Byrne v. Massasoit Packing Co.
| Decision Date | 26 June 1884 |
| Citation | 137 Mass. 313 |
| Parties | John L. Byrne v. Massasoit Packing Company |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
Suffolk. Contract, for the breach of a written agreement made by J. J. Brookman, the agent of the defendant, in its name with the plaintiff, in New Orleans, Louisiana, for the sale of 3000 barrels of mackerel. Trial in the Superior Court before Aldrich, J., who allowed a bill of exceptions, in substance as follows:
There was a written contract between the defendant and its said agent, by which the defendant engaged Brookman as its selling agent, for nine months, and agreed to pay him a certain salary; and Brookman guaranteed that his sales should not be less than $ 200,000 for the nine months, "and that all sales shall be made to good and responsible parties, and at not less than market prices, quotations to be furnished said Brookman by said company."
The defendant contended that Brookman violated his contract with the defendant in two respects: First. That he sold its fish at less than the market prices and the quotations furnished him by the defendant. Second. That he sold to irresponsible parties.
The defendant offered to show that the plaintiff had been a member of a partnership, and that said partnership failed about eighteen months before the date of the contract declared on, and settled with the creditors of the firm at twenty cents on the dollar. The judge ruled that this evidence, if admissible and material at all, would be so only in case the defendant proposed further to prove that the facts offered in evidence were not known to the defendant's agent when he made the contract with the plaintiff, but came to the knowledge of the defendant, and influenced it in determining to repudiate the contract; and as the defendant did not propose to offer such further proof, the judge excluded the evidence offered.
The defendant put the following question to the plaintiff "Were you the owner of real estate in New Orleans in the years 1881 and 1882?" and also offered in evidence a certificate of the recorder of mortgages in New Orleans, for the purpose of showing the condition of the plaintiff's real estate in that city. The question and certificate were excluded. No evidence was offered that the plaintiff made any representations as to his real estate prior to the making of the contract declared on, or that any credit had been given to him in the making of the contract by reason of his...
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