Majority
Headnote
Where a contract was made for the sale and delivery, within a given period, of 100 tons of pressed hay, to be paid for at a specified price per ton, part in advance and the residue when the whole quantity should be delivered, and the vendor, within the time stipulated, delivered only about one half of the specified quantity, and then brought his action to recover for the quantity delivered, at the stipulated price ; it was held, that the delivery of the whole quantity was a condition precedent, and that the plaintiff was not entitled to sustain his action : the defendant on his part not having waived or prevented a full performance.After advisement, the following opinion was delivered:
[192] [193] This is an action to recover compensation for the value of hay delivered in part performance of a contract to deliver a larger quantity, and to be paid for when the whole was delivered. From the facts stated in the special verdict, there is no doubt that the non-performance of the contract in full, has never been waived by any act of the defendant; and it is also very probable,
[194] If any action can be sustained in such a case, by the party who has failed to perform his contract, without any fault or acquiescence or waiver of a strict performance by the party who has received the benefit of the part performance, it must be upon the equitable principle recognized by the supreme court of New Hampshire in Button v. Turner, (6 N. Hamp. R. 492.) The principle adopted in the ease referred to is, that it is unconscientious and inequitable for a party who has been actually benefited by the Dart performance of a contract, above or
(a) (a) The judgment of the supreme court, now affirmed upon writ of error by the court of dernier resort in this state, being in direct conflict with the case of Oxendale v. Witherell, (9 Barn. & Cress. 386,) decided in the king’s bench of England in 1829, the following review of the cases cited and urged in argument by the counsel for the plaintiff in error, in support of the decision of Oxendale v. Witherell, is submitted by the reporter to the profession. The first case which will be noticed is that of Barker v. Sutton, decided at the Norfolk assizes in 1662, found in Comyn's Dig. til. Action, (F. 2.) This case was decided at a time when the courts almost invariably founded their construction of the dependency or independency of covo nants and agreements on artificiál and subtle distinctions, without regarding the intent and meaning of the parties, and too often held agreements in contracts of the kind in question as independent, contrary to the real sense of the parties and the true justice of the case, so that where there were covenants on both sides, and an action was.brought by one party for the nonperformance of the other, he was permitted to recover, although the plaintiff had wholly failed to perform the stipulations on bis part, and the only remedy allowed to the defendant was a cross-action. This was the principle of the decision in Barker v. Sutton, as is manifest from the report of the case in Trials per pais, 499. The principle of that decision has, however, long since been repudiated both in England and in this state, and the rule now is, that covenants. &c., are to be construed to be either dependent or independent, according to the intention and meaning of the parties, collected from the terms of the contract and the good sense of the case, without regard to technicalities or the collocation of the several stipulations. The case of Barker v. Sutton came under the review of the supreme court of this state, in McMillan v. Vanderlip, (12 Johns. R. 165.) and was refused to he recognized as law. It is believed that from the time of the decision of Barker v. Sutton, in 1662, until the argument of the case of McMillan v. Vanderlip, *106 in 1815, a period of 153 years, that case was never cited as an authority or acted upon by a court, until the trial of this cause in 1833. (See also a note to the case of Champion v. Short, 1 Campb. 53.) Next in order is Boone v. Eyre, reported in a note to the case of The Duke of St. Albans v. Shore, (1 H. Black. 373.) Here, probably from considerations of the hardship of the case, Lord Mansfield was induced to lay down the rule, that “ where mutual covenants go only to a part of the consideration, where a breach may be paid for in damages, then the defendant has a remedy on his covenant, and shall not plead it as a condition precedent.” This rule, though perhaps it may be justified as applied to a question of special pleading arising on demurrer, it is humbly submitted, is indefensible when sought to be applied in settling the rights of parties on the merits, on the trial of a cause. The result of the rule is, that the dependence or independence of covenants is to be determined, not by a construction of the contract itself, but by facts subsequently transpiring, although there be no waiver of performance of a condition precedent ; that although when the contract is entered into, the covenants go to the whole consideration on both sides, are mutual conditions, the one precedent to the other, yet that the fact of a part performance destroys the whole character of the contract, and renders that an independent which was before a dependent covenant. This case, although recognized as good law in Campbell v. Jones, (6 T. R. 572,) was virtually overruled in Glazebrook v. Woodrow, (8 id. 366); and even Campbell v. Jones was not wholly founded upon it. It was, however, subsequently recognized in England in 10 East, 306 and 564, and in 13 id. 387, and was acted upon in this state in 7 Johns. R. 250, 7 Wendell, 112, and 11 id. 67; but, in almost every case jn which it has been recognized, it has been conceded by the judges, that if the terms of the contract be such as to leave no