Hampel v. Mozambique Trading & Plantation Co.

Headnote

Hampelv. Mozambique Trading & Plantation Co., 178 App. Div. 918 , affirmed.

Appeal from a judgment of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the first judicial department, entered May 31, 1917, affirming a judgment in favor of plaintiff entered upon a verdict directed by the court in an action

for breach of contract. The complaint alleged the breach of a contract whereunder defendant agreed to ship from Portuguese East Africa 1,000 tons mangrove bark during the months January-March, 1915, and deliver same at port of New York to Ladenburg, Thalmann & Co. on terms stated. The breach alleged was the defendant’s failure and refusal to make shipment, or to deliver either the shipping documents or the bark. Ladenburg, Thalmann & Co. assigned the cause of action to the plaintiff herein. The answer admitted failure to deliver the bark; denied that Ladenburg, Thalmann & Co. performed all the conditions on their part to be performed, and pleaded as a first defense that the time for performance had been indefinitely postponed by agreement of the parties. As a second defense defendant pleaded that the contract had been abandoned and rescinded and performance thereof waived. The fourth defense alleged that German subjects residing in Hamburg were the real plaintiffs in the action and set up the French decree of September 27, 1914, which declared null and void all contracts made in French territory with German subjects. The fifth defense set up the German decree which forbade German subjects to make payment, directly or indirectly, or in any way to transfer money to France.