222 A.2d 708 | D.C. | 1966
Plaintiff, an electronics firm, sued Georgetown University for the purchase price of a gas chromatograph with related equipment.
The purchase order called for an “AU-8 EIR CHROMATOGRAPH”, and specified neither a transistorized circuit nor a tube-type circuitry, but the University was allowed to give testimony that it had been orally assured by plaintiff’s representatives that if an “AU-8 EIR CHROMATOGRAPH” was ordered, a chromatograph with transistors would be supplied. On the basis of this testimony the trial court found in favor of the University. Plaintiff has appealed and contends that the trial court in admitting the testimony of the University permitted a written contract to be varied by oral testimony. The University says the effect of this testimony was not to vary the contract but to explain an ambiguity in its language. We agree with the University.
As the purchase order did not specify the type of power supply, the technical term “AU-8 EIR CHROMATOGRAPH” was ambiguous, as obviously some type of supply was necessary. This ambiguity permitted — indeed, required — testimony to aid the court in ascertaining the intention of the parties when they used that term in the contract.
Affirmed.
. The instrument, it was testified, is used in the biochemical sciences to separate, identify, and measure minute trace amounts of materials.
. Dixon v. Wilson, D.C.App., 192 A.2d 289 (1963); District of Columbia v. Northeastern Const. Co., 63 App.D.C. 175, 70 F.2d 779 (1934); Loonsk Bros. v. Sinclair Motor Corporation, 254 App.Div. 137, 4 N.Y.S.2d 416 (1938); 9 Wigmore, Evidence, § 2465 (3d ed. 1940).