Sheridan v. Stephenson

BARNARD, P. J. This is an action, for damages for breach of an oral contract.

W. A. Stephenson operated the Merit Oil Company, a small concern engaged in selling greases mostly for use on tractors and other farm machinery. He did not manufacture oils or greases, but at times “compounded” or mixed them as specially ordered, or to adapt them for summer or winter use. For some years the plaintiff, who lived at Corcoran, acted as defendant’s distributor and sold about 95 per cent of its output, paying cash for the goods and reselling to his customers.

After a dispute between them in October, 1946, the plaintiff ceased buying greases from the defendant and began buying them direct from a grease manufacturing company in Los Angeles, the same company from which the defendant had been buying the greases with which he had supplied the plaintiff.

The complaint in this action alleged that the parties entered into an oral agreement in 1939, whereby the plaintiff, agreed to distribute and sell the defendant’s products under a certain trade name, and the defendant agreed to give him an exclusive distributorship in a certain territory for as long as he “sold at least $250 worth of Merit oil and greases each month”; that pursuant to this agreement he expended $10,000 in purchasing from the defendant “large quantities of such oils and greases” and purchased more than $250 worth each month; that on October 17, 1946, the defendant without cause terminated the' agreement and refused to sell him any more such products; that he then had on hand $3,000 worth of defendant’s oils and greases, and that he had thus been damaged in the sum of $13,000. As a second cause of action, it was alleged that pursuant to this contract the plaintiff had expended for the benefit of the defendant the sum of $13,000 “for advertising, equipment, oils and greases and other expenses”; and that payment had been demanded and refused. Judgment was prayed for in the sum of $13,000. The answer admitted that an oral distributorship contract had existed but denied the allegations as to its exclusive nature and as to its continuance. It further denied that the defendant had breached this contract, and alleged that the plaintiff had quit handling the defendant’s products on October 17, 1946. A jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendant, and the plaintiff has appealed from the judgment which followed.

[874]The appellant admits that the evidence is amply sufficient to support the verdict, but contends that two errors committed by the court require a reversal. It is first argued that the court erred in refusing ‘ ‘ to admit evidence of appellant’s costs of advertising respondent’s products.” So far as the record shows, the appellant was shown ‘‘a number of sheets of paper” by his counsel and asked what it was. He replied that it was ‘‘an inventory of business from 1937 up to and including ten months of 1946 ’ ’; that it was business done year by year, including purchases and advertising; that it was prepared by his bookkeeper, and that it represented a summary of his business for that period. It was then offered in evidence and an objection was sustained. The matter was then dropped, it was not marked for identification, and no offer of proof was made. It has not been brought before us in any manner and there is nothing to indicate whether or not any part of it was material, or whether or not its rejection could have prejudiced the appellant.