Home > Journals > Michigan Law Review > MLR > Volume 47 > Issue 5 (1949)
Abstract
Defendant, a produce dealer, offered to sell to plaintiff a specified quantity of Texas "New Crop U.S. 1 blackeye peas." When the original offer was made on June 13, 1947, plaintiff asked how defendant could be sure the peas would be ''No. 1.'' Defendant replied that because the locality of Dilley, Texas, had been unusually dry, the pea crop would be sold as dry ''blackeyes;" defendant also stated that he had already made a contract to purchase 7,000 bags of these "blackeyes" from a certain canning company. On June 16 the contract for 800 bags of peas was consummated, delivery to plaintiff to be made on or before June 30, 1947. A few days later, the entire pea crop in the locality of Dilley was destroyed by a torrential rainfall. In spite of exhaustive efforts to obtain "U.S. 1 blackeyes" from other parts of Texas, defendant was unable to do so. The trial court found that the contract did not contemplate delivery of peas from any particular locality and that delivery of peas of the quality contracted for from the state of Texas was not made impossible by an act of God. Plaintiff recovered judgment and defendant appealed. Held, reversed. The contract contemplated delivery from a specific crop from a particular locality. The subject matter of the contract had been destroyed by an act of God, discharging defendant's duty to perform. Pearce-Young-Angel Co., Inc. v. Charles R. Allen, Inc., (S.C. 1948) 50 S.E. (2d) 698.
Recommended Citation
John C. Walker,
CONTRACTS-IMPOSSIBILITY-EFFECT OF CROP FAILURE ON MIDDLEMAN'S CONTRACT,
47
Mich. L. Rev.
711
(1949).
Available at:
https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol47/iss5/13