Forsman v. Mace

Citations

• 111 La. 28
• 35 So. 372
• 1903 La. LEXIS 485

Syllabus

<p>SALE — CONSTRUCTION OF CONTRACT — RETAINING TITLE—PERFORMANCE.</p> <p>1. Where a logging contract was sold, and a logging outfit was agreed to be sold wherewith to carry out the logging contract, at a lump price for both, and both were delivered, the price being payable unconditionally at a fixed date, but no date being fixed for the carrying out of the agreement to sell, nor any stipulation made for the payment of rent or other indemnity for the use of the logging outfit, consisting of oxen, wagons, etc., held, that the contract was a sale of the logging outfit, notwithstanding a stipulation, inserted for the security of the vendor, that the outfit should continue to be the property of the vendor until the logging contract had been carried out and the price of the sale paid.</p> <p>2. As expressly provided by the Code, the possibility or impossibility of performing a contract, so that the contractor should be released, must be determined, not by the means or ability of the party to fulfill his agreement, but by the nature of the thing which forms the object of it.</p> <p>3. When three persons, of whom two are experienced timbermen, buy a logging contract and logging outfit after inspection, and after full opportunity for careful and thorough inspection, the purchasers cannot be relieved from their contract on the plea that the oxen composing the outfit were in bad condition, and that the quantity and the distance of the timber were misrepresented, especially where any representations that may have been made regarding the quantity of the timber did not purport to be based upon a computation made by experts.</p> <p>(Syllabus by the Court.)</p>