Haynes Auto. Co. v. Woodill Auto Co.

MELVIN, J.

Plaintiff sued for $3,092.59 alleged to be due from defendant for automobiles and attachments sold and delivered by plaintiff to defendant. The latter asserted that the plaintiff was indebted to it. Both litigants furnished bills of particulars of their respective claims and by written

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stipulation it was agreed that defendant’s bill of particulars should be considered as if pleaded by defendant as a counterclaim. The court found that the balance due plaintiff upon all of the accounts between the parties to the action was $871.16. Defendant appeals from the judgment and from an order denying its motion for vacation of judgment under section 663 of the Code of Civil Procedure.

The sole controversy upon this appeal relates to defendant’s claim of six hundred dollars as commission on the sale of a car to Ralph C. Otis. According to the findings Otis, who was a resident of Pasadena, purchased from plaintiff for three -thousand dollars, one of the automobiles manufactured by the said Haynes Automobile Company. At the time of the purchase, Otis was in Chicago, Illinois, and he ordered the car to be shipped to him at that city from plaintiff’s factory in Kokomo, Indiana. Afterward he changed the order and directed that the automobile should be sent to him at Los Angeles. It was forwarded as directed, with a provision in the waybill that it might be reshipped to Chicago at one-half rate. Payment for the vehicle was made at Kokomo. Defendant does not assert that it had anything to do with negotiating the sale, but bases a claim for compensation solely upon the contract between it and plaintiff by which the Woodill Auto Company was given the exclusive sale in Los Angeles and vicinity of the cars manufactured by plaintiff. The p.ertinent portion of the agreement, dated April 15, 1908, was as follows:

‘ ‘ This agreement entered into on this date with the Haynes Automobile Company of Kokomo, Indiana, and the Woodill Automobile Co. of Los Angeles, Cal., gives to the Woodill Automobile Co. the exclusive sale of Haynes cars in Los Angeles and Southern half of the state of California.”

Appellant contends that when a manufacturing corporation gives exclusive sale of its products within a given territory to another, the said manufacturer cannot deprive the agent of regular commissions by selling to one who resides within such territory, citing