Trinidad Asphalt Mfg. Co. v. Trinidad Asphalt Refining Co.

Citations

• 119 F. 134
• 55 C.C.A. 566
• 1902 U.S. App. LEXIS 4652

Syllabus

<p>1. Sales—Refusal to Fill Orders—Action for Damages—Evidence—Admissibility.</p> <p>A contract for the sale of asphalt and cement contained stipulations binding the buyer to use the goods exclusively in its own trade and for roofs and sidewalks, and authorized the seller to cancel it in case the buyer should sell or use the same other than as so provided. The buyer claimed damages arising from the seller’s cancellation of the contract and refusal to fill orders. Held, that testimony as to whether the seller knew that the buyer was handling other asphalts was irrelevant.</p> <p>8. Same.</p> <p>Since the contract merely required the seller to furnish to the buyer the materials designated for the latter’s exclusive use in its own trade, and did not permit the buyer, to make contracts with third parties, and require the seller to fill them, the court properly allowed a witness for the buyer to be asked on cross-examination if he did not know, when he made a contract with a third party, that the buyer’s contract with the seller had about expired, as the answer might have a bearing on the orders for materials for the nondelivery of which the buyer claimed damages.</p> <p>8. Same—Breach of Stipulation—Defense.</p> <p>The fact that a seller was anxious to be relieved from a contract requiring it to sell materials did not furnish the buyer an excuse for committing a breach of the stipulation binding it to use the materials so purchased exclusively in its own trade.</p> <p>4. Same—Evidence—Admissibility.</p> <p>Since it was competent for the seller to show that materials ordered by the buyer, for the nondelivery of which the buyer claimed damages, were not ordered in good faith for the buyer’s exclusive use, as required by its contract, but to fill contracts made with third parties, the admission in evidence of a contract between the buyer and a third party, whereby the former agreed to furnish materials to the latter, was proper.</p> <p>5. Same—Damages for Nondelivery.</p>