Fairbanks Steam Shovel Co. v. Holt & Jeffery

Citations

• 79 Wash. 361
• 140 P. 394
• 1914 Wash. LEXIS 1205

Syllabus

<p>Evidence — Parol Evidence to Vary Writing — Complete Contract. A signed “order” for a secondhand dredge, briefly stating every essential of a contract, parties, consideration, time, subject-matter, and mutual assent, does not admit of parol evidence tending to modify and' enlarge it, after the dredge was delivered and partly paid for, on the theory that it was a mere “skeleton” of the contract and did not contain all the representations of the agent.</p> <p>Sales — Warranty — Breach — Secondhand Machine — Latent Discoverable Defects. Upon the sale of a secondhand dredge, an agreement to overhaul it and put it in “first class shape” is an express warranty that it would do the work for which it was intended and was free from structural defects, rendering the seller liable, where the boom stick was rotten on the inside, the defect was observable around certain bolts, and the only way to properly test the timbers was to bore into them.</p> <p>Same — Warranty—Breach—Waiver. Upon the sale of a secondhand dredge under an express warranty to put it into first class condition, five and one-half months is not an unreasonable time for use of the dredge without discovering a latent defect in the boom stick that was discoverable if a physical test had been made.</p> <p>Sales — Breach of Warranty — Measure of Damages. Upon breach of warranty of a secondhand dredge, which required a new boom stick, the measure of damages is not the amount paid out for a new stick, but only the reasonable cost thereof.</p>