Rietz v. Hovden Food Prodducts Corp.

SPENCE, J. P1aintiff recovered judgment against def en. dant for the alleged purchase price of two presses. Defendant appeals from said judgment.

Defendant presents numerous contentions on this appeal hut the determinative question under the unusual situation presented by the record is whether there was any valid written contract between the plaintiff and defendant for the purchase of said presses.

Plaintiff was engaged in the manufacture and sale of machinery under the fictitious name of Process Machinery Company. Defendant was a corporation engaged in fish canning at Monterey. The president of the defendant corporation, hereinafter called the Hovden Company, was K. Hovden, [378]who was also the president of Mazama Fisheries Corporation, hereinafter called the Mazama Company. The last mentioned corporation was organized for the purpose of acquiring the “Mazama” and operating said vessel in the fish reduction industry at Neah Bay, Washington.

In April, 1936, plaintiff entered into a written contract with the Mazama Company, by which it agreed to sell and deliver to said corporation four “presses” and one “disintegrator.” The entire purchase price was $13,650, which was payable $3,412.50 upon the execution of the agreement, and the balance in equal monthly installments commencing on July 15, 1936, and ending on October 15, 1936. Delivery was to be made on or before May 22, 1936.

The above mentioned machinery wa,s ordered for installation on the “Mazama” and said machinery was to be shipped to the Commercial Boiler Works in Seattle for that purpose. In May, 1936, it developed that plaintiff would be unable to make delivery of said equipment by May 22nd as provided in the written agreement. The northern fishing season was to open shortly and the Mazama Company arranged with the Hovden Company to obtain from the Hovden Company two presses which the Hovden Company had acquired a short time before. In return, the Mazama Company agreed with the Hovden Company to cause two of the four presses covered by its written contract with plaintiff to be delivered by plaintiff to the Hovden Company as soon as said presses were completed. This arrangement appears to have been agreeable to all concerned.

Pursuant to this arrangement the Hovden Company shipped its two presses from its plant at Monterey to Seattle for installation on the “Mazama” and the Mazama Company instructed plaintiff to deliver to the Hovden Company at plaintiff’s plant in Oakland two of the four new presses covered by the written contract between plaintiff and the Mazama Company. Two new presses were thereafter shipped by plaintiff to Seattle and the two remaining new presses were delivered by plaintiff on June 15, 1936, to the Hovden Company at plaintiff’s plant in Oakland. These last mentioned new presses were installed in the Hovden Company’s Monterey plant in place of the two presses which it had removed and sent to Seattle for installation on the “Mazama.”