Rakow v. Innes Co.

MUSSELL, J. Defendant appeals from a judgment in favor of plaintiff in a action to recover advance rental paid on a “potato harvester.’’ •

Plaintiff, who had farming interests in the Edison area in Kern County, was approached by Mr. Innes, the president of defendant company, in the fall of 1944, and a conversation took place between them in which Mr. Innes stated that he was manufacturing or going to manufacture a potato harvester which would pick potatoes from the ground, elevate them into a truck, and, therefore, eliminate hand picking. Plaintiff stated that he would be very much interested in such a machine. Soil conditions were discussed and Mr. Innes, upon being asked if he was building a machine that would operate in all types of soil, stated that that would have to be so or the machine would be valueless otherwise. In January of 1945, Mr. Innes again called upon plaintiff and stated that he wanted to build a machine to harvest potatoes; that they were to allocate one to plaintiff and others to different people in the Edison district. He asked plaintiff if he were willing to advance $2,000 to the Innes Company as a rental on this equipment when it was perfected and delivered for use. Plaintiff stated that he would be “willing to do that” and on January 11, 1945, plaintiff entered into a written contract with the defendant wherein the defendant leased to the plaintiff an “Innes Potato Harvester” for the term of one year. The agreement provided that the machine was to be delivered to the plaintiff on or before the 20th of April, 1945, “to be used by him for and during the potato harvest season of each succeeding year, beginning about December 20th and ending not later than the 15th day of July, 1945.” It was further provided:

' ‘ 2. First Party warrants that the Innes Potato Harvester herein leased is well made of proper material and workmanship and when properly operated will well do the work for which it is designed and intended. ...”

Plaintiff agreed to harvest his potato crop with reasonable dispatch and, when finished, to release the machine to defendant so that, if desired by the company, the machine might be leased to some other grower or operator during the same season. The rental was based on the potato yield and on January 15, 1945, plaintiff paid the defendant the sum of $2,000 advance rental for the 1945 season.

After the execution of the lease agreement, Mr. Innes had [280]difficulty with the War Production Board in procuring authority to make and lease the potato harvesters and returned the $2,000 to the plaintiff. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Innes wrote to the plaintiff stating that he had obtained formal authority from the War Production Board to proceed to make and lease the potato harvesters; that the arrangements the parties had prior to the interruption were valid and that they could proceed as though nothing had happened; that both understood the conditions and terms and that if plaintiff would acknowledge the letter and send a cheek for $2,000 that that would be all the memorandum necessary for the 1945 season. Plaintiff acknowledged the receipt of the letter and mailed his cheek for $2,000 to the defendant company.