Guillon v. Earnshaw

Citations

• 169 Pa. 463
• 32 A. 545
• 1895 Pa. LEXIS 1115

Syllabus

<p>Contract— Custom — Evidence.</p> <p>Where terms are used in a contract which are known and understood by a particular class of persons in a certain special or peculiar sense, evidence to that effect is admissible, for the purpose of applying the instrument to its proper separate matter.</p> <p>Defendant agreed in writing to purchase from plaintiffs all the dry iron ore of usual quality -which plaintiffs can collect from the San Anisetto mine during the rest of the year, up to ten thousand tons or thereabouts, at the price of six shillings per ton of 2240 lbs., f. o. b. Cartagena, guaranteed to contain a yield of fifty per cent of iron in the natural state, with a sliding scale at the rate of three pence per unit additional for every unit over fifty per cent, and with a deduction of four pence per unit for every unit under fifty per cent. Plaintiff offered to prove that it was the custom at Cartagena to fix a standard of fifty per cent with a sliding scale to regulate the price according to the result of the assay of the cargo when discharged; that when a sliding scale was thus fixed for the rise or fall of the price of iron or-e, the purchaser was obliged to receive the mineral, provided it did not go below forty-five per cent or forty-six per cent. Defendant claimed that the ore showed only forty-eight and forty-nine per cent of iron. Held, that the testimony as to the custom of the trade at Cartagena was admissible.</p> <p>Contract — Measure of damages.</p> <p>Where a vendor stands in the attitude of complete performance on his part, and the vendee refuses to receive the goods, the vendor may sell the goods for the market price at the place of delivery, but in making the sale he is bound to exercise reasonable and intelligent judgment in ascertaining the market price at that point.</p> <p>In such a case it is immaterial that the vendor mixes with the goocls an inferior grade of goods to further the sale of the whole. If such mixture results in a less price than