99 A.D.2d 417 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1984
Lead Opinion
Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Wallach, J.), entered February 3,1983, denying defendant’s motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint, affirmed, with costs and disbursements. Plaintiff instituted this action to recover the balance due for plywood paneling sold and delivered by it to defendant. Defendant claims that some of the paneling was defective; that it requested plaintiff to remove the defective goods; but that plaintiff’s salesman, Greenbaum, asked it to retain the goods, sell them as lower grade material, and take a 50% discount from the invoice price. Plaintiff contends that defendant was to pay 50% on account, with the balance to be determined by future negotiation. On April 18,1980 defendant sent a letter to plaintiff in which it listed the total figures on the invoices ($21,055.36) and claimed a credit due of $10,527.68. The letter ended with a request to plaintiff to “[pjlease advise”. Plaintiff did not respond. On April 29, 1980, defendant sent a check to plaintiff for $13,352.88, with the notation “Payment in full” on the front of the check, underneath the reference box in the upper left-hand
Dissenting Opinion
dissent in a memorandum by Alexander, J., as follows: In my view the order below should be reversed and the defendant’s motion for summary judgment granted. Both Special Term and the majority focus undue attention upon and attach undeserved importance to the words “Please advise” inscribed on the defendant’s letter of April 18, addressed to Larry Greenbaum, salesman for the plaintiff. Defendant has asserted and the plaintiff has not denied, that soon after the defective condition of the paneling became apparent, he complained to the plaintiff and invited the plaintiff to inspect the goods. He asserts that Greenbaum and two other employees of the plaintiff visited his premises to inspect the defective goods. In the discussions in respect thereto, Greenbaum agreed that the goods were defective and requested that they be retained by the defendant, and sold as lower grade material. Defendant was to take a 50% credit for these goods. The claimed defects related primarily to the birch and walnut paneling as outlined in the defendant’s letter of April 18, 1980. Thus, Greenbaum’s carefully worded affidavit to the effect that “We agreed that defendant would make a partial payment of the amount of its check, $13,352.88 and that we would thereafter continue negotiating the remainder of defendant’s obligations on our invoices. At no time did we ever state that defendant’s said payment would be payment in full of all of our invoices. Any assertion to the effect that said payment would be payment in full is false” (emphasis added) does not constitute a denial of defendant’s assertion that an agreement was reached to settle the dispute in respect to the defective plywood paneling, by giving the defendant a credit of $10,527.68. Indeed the check only related to invoice TA 7409, which was for