Bartlett Springs Co. v. Standard Box Co.

[672]

KERRIGAN, J.

This is an action for damages for breach of contract. Plaintiff recovered judgment in the amount demanded. A motion for a new trial was made by the defendant, which was denied, and it is from the order denying such motion that this appeal is taken.

On March 5, 1906, the parties to this action entered into an agreement, by the terms of which the defendant was to sell and the plaintiff was to purchase certain kinds of wooden boxes to the entire extent of plaintiff’s demand for the period of one year from the date of the contract. The market price of boxes increased, and the defendant only partially performed its part of the contract, filling but one comparatively small order, to wit, an order for 1,000 boxes. The plaintiff purchased elsewhere boxes as it needed them during the period covered by the contract, and in due time brought this action to recover from the defendant the difference between the contract price and the increased price which it was compelled to pay for such boxes.

Defendant contends that the plaintiff under the contract was not bound in any way to take boxes from the defendant' during the year mentioned in the contract, and that the latter could not have required the plaintiff to do so, and that, therefore, the agreement was lacking in mutuality, and was void.

We cannot agree with this view. By the agreement the defendant was to furnish and the plaintiff was to take all the boxes that it would need in its business during the time stated. Both parties were bound by the contract, and if the plaintiff had failed to carry out its obligations thereunder, and had purchased elsewhere the boxes needed by it in its business for the year designated, it would have been liable to the defendant for any damages sustained by the latter.

The authorities amply sustain this position. In

National Furnace Co.

v.

Keystone Mfg. Co.,

110 Ill. 427, the court held that a contract, whereby a manufacturer of pig-iron was to sell, and a user of that article was to purchase, all of certain iron that it might need in its business during a specified season, was a valid contract, observing: “It cannot be said that appellee was not bound by the contract. It had no right to purchase iron elsewhere for use in its business. If it had done so appellant might have maintained an action for a breach of the contract. It was bound by the contract to take