Coplay Iron Co. v. Pope

• Decision Date: 17 January 1888
• Citation: 108 N.Y. 232,15 N.E. 335
• Parties: COPLAY IRON CO., Limited, v. POPE et al.
• Court: New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

108 N.Y. 232

15 N.E. 335

COPLAY IRON CO., Limited,

v.POPE et al.

Court of Appeals of New York.

January 17, 1888.

Appeal from general term, court of common pleas, city and county of New York.

This action was commenced by the Coplay Iron Company, Limited, respondent, to recover the price of 500 tons of pig-iron sold and delivered by the plaintiff to the defendants, Thomas J. Pope et al., appellants. In their answer, by way of counter-claim, the defendants allege that they are dealers in iron, and are not engaged as manufacturers or consumers thereof; that on or about the eighth day of December, 1879, the plaintiff sold and agreed to deliver to them 900 tons of No. 1 extra foundry pig-iron of the Coplay Iron Company, Limited, make, at the price of $27 per ton; that it agreed to deliver and ship the iron on board the cars at its furnace as and when ordered by the defendants; that they paid it the full price of the iron; that No. 1 extra was a grade of pig-iron of certain well-known quality in the market; that they purchased the iron to sell again to their customers, which was well known to the plaintiff; that, relying upon plaintiff's promise and agreement, they sold to E. P. Allis & Co., one of their customers in Milwaukee, 500 tons of the iron at and for the agreed price of $34 per ton, to be delivered at the furnace of the Coplay Iron Company, Limited, and for which E. P. Allis & Co. fully paid them; that they ordered the plaintiff to ship the iron, and thereupon it made a shipment of iron upon the contract which it claimed and pretended was No. 1 extra iron, which in fact was not No. 1 extra iron, but a grade of iron of inferior quality, and of less value, than No. 1 extra iron, or the quality it agreed to deliver, and it delivered to them therefor bill of lading, in which the same was described as No. 1 extra iron; that they sold the iron to their customers as No. 1 extra iron; that they did not examine the iron, and had no opportunity to examine the same; that they relied upon the promise and agreement and bills of lading, and 500 tons of the iron were forwarded to their customers without examining the same; that on or about the thirty-first day of July, 1880, as soon as the iron arrived at Milwaukee, and they had inspected the same, E. P. Allis & Co. notified these defendants that the 500 tons of iron sold and delivered by these defendants to them was not No. 1 extra iron, but was of a quality or grade greatly inferior thereto, and entirely unfit for use as No. 1 extra iron, and they refused to accept the iron, and demanded of these defendants the return of the purchase price paid by them therefor, with interest, and the cost of transporting the same from the furnace of the Coplay Iron Company, Limited, to Milwaukee, and storage expenses; that these defendants forth with duly notified the plaintiff of the inferior quality of the iron, and the claim made by these defendants' customers, and requested plaintiff to examine the iron, and notified it that they would hold it responsible for all damages they might sustain by reason of its failure to deliver the iron required by the contract; that the iron so delivered, or agreed to be delivered, by the plaintiff to these defendants, was not No. 1 extra iron, but iron of a quality greatly inferior thereto, and not of the standard or quality of No. 1 extra iron, and wholly unsuitable for use in these defendants' customers' business; that it was not No. 1 extra Coplay iron; that these defendants' customers refused to accept, and have not accepted, the iron, and it remains subject to the plaintiff's order, and these defendants have not accepted the same; that these defendants have sustained damages by reason of the inferior quality of the...