286 Mass. 349 | Mass. | 1934
This is an action of contract brought to recover $3,050' paid as the purchase price of six bronze propeller blades and a condenser. The contract was made by Gordon and Gerber, copartners, as vendees with the defendant as vendor. Gerber died after this action was brought and the case is being prosecuted by Gordon who will be called the plaintiff. The case was tried by a judge without a jury who made a finding setting out the facts and his decision. The pertinent facts are these: A considerable amount of heavy machinery, boilers and other-equipment, including a condenser which weighed a number of tons and the propeller from the steamship “John Jay,” were stored on a wharf of the defendant. The propeller had four bronze blades each weighing about two and a
Just before the close of the evidence the defendant called as a witness the superintendent of the Atlantic Works of the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Ltd. He testified that as such superintendent he had had charge of the repairs and alterations of the steamship “John Jay” and for the defendant delivered at its wharf by lighter the condenser, propeller and other .equipment taken from the “John Jay” and later for the defendant fished out of the water and placed on the remaining part of the wharf that which had fallen into the water when the wharf collapsed, and on cross-examination that the two spare propeller blades belonging to the “John Jay” were never brought to the wharf of the defendant and were at the Atlantic Works when he left its employ in July, 1932. Notwithstanding the admissions of the defendant already recited and the testimony of the employee called by the plaintiff the judge believed the testimony of the superintendent of the Atlantic Works and found as a fact that the spare blades were not on the defendant’s wharf on May 14, 1930, nor at any time thereafter, but were at the Atlantic Works and there was nothing to prevent the plaintiff from taking possession of them. The trial judge made a further finding in these words: “No evidence was offered that the Atlantic Works had notice of the sale until after the collapse of the wharf, or had at any time acknowledged to the plaintiffs that it held the two spare propeller blades on their behalf. I deem it to be a reasonable inference from the evidence, and I so find, that the deceased Gerber did not know that the two spare propeller blades were not on the wharf on May 14, 1930. I find further that neither Ludwig nor the plaintiff Gordon nor any agent or employee of either party knew that the spare propeller blades were not on the wharf on May 14, 1930, until it appeared in evidence in the last few minutes of the trial.” The trial judge upon all the evidence and inferences reasonably to be drawn therefrom found and
It has been earnestly and plausibly argued that some of these findings of fact are not warranted by the evidence. In this connection special emphasis is placed on the findings (1) that the two propelior blades not attached to the hub were the spare propeller blades from the “John Jay” and (2) that those two blades never were on the wharf of the defendant but remained at the Atlantic Works. This is an action at law. All the material evidence is reported. In these circumstances the governing rule is that the general and special findings of the trial judge must stand, if warranted in law upon any view of the evidence. It is not the function of this court to pass upon the credibility of witnesses or the weight of the evidence, much less to make our own decision of facts. The only question to be determined is whether upon the evidence with all rational inferences of which it is susceptible the findings can be sustained. Moss v. Old Colony Trust Co. 246 Mass. 139, 143, and cases cited. It is not necessary to summarize the testimony. In our opinion it cannot be rightly held that the findings of fact are without support in evidence.
The defendant contends that the evidence offered by the plaintiff in the form of a notice to the defendant to admit facts with respect to the six propeller blades being upon the wharf on May 14, 1930, is binding upon the plaintiff and that no finding to the contrary was permissible. The soundness of this contention depends upon the meaning of G. L. c. 231, § 69. That section, as amended, so far as here material is in these words: “In any action at law . . . a party by written demand filed in the clerk’s office and notice given by copy thereof to the other party or his attorney, not less than ten days before the trial of the action . . . may call upon the other party to admit, for the purposes of the case only, any material fact or facts .... If no answer is filed in the clerk’s office within
The statute was designed to enable the parties to reduce the case before trial to the matters really in controversy between them and thus to save expense to themselves and to the public by shortening the time required for hearing and to avoid confusion arising from the multiplicity of issues. First Report of Judicial Council, page 43. The statute while important and liberalizing in some respects is limited in scope in other aspects. The demand and answers are not in the case at all until offered by the party who filed the demand. There is no provision that the party making the answers may offer them. There is no mandate that the demand and answers shall be taken as facts for the purpose of the trial. When the demand and answers are offered by the party who. filed the demand they are simply to be “admitted in evidence.” The statute makes no declaration as to their quality as evidence. It does not provide that they shall become binding upon both parties. There is no declaration that the party making the demand or the party making the answers shall be bound by them. In this respect the statute is significantly different from that relating to pleadings where each party as well as the court is bound by his allegations.
The plaintiff was not bound by the answers by the defendant to the interrogatories put by him although he offered them in evidence, because there was evidence to contradict them. Gordon v. Bedard, 265 Mass. 408, 411.
The ruling that the title to the goods described in the contract did not pass to the plaintiff cannot be pronounced erroneous. The contract being for a sale of specified articles for a single sum was entire and not separable. Fullam v. Wright & Colton Wire Cloth Co. 196 Mass. 474, 476.
It 'follows from these considerations and principles that the mistake might have been found to be mutual and to relate to a substantial matter.
Exceptions overruled.