doubt of the intention of the parties that performance should, precede payment, the courts cannot do otherwise than to carry such intention into effect. Waddington v. Oliver, (5 Bos. & Pul. 50,) or at least the latter clause of the opinion delivered in tliat case, was also relied on by the counsel for the plaintiff in error. In this case, an agreement was entered into in September, 1804, whereby the plaintiff agreed to sell to the defendant 100 bags of hops, at 56 shillings per 100, to be delivered before the first of January, 1805. On the twelfth day of December, the plaintiff delivered 13 bags, and on the next day brought a suit for the recovery of the value of the hops delivered. It was held by the court that the action did not lie, that the contract being entire, could not be split up, and that an action would not lie until the whole quantity was delivered, or until the time for delivering the whole quantity had arrived. If the case be correctly reported, and the court in the latter clause of the opinion meant to say, that the plaintiff would be entitled to his action by showing a delivery of part of the hops, provided he waited to bring his action until the time should have elapsed in which the whole, quantity was to have been delivered according to the terms of the agreement, then it is.but a repetition of the rules laid down in Barker v. Sutton, viz : “ Rule 3. The time being past, it is now a duty, and indebitatus assumpsit lies,” and “ Rule 4. The defendant has his remedy for non-delivering the residue," which rules, it is trusted, have been shown to have been long since exploded. It is supposed, however, that perhaps the whole difficulty of this case is attributable to a typographical error in the printing of the word or, for the word nor, in the concluding naragraph of the opinion ; for it is incredible that the court *107 meant to lay down the position, that the right of action, which depended upon the delivery of the whole quantity, could accrue by the delivery of a part and the mere lapse of time. In M'Millan v. Vanderlip, the late Chief Justice Spencer observed, in reference to this last clause in the opinion in Waddington v. Oliver, that he could not perceive the grounds on which it rested; and perhaps it is not too much to add that they are not discoverable by human intellect. When the time for performance is elapsed, and the default of the party is consummated, upon what principle of law can it be said that he has then a right of action which he had not before ? Linningdale v. Livingston, (10 Johns. R. 36,) was also cited. The decision in this case does not recognize the principle of the case of Oxendale v. Witherell, but is founded on the familiar principle that where performance in full on the part of the plaintiff has become impossible by the act of the defendant, and there has been a performance in part, an action lies. Chief Justice Spencer, in subsequently commenting upon this case in Jennings v. Camp, (13 Johns. R. 97,) says, that “ the position” laid down in that case “ never was intended to embrace the case of a wilful dereliction of the contract when partly executed, by one of the parties, without the assent and against the will of the other.” The counsel for the plaintiff in error also cited Bennett v. Pixley’s ex’rs, (7 Johns. R. 250,) and Tompkins v. Elliot, (5 Wendell, 496.) In the first of these cases, it is conceded that the court repose themselves on the decision in Boone v. Eyre, respecting which the reader is referred to the observations made above; but in the second case, though Boone v. Eyre is referred to, the decision of the court is expressly put upon the ground that the covenants were independent. The note of Serjeant Williams, attached to the case of Pordage v. Cole, (1 Saund. 320,) is the only remaining authority cited, upon which an observation will be ventured. It is gratefully admitted that the best rules as to the construction of covenants, &c., whether dependent or independent, with which the profession have been favored, are to be found in this note. The learned annotator has done much to scatter the mist in which the subject was involved, but it is respectfully submitted, when he laid down his third general rule, as deduced from the case of Boone v. Eyre, that he was not as successful as he was in respect to his other rules: for if it be true that it is the duty of courts to carry into effect the contracts of parties, then in a case where it is manifest upon the most liberal construction of the contract itself, and even taking into view a part performance of the contract as evidence of intention, that it was the intent and meaning of the parlies that performance should precede payment, the rule of Serj. Williams that a part performance will authorize an action, and that the opposite party is driven to his suit to recover damages for the non-performance of the residue, cannot be law.
If the' majority of the court agree with me in the conclusion at which I have arrived "upon the first point, the judgment should be affirmed; but if they agree with me upon the last point, and not upon the first, the writ of error should be dismissed ; so that the plaintiff in error may seek his remedy, if he" has any, by an application to the supreme court.
For the reasons before stated, I must vote for an affirmance of the judgment.
On the question being put, Shall this judgment he reversed ? the members of the court divided as follows :
In the affirmative: Senators Beckwith, J. P. Jones, Loomis, Paige, Speaker, Tallmadge, Wager, Willes, Works—9.
[200] In the negative: The President of the Senaté, the Chancellor, and Senators Armstrong, J. Beardsley, L. Beardsley, Downing, Ed wards, Fox, Johnson, H. F.*Jones, Lacy, McLean, Powers, Sterling, Tracy, Van Dyck—16.
Whereupon the judgment of the supreme court was affirmed.