Allis-Chalmers Mfg. Co. v. Hedlund Lumber & Mfg. Co., 23076.

• Decision Date: 02 September 1931
• Docket Number: 23076.
• Court: Washington Supreme Court
• Parties: ALLIS-CHALMERS MFG. CO. v. HEDLUND LUMBER & MFG. CO.

2 P.2d 708

164 Wash. 296

ALLIS-CHALMERS MFG. CO. v. HEDLUND LUMBER & MFG. CO.

No. 23076.

Supreme Court of Washington

September 2, 1931

Department 2.

Appeal from Superior Court, Spokane County; Joseph B. Lindsley Judge.

Action by the Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company against the Hedlund Lumber & Manufacturing Company. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals.

Affirmed.

Lund &amp Dodds, of Spokane, for appellant.

Reynolds Ballinger, Hutson & Boldt, of Seattle, for respondent.

BEELER J.

The respondent sold to the appellant certain machinery, the major part of the purchase price of which was to be paid in deferred installments. The sale was evidenced by two written contracts, but they were executed simultaneously and contemplated a single installation, and were identical in terms so far as concerns this controversy; so that they may be regarded for present purposes as constituting a single contract, and we shall so treat them. The deferred installments of the price were evidenced by promissory notes made by the appellant to the respondent as payee.

One part of the contract reads as follows 'The title and right of possession to the machinery herein specified, remain in the Company until all payments hereunder (including deferred payments and any notes or renewals thereof, if any), shall have been fully made in cash, and it is agreed that the said machinery shall remain the personal property of the Company whatever may be the mode of its attachment to realty or otherwise, until fully paid for in cash. Upon failure to make payments, or any of them, as herein specified, the Company may retain any and all partial payments which have been made, as liquidated damages, and shall be entitled to take immediate possession of said property, and be free to enter the premises where said machinery may be located, and to remove the same as its property without prejudice to any further claims on account of damage which the Company may suffer from any cause. The Company may pursue all legal remedies to enforce payment hereunder, but if unable to collect may thereafter repossess the property. The purchaser agrees to execute and deliver to the Company, on demand, all papers and do all things which may be reasonably necessary to perfect and maintain the Company's title, interest or lien.'

The contract also contained this statement: 'All notes and securities given to the Company (the respondent) by Purchaser are taken by the Company, not in payment, but as evidence only of Purchaser's indebtedness.'

The appellant defaulted in the payment of certain installments of the purchase price, and the respondent,...