Campbell v. Oriental Trading Co.
| Decision Date | 19 November 1920 |
| Docket Number | 3861. |
| Parties | CAMPBELL v. ORIENTAL TRADING CO. |
| Court | Montana Supreme Court |
Appeal from District Court, Lewis and Clark County; J. M. Clements Judge.
Action by P. H. Campbell against the Oriental Trading Company. From a judgment for plaintiff and an order denying a new trial defendant appeals. Affirmed.
Wm Wallace, Jr., John G. Brown, and T. B. Weir, all of Helena, for appellant.
H. Sol. Hepner, of Helena, for respondent.
This is an action to recover for merchandise alleged to have been sold and delivered to the defendant.
The plaintiff testified that on the morning of December 6, 1917, H. Tarada, accompanied by one N. Goto, came to his place of business in the city of Helena, presented a card upon which was printed his name and the words the "Oriental Trading Company," introduced himself, represented himself to be the agent of the defendant, and stated that a gang of Japanese laborers employed by defendant were working in and about the tracks, yards, and roundhouses of the Northern Pacific Railway in the city of Helena, and that groceries and other supplies would be needed for their subsistence. Addressing the plaintiff, he said:
"You let this man Goto, who is foreman of the gang, have goods and charge to him, Goto, extra gang No. 6, and send the bill to us not later than the 25th of the month, and we will pay for the goods."
The plaintiff, relying upon the statement of Tarada, delivered to Goto goods of the value for which this suit is brought. On December 25, obeying the directions of Tarada, plaintiff mailed to defendant at Livingston, "in care of H. Tarada, account Oriental Trading Co.," a bill therefor. A period of several weeks having elapsed and no reply thereto having been received, the plaintiff, through a Helena bank, drew a draft directed to "H. Tarada, account Oriental Trading Co., Livingston, Montana," for the amount of the bill, which draft was later returned to the bank unpaid.
The authority of Tarada to speak for the defendant, and to fix liability upon it for the goods sold and delivered to Goto is the vital question upon which this appeal must be determined. There is no dispute concerning the sale and delivery of the goods. The president of the defendant company was sworn as a witness on the plaintiff's case, and testified that he knew Tarada; that Tarada stayed at Livingston, and at times interpreted between the foreman of the gangs and the men; that at the time in question defendant maintained a branch office in the city of Livingston, in this state, but that the main office of the company was at Seattle, in the state of Washington; that defendant was under contract with the Northern Pacific Railway Company to furnish to it gangs of Japanese laborers to work upon its tracks and elsewhere, for which the railway company paid it in one check; and that for supplies purchased upon the credit of his company for the use of the gangs, deductions were made and the balance paid to each of the Japanese laborers upon signing the pay roll. This, coupled with the other testimony in the record, justified the district court in assuming that the success of the enterprise in which the defendant was...
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