Mantle Lamp Co. v. Rucker

• Decision Date: 25 April 1924
• Citation: 261 S.W. 263,202 Ky. 777
• Parties: MANTLE LAMP CO. v. RUCKER.
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

261 S.W. 263

202 Ky. 777

MANTLE LAMP CO. v. RUCKER.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

April 25, 1924

Appeal from Circuit Court, Fulton County.

Action by the Mantle Lamp Company against Lee B. Rucker. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff appeals. Reversed, with directions.

Herschel T. Smith, of Fulton, for appellant.

Heber Finch, of Fulton, for appellee.

TURNER C.

Appellee bought from appellant certain lamps and accessories, and failing to pay for them, this action for the purchase price was instituted. The defendant in his answer relied upon an alleged warranty of the chattels so sold to him, and states:

"The plaintiff warranted the lamps in question to be salable merchantable, or a better value and smaller price than other lamps of a similar make and kind,"

--and then alleges he relied on these statements, and that they were untrue. The court overruled a demurrer to this pleading and on the trial there was a verdict for the defendant.

The only question necessary to consider is whether the pleading was a sufficient plea of warranty, or whether such statements should be interpreted either as "sale talk" or mere commendation of the plaintiff's goods, or as the mere expression of opinion.

To represent that a thing is salable in a particular locality is plainly only to express an opinion, and to say that it is merchantable, when that word is used in connection with salable and statements as to value means nothing more nor less than the expression of opinion that the article referred to will be in demand in a particular section. Likewise to say that an article is of a better value and may be sold for a smaller price than other articles of a similar make and kind is mere "trade talk," and such commendation of the seller's article as the buyer may not rely upon, but as to which he must exercise his own judgment. It is true that to say a thing is merchantable in connection with representations as to its condition or quality may be equivalent to a warranty, but to say that it is merchantable in connection with an expression of opinion that it is salable, or in connection with "trade talk" comparing it in value and price with other similar articles, cannot be the subject of a warranty.

The warranty of a chattel ordinarily has reference to its soundness, quality, or condition, and for a seller to say to a purchaser that the article is salable in his locality, or merchantable therein, and is of better value and may be sold at a less price than similar articles of the same kind, falls far short of being a warranty that such things are true, and are such things as to which the buyer must be presumed to exercise his own judgment. A local merchant may have at least as good a reason to have an opinion of his own whether an article is salable in his locality as a wholesale merchant living many miles away; surely he must exercise his own judgment in determining whether the article in value and price favorably compares with other similar articles.

Mr Mechem in his work on Sales defines an...