to plaintiff, she had a right to return it to the vendor and demand a return of the purchase price, and instructed that if the machine “was, or would have been, satisfactory to a reasonable person for the purpose for which it was sold,” she had no right to return it to the [636]*636defendant. In other words, the court construed the stipulation in the contract, that the machine should be satisfactory to plaintiff, to mean that it should be satisfactory to a reasonable person for the purpose for which it was sold. Parties, under the law, are left free to make their own contracts. It is not a function of the courts to malee contracts for them or to modify or change their contracts. The duty of a court is to interpret contracts by giving due force and effect to all of their terms, Avhere it can be done, and to enforce them as made, and it is ordinarily- immaterial to the court Avhether the contract is wise or unwise, reasonable or unreasonable, or the bargain a hard one. Such considerations furnish no ground or excuse for varying the terms of a contract or for a strained construction of it, for the purpose of relieving one of the parties of a hardship he has voluntarily taken upon himself. Contracts like the one under review, namely, to furnish an article satisfactory to the vendee, or to perform services satisfactory to an employer, have often been interpreted to mean what they say, that is, that the article furnished must be satisfactory to the vendee, or the services rendered satisfactory to the employer in order to show performance.’

In the case of McCormick v. Finch, 100 Mo. App. 641, 75 S. W. 373, Finch purchased of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, a corn binder, Avhich he agreed to take “if the machine gave satisfaction, and if not will not take it.” The machine was not satisfactory and Finch offered to return it. In a suit on a note given for the purchase price of the machine, the court instructed the jury defendant had the right, under his contract of purchase of said machine, to refuse to keep it and pay for it, if he was not satisfied with it, and the instruction was approved.

In Zaleski v. Clark, 44 Conn. 218, the facts Avere as follows: “The plaintiff, a sculptor, made a plaster bust of the deceased husband of the defendant, under an [637]*637agreement that she was not to be bound to take it unless she was satisfied with it. When it was finished she was not satisfied with it and refused to accept it. In a suit for the price agreed it was found that the bust was a fine piece of work, a. correct copy of a photograph furnished by the defendant, and that it accurately portrayed the features of its subject; and that the only fault found with it was that it did not have the expression of the deceased when living, which was caused by no imperfection in the work but by the nature of the material.” Held, that the plaintiff was not entitled to recover. As the bust was to be satisfactory to the defendant, it was for her alone to determine whether it was so, and it was not enough that her dissatisfaction was unreasonable.

In Brown v. Foster, 113 Mass. 136, plaintiff agreed to make defendant a satisfactory suit of clothes. Defendant returned the delivered suit as unsatisfactory. Held, on an action for the price, the suit could not be maintained. At pages 138-9 the court commenting on the instruction said: “If the plaintiff saw fit to do work upon articles for the defendant and to furnish materials therefor, contracting that the articles when manufactured should be satisfactory to the defendant, he can recover only upon the contract as it was made; and even if the articles furnished hy him were such that the other party ought to have been satisfied with thepi, it was yet in the power of the other to reject them as unsatisfactory. It is not for any one else to decide whether a refusal to accept is or is not reasonable, when the contract permits the defendant to decide himself whether the articles furnished are to his satisfaction.”

In Reeves & Co. v. Chandler, 113 Ill. App. 167, a contract was made for the purchase of a threshing outfit which gave to the purchaser the right to reject the same if, upon examination, itwas not “satisfactory;” held, the purchaser had the absolute right to reject the outfit and that his reasons for doing so could not be investigated.

[638]*638A contract to render satisfactory services was held, in Kendall v. West, 196 Ill. 221, to mean satisfactory to the employer and that the employer, if dissatisfied, might discharge the employee for any reason which he might deem sufficient.

In Seeley v. Welles, 120 Pa. St. 69, suit was for the purchase price of an Osborne reaper and binder. Defendant testified that he was to try the machine and if it worked to suit him and he could use it satisfactorily on his land, of which he was to be the judge, he was to take it upon the terms agreed upon; that upon the trial it was not satisfactory and he returned it. The court held that though the defendant’s objections to the machine may have been ill-founded, or unreasonable in the opinion of others, yet if they were made in good faith he had the right, if his testimony was believed, to reject the machine.

In Goodrich v. Nortwick, 43 Ill. 445, it was held: “Where a party purchased of another a fanning- mill, with an agreement, that he might return it within thirty days if it did not suit him, he became the sole judge under the contract, as to whether it suited. That question did not depend upon the opinion or judgment of others.”

“In Singerly v. Thayer, 108 Pa. St. 291, the facts were as follows: “A. being engaged in erecting a high building, B. proposed in writing to him to put in a patent passenger elevator, of novel construction, ‘warranted satisfactory in every respect,’ and A. accepted the offer. When the elevator was substantially erected, but before final completion and adjustment, and before it was tendered by B. as completed, A. requested permission to use it in the work of completion of the building. After such use for about two months, A. alleged that it was not satisfactory to him, and after notice to B. to take it out at once, A. dismantled the elevator and machinery-connected therewith, and stored the same. In an action by B. against A., in which the narr. averred that A. pre[639]*639vented tthe completion of the work, the court below charged the jury that if they were of opinion, under the evidence that the elevator was reasonably fit for the purpose for which it was intended, and that the defendant ought to have been satisfied with it, the verdict might be for the plaintiff. The jury found for the plaintiff. Held to be error. The proposal being made to A. the fair inference was that the elevator was to be satisfactory to him, and while it could not be rejected for mere caprice, yet a bona fide objection by him to its working was a sufficient defence to the action.”

In Koehler v. Buhl, 94 Mich.

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Bluebook (online)
102 S.W. 25, 124 Mo. App. 628, 1907 Mo. App. LEXIS 261, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/walker-v-grout-bros-automobile-co-moctapp-1907.