Pope v. Allis

by William Burnham Woods

United States Supreme Court

115 U.S. 363

Pope  v.  Allis

 Argued: November 9, 1885. ---

Edward P. Allis, the defendant in error, was the plaintiff in the circuit court. He brought his suit to recover from the defendants Thomas J. Pope and James E. Pope, now the plaintiffs in error, the sum of $17,840, the price of 500 tons of pig-iron, which he alleged he had bought from them and paid for, but which he refused to accept because it was not of the quality which the defendants had agreed to furnish. The plaintiff also demanded $1,750 freight on the iron, which he alleged he had paid. The facts appearing upon the record were as follows: The plaintiff carried on the business of an ironfounder in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the defendants were brokers in iron in the city of New York. In the month of January, 1880, by correspondence carried on by mail and telegraph, the defendants agreed to sell and deliver to the plaintiff 500 tons of No. 1 extra American and 300 tons No. 1 extra Glengarnock (Scotch) pig-iron. The American iron was to be delivered on the cars at the furnace bank at Coplay, Pennsylvania, and the Scotch at the yard of the defendants in New Yrok. By a subsequent correspondence between the plaintiff and the defendants it fairly appeared that the latter agreed to ship the iron for the plaintiff at Elizabethport, New Jersey. It was to be shipped as early in the spring as cheap freights could be had, consigned to the National Exchange Bank at Milwaukee, which, in behalf of the plaintiff, agreed to pay for the iron on receipt of the bills of lading. That quantity of American iron was landed at Milwaukee and delivered to the plaintiff about July 15th. Before its arrival at Milwaukee the plaintiff had not only paid for the iron, but also the freight from Coplay to Milwaukee. Soon after the arrival in Milwaukee the plaintiff examined the 500 tons American iron, to which solely the controversy in this case referred, and refused to accept it, on the ground that it was not of the grade called for by the contract, and at once gave the defendants notice of the fact, and that he held the iron subject to their order, and brought this suit to recover the price of the iron and the freight thereon.

The defenses relied on to defeat the action were (1) that the iron delivered by the defendants to the plaintiff was No. 1 extra American iron, and was of the kind and quality required by the contract; and (2) that the title having passed to the plaintiff when the iron was shipped to him at Elizabethport, he could not afterwards rescind the contract and sue for the price of the iron and the freight which he had paid, but must sue for a breach of the warranty.

It was conceded upon the trial that if the plaintiff was entitled to recover at all, his recovery should be for $22,315.40. The defendants pleaded a counter-claim for $5,311, which was admitted by the plaintiff. The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff for $16,513.11, for which sum and costs the court rendered a judgment against the defendants. This writ of error brings that judgment under review.

W. P. Lynde and Geo. P. Miller, for plaintiffs in error.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 365-367 intentionally omitted]

Eppa Hunton, Jeff. Chandler, and J. G. Jenkins, for defendant in error.

WOODS, J.

Notes