Case ID: wash_8/html/0647-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Scott, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

[No. 1080.
    Decided May 1, 1894.]
    Whitman Agricultural Company, Respondent, v. H. B. Strand, Appellant.
    
    CONTRACTS OF FOREIGN CORPORATION — VALIDITY — SALE — RESCISSION.
    A contract with a foreign corporation cannot be repudiated on the ground that such corporation has not complied with the law relative to foreign corporations doing business in this state.
    An order for goods cannot be rescinded on the ground that it is an executory contract, when the sale has been consummated by delivery to the carrier for shipment prior to the receipt of a countermand by mail.
    
      Appeal from, Superior Court, Whatcom Coimty.
    
    
      Fairchild <& Rawson, for appellant.
    
      Black <& Beaming, for respondent.
   The opinion of the court was delivered by

Scott, J.

— Appellant ordered certain machinery of respondent to be shipped from St. Louis, Missouri. The respondent was a foreign corporation, and had taken no steps to comply with the law relating to foreign corporations doing business in this state. Appellant wrote to respondent countermanding said order, but the letter was not received until after the goods were shipped. This action was brought by respondent to collect the purchase price for said machinery, and judgment was rendered in its favor.

Appellant contends that the contract was void by reason of the facts stated, and, if otherwise, that he had a right to rescind the same on the ground that the contract was still an executory one.

We have heretofore held, in Dearborn Foundry Co. v. Augustine, 6 Wash. 67 (31 Pac. 327), that such contracts are not void, and the last point is not well taken, for the sale was consummated by delivery to the carrier. The countermand was ineffectual until received by respondent, and the mail was the agent of appellant. Benjamin, Sales (ed. 1888), §181; 5 Lawson, Rights & Rem., §2233.

Affirmed.

Dunbar, C. J., and Anders, Hott and Stiles, JJ., concur.