249 F. 629 | 8th Cir. | 1918
The Barth Manufacturing Company, a corporation, doing business at Milwaukee, Wis., sued the Hart-Parr Company, a corporation, engaged in business in Charles City, Iowa, for S3,581.16 which it alleged was the reasonable value of labor and materials which it bestowed, at the request of the Hart-Parr Company, upon certain metal patterns and their accessories, made by it to be used by the Hart-Parr Company in the manufacture of castings for the engines of tractors. In this litigation these patterns are known as No. 4096, crank case; No. 4099, right cylinder;' and No. 4100, left cylinder. The Barth Company attached to its complaint a statement, which it called Exhibit C, of the number of hours of labor, the prices thereof per hour, the number of pounds of iron, the prices thereof per pound, the amount of other materials, and the prices thereof, which it alleged it had expended upon each of these patterns and their accessories, alleged that it had completed and delivered the crank case and the right
The Hart Company by its answer admitted that it had ordered the patterns, for the value of which the action was brought, and that the Barth Company had agreed to manufacture them. But it denied that the Barth Company furnished the work or material set forth in Exhibit C, that the cost or prices of the work there stated were fair, reasonable, or just, and that they were agreed to by it.‘ It averred that the crank case and accessories were furnished under a written contract evidenced by letters of July 20 and 25, 1912,'by which the Barth Company agreed to make the master pattern complete for the crank case job, including material, for $290, by which the Barth Company estimated the cost of the crank case and other accessories to be $365, and guaranteed that it should not require more than 912% hours of labor, nor cost more than $456.25 plus the cost of material as billed to it. The amount charged for the master pattern by the Barth Company, in its Exhibit C to its complaint, was $319, and the price charged therein for the crank case and other accessories was $1,798.45. The Hart Company alleged in its answer that tire Barth Company agreed that the labor cost for the right cylinder and its accessories should not exceed $456.25. The labor cost charged for this cylinder and its accessories in the Barth Company’s Exhibit C was $878.24. The Hart Company averred in its answer that the Barth Company agreed that the labor cost o'f the left cylinder should not exceed $187.50. The labor cost charged for this cylinder by the Barth Company in its Exhibit C was $348.59. The Hart Company pleaded in its answer .that the Barth Company failed to deliver either of the cylinders or their accessories within the time it agreed to furnish them, and that for that reason it had declined to accept them. It also set forth a counterclaim for $112.05 expended by it to make the crank case and core box conform to the order for them, for $93.70 it overpaid by mistake for the master pattern for the crank case, for $222.90 expenses incurred sending its shop superintendent and pattern foreman to Milwaukee, because tire Barth Company had failed to construct the cylinders according to the plans and specifications in due time, and for $17,162 loss and damage which it alleged were inflicted upon it in the conduct of its business by the unreasonable delay of the Barth Company in tire delivery of the metal patterns, in that the Hart Company was compelled to use woodexr patterns, instead of the expected metal patterns, during this delay.
The issues presented by these pleadings were tried out before the court and a jury, and at the close of the evidence the court instructed
In making up the amount of the verdict the court allowed the Barth Company, on account of the labor expended by it on the crank case and its accessories, other than the master pattern, $1,325.20 for 2,650.4 hours of labor at 50 cents an hour, and $296.06 for the value of iron, sheet metal, packing boxes, and lumber, making in all $1,621.26. In support of this conclusion there was evidence tending to show that in July, 1912, the Barth Company in writing estimated the labor on this crank case and accessories, excluding the master pattern, at 730 hours, costing $365, and guaranteed that it would not he more than 912% hours, costing $456; that subsequent changes were made in the work as it proceeded, and in December, 1912, the manager of the Barth Company, in answer to an inquiry by the shop manager and pattern foreman of the Hart Company, told the latter that it looked as though the crank case job plus the master pattern, which it will he remembered the Barth Company had agreed to make, before the slight change was made in the plan of it, for $290, was very likely to cost between $1,600 and $1,800.
In this state of the evidence the conclusion is unavoidable that the answers to the questions, what was the reasonable number of hours for which the Barth Company was lawfully entitled to recover on account of the crank case job and its accessories, other than the master pattern? what was the amount and character of the material necessarily used by the Barth Company in that job? and what was the reasonable value of that material? were conditioned by substantial evidence so clearly in conflict that the Hart Company was entitled to the finding of a jury upon them.
Ret the judgments below be reversed, and let the case be remanded to the court below for a new trial.