Anderson v. Standard Granite Co.

• Decision Date: 23 January 1899
• Citation: 92 Me. 429,43 A. 21
• Parties: ANDERSON v. STANDARD GRANITE CO.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

43 A. 21

92 Me. 429

ANDERSON

v. STANDARD GRANITE CO.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Jan. 23, 1899.

(Official.)

Report from supreme judicial court, Waldo county.

Action by August N. Anderson against the Standard Granite Company. On report. Judgment for defendant.

Argued before PETERS, C. J., and HASKELL, WHITEHOUSE WISWELL, SAVAGE, and FOGLER, JJ.

F. W. Brown, for plaintiff. R. F. Dunton, for defendant.

WISWELL J. Prior to the payment hereinafter referred to, and relied upon by the defendant as a full satisfaction of the plaintiff's claim, a controversy existed between these parties as to the amount due the plaintiff for a quantity of granite paving blocks made by the plaintiff, and delivered by him to the defendant. The original written contract fixed the price at $45 per 1,000 for blocks to be delivered by the plaintiff "on board vessels at Lane's wharf, in Searsport. Me., at which wharf there is ten feet of water or more." But after the first cargo had been shipped, which, so far as the case shows, was paid for without dispute, the defendant complained that there was not the depth of water, at the wharf where the blocks were to to be delivered by the plaintiff on board vessels provided by the defendant, that the contract called for, and that by reason thereof it was put to additional expense in relation to the first cargo, and could not procure vessels for subsequent cargoes, at reasonable freight rates.

Considerable correspondence between the parties resulted. In the first letter thereafter, the president of the defendant company, C. J. Hall, wrote the plaintiff: "I cannot afford to pay rates to get vessels to load with the detention you gave the Oliver." Later he wrote the plaintiff: "You may charter a vessel to your own liking, so that the blocks will not cost me exceeding $58 per M. alongside of the dock in Phila., exclusive of insurance. I will insure them myself. You can have a chance to get a vessel of the draught you desire, and the size, and to come on a high tide," etc. Still later, and shortly before the cargo in dispute was shipped, Hall again wrote: "The only alternative I can give you is the same I gave Gray & Martin; that is, to charter a vessel yourself, and that the price of the blocks, added to the freight you pay, shall not exceed $58 per M."

After this, on November 22, 1894, the plaintiff procured a vessel, and shipped to the defendant the cargo of blocks sued for, consisting of 26,748 blocks, according to the count in New York, about which there is no dispute. On December 20, 1894, the defendant sent a statement of account to the plaintiff, charging itself with this quantity of blocks, at $58 per 1,000, less $17 per 1,000, freight paid, leaving $41 per 1,000, amounting to $1,096.67, due the plaintiff. In the same statement of account the plaintiff was charged with the sum of $50, about which there is no controversy, and with a check on the Belfast National Bank for $1,046.67 to balance the account, which amount did balance the account, according to the statement and contention of the defendant. Accompanying this statement, the...