Seattle, Renton & Southern Railway Co. v. Seattle-Tacoma Power Co.

Citations

• 63 Wash. 639
• 116 P. 289
• 1911 Wash. LEXIS 1259

Syllabus

<p>Accord and Satisfaction — Partial Payments — Consideration— Protests — Evidence—Sufficiency. Under a contract for an electric current at a specified rate, which, further provided for a minimum payment of $1,000 per month, there is no accord and satisfaction, every essential feature being lacking, where checks for $1,000 were sent monthly with a claim of a payment in full, but the power company returned the vouchers therefor unsigned with the statement that the payments were ap’plied upon account only, and in the dispute that arose, the customer expressed a willingness to pay whatever moneys were justly due, to take up and settle the question, and continued making the payments of $1,000, confessed as due, until such time; there being no consideration for an accord and satisfaction.</p> <p>Electricity — Supply—Action for Price — Contract—Method of Calculation — Defenses. Where the amount due from a railroad company to a power company for electric current was calculated in one of the two methods provided for in the contract, the railroad company cannot be heard to say that it was not a proper method; and it is immaterial that bills rendered for current varied slightly from the evidence, under an accurate computation by instruments as against computations by eye reading át the time the bills were prepared.</p> <p>Same — Defenses. Where a railroad company, a heavy consumer of electric current, never tested a meter for accuracy, as it might have done under its contract for power, in an action for the price of current, little credit should be given to its claim of inaccuracy of the meter.</p> <p>Same — Supply—Performance of Contract. The fact that the voltage dropped a little below that required by a contract for electric current, on a few occasions, is no defense to an action for the price, where the consumer was not damaged by lack of power and received all the current it required.</p>