Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Co. v. Hoyt

Citations

• 149 U.S. 1
• 13 S. Ct. 779
• 37 L. Ed. 625
• 1893 U.S. LEXIS 2267

Syllabus

<p>When the record contains special findings of fact, but no bill of exceptions, the errors of law relied upon by a plaintiff in error must be considered and determined upon the findings.</p> <p>If a contracting party absolutely binds himself to perform things which subsequently become impossible of performance, or to pay damages for the nonperformance thereof, and the thing which .causes the impossibility might have been foreseen and guarded against in the contract, or arose; from the act or default of the promisor, he will be held to the strict performance of his contract; but if the cause of the impossibility be of such a character that it cannot reasonably be supposed to have been in the contemplation of the contracting parties when the contract was-made, he will not be held bound by general words, which, though large enough to include it, were not used with reference to the possibility of the particular contingency which afterwards happened.</p> <p>A railway company and several individuals entered into a contract for the construction of a grain-elevator by the latter, wherein the company agreed “ that the total amount of grain received at said elevators shall be at least five liullion bushels- on an average for each year during the term of this leasd; and in case it shall fall short of that amount the said party of the first part agrees to pay to the said party of the second part one cent per bushel on the amount of such deficiency, settlements to be made at the close of each year; and whenever it shall appear at the close of any year that the total of grain received during so much of the term of this lease as shall then have elapsed does not amount* to an average of five million bushels for each year, the party of the first part shall pay to the parties of the second part one cent per bushel for the amount of such deficiency; but, in case it shall afterwards appear that the total amount received up to that time equals or exceeds the average amount of five mill