Collins Radio Co. v. Gothard Manufacturing Co.

SHEPARD, J. In 1951 the Gothard Manufacturing Company, then a corporation owned by Ralph Gothard (now de[40]ceased) and his son, William Gothard, defendant herein, contracted to manufacture and sell certain dynamotors to plaintiff. The number ultimately agreed upon was 1,012. A dynamotor is an electrical instrument which operates at high speed and converts low voltage direct electrical current to high voltage for use in a radio of which the dynamotor becomes a component part. The radios here involved were being manufactured by plaintiff as receiving and sending apparatus for United States Navy airplanes, in accordance with Government specifications therefor. Preliminarily defendants furnished two dynamotors, which were tested by plaintiff and found insufficient. In February, 1952, a third was delivered, which passed the tests given to it. Defendant then furnished 10 more, and after tests were given them, defendants were authorized to continue filling the contract. It was then August, 1952, 11 months after the original contract.

Ralph Gothard and defendant William Gothard, as partners, took over the business of the corporation and succeeded to all its rights and obligations, and became responsible for fulfilling the contract with plaintiff, as of February 29, 1952. The balance of the dynamotors were manufactured and delivered to' plaintiff between November, 1952, and May 6, 1953, and the total purchase price of $65,422.70 was paid.

Plaintiff started to use said dynamotors in its radio telephone sets under its contract with the United States Navy for use by the latter in navy aircraft. After starting to use said dynamotors, the rejections of these telephone sets by government inspectors rose rapidly, from approximately 2 per cent to about 18 per cent, and plaintiff stopped the use of the Gothard dynamotor. Numerous tests by plaintiff and outside electrical engineers and highly trained technicians of samples of these dynamotors selected at random, convinced plaintiff that the dynamotors as a whole were not up to specifications and were unreliable. Copies of the test reports were forwarded to both defendants and the United States Government so that all parties were fully apprised thereof. The tests, as testified to by engineers and expert technician witnesses, during the years 1952, 1953, and 1954, revealed that the dynamotors were deficient in many particulars. A large percentage did not pass the durability or “life” test. Excessive “ripple” and mechanical noise was noted (as nearly as we can understand the highly technical language of the electrical engineer witnesses, ripple is an excessive amount of pulse or vibration in the electrical current resultant from accumula