Roylance Co. v. Descalzi

Citations

• 243 Pa. 180
• 90 A. 55
• 1914 Pa. LEXIS 594

Syllabus

<p>Contracts — Parol evidence to vary ■written contracts — Words •with special trade significance — Evidence to show meaning — Sales —Contracts of sales — Locus of contract.</p> <p>1. Where a word with a special meaning or a trade phrase dppears in a contract, it is competent if justice so requires to introduce evidence to show the real sense in' which the words were used, or that they have a generally known fixed trade significance;- -hut where a word has a common or generally accepted ordinary meaning, that meaning will be supposed to have been the one intended, unless it be plain from the context or is properly made to appear that the word was used in some other sense.</p> <p>2. A contract between a .Utah corporation and a Pennsylvania firm for the'sale of fruit to the Pennsylvania firm is properly designated a Utah contract, where it appears that all the correspondence centered' at a point in Utah and that the contract was for the-sale of Utah' pears f. o. b. cars in that state.</p> <p>3. Where in a contract a special trade meaning is alleged to be the proper méaning of a word used, the party setting up the special medning of such term must show that the word in question had d uniform established' trade significance or an established local trade meaning at the place where the contract was made, or that the other party to the contract knew of .the alleged special meaning; otherwise the word will be taken in its ordinary meaning.</p> <p>■’4. In an action of assumpsit to recover'damages for the breach of a contract to purchase pears, it appeared that defendants, a, Pennsylvania firm, had agreed to buy of plaintiff, a Utah corporation, “strictly fancy” pears f. o. b. cars Utah; that plaintiff delivered the pears to a railroad company, but that on the arrival of the pears defendants refused to accept them. Plaintiffs thereupon sold the pears and sought to recover the difference’between the contract price and the price realized. It appeared that there were known to th