Source: https://openjurist.org/191/f2d/5/joseph-seagram-sons-v-bynum
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 08:23:51+00:00

Document:
JOSEPH E. SEAGRAM & SONS, Inc. et al.
Rehearing Denied Sept. 10, 1951.
Shields M. Goodwin, Little Rock, Ark., for appellants Joseph E. Seagrams & Sons Inc.
Longstreet Heiskell, Memphis, Tenn. and DuVal L. Purkins, Warren, Ark. (John Baxter, Dermott, Ark., on the briefs), for appellees Bynum et al.
The appellees in No. 14,213, appellants in No. 14,214, hereinafter referred to as the Bynums, brought suit in the district court against Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, Inc., and one of its affiliates, hereinafter referred to as Seagram, for specific performance of a contract of lease conveying a stave and heading mill to the lessees for a period of two years from August 1, 1945 (afterwards extended through July 31, 1950), for damages and an accounting; for a decree requiring the mill to be operated at its reasonable capacity for the entire term of the lease; for damages for the alleged breach and for an accounting under a contract for the manufacture of staves by a mill near Gleason, Tennessee; and for damages for an alleged breach of contracts of employment with three of the Bynums.
The lease of the plant at Dermott, Arkansas, provided for a fixed rental of $3,000 a month (afterwards reduced to $2,750 a month) and for 'additional' rentals for staves and heading produced during the month above a fixed minimum. The court granted judgment to the plaintiffs for such additional rentals accruing at the Dermott plant after May 31, 1947, and for other items in the amount of $173,201.77, with interest to April 5, 1950, in the amount of $22,549.46, or a total of $195,751.23, less credits in the amount of $88,752.92.
The court also found for the plaintiffs on their claim for additional rentals on the staves and heading produced or 'to be manufactured from the Gleason tract' and on the price of red oak timber sold from the tract in the amount of $31,821.70, with interest to April 5, 1950, in the amount of $2,892.74, or a total of $34,714.44.
For the alleged breach of the contracts of employment of three of the Bynums judgment was entered against the defendants for the total amount of $34,818.58.
The court denied the Bynums' claim that Seagram should operate the Dermott plant to its reasonable capacity for the full five-year term of the lease.
In No. 14,213 Seagram appealed from the judgments against it, and in No. 14,214, the Bynums filed a cross appeal from the denial of their claim that the Dermott plant was required to be operated at its reasonable capacity to the end of the five-year term of the lease.
The opinion of the district court is reported in 89 F.Supp. 780.
The two appeals were consolidated for submission to this court, and they may be disposed of in one opinion.
The leased plant at Dermott, Arkansas, was used for the manufacture of staves and heading for barrels. The term 'bourbon staves' means standard staves for use in making whiskey barrels. 'Oil staves' means all other staves 30 inches or more in length. A 'set' of staves means a sufficient number (18 to 28) of finished staves to make a barrel, and a 'set' of heading consists of one head for the top and one for the bottom of a barrel. A 'matched set' means the staves and heading necessary to make a complete barrel.
Seagram's first contention is that the court erred in fixing the amount of the judgment for 'additional' rentals and some other items in the amount of $195,751.23 for staves and heading manufactured at the Dermott plant after May 31, 1947. That plant was operated at capacity until June 27, 1947, after which date operations were curtailed, and the plant was finally closed on February 26, 1958, and it was not operated thereafter. Seagram contends that the correct amount due the plaintiffs for additional rentals and other items is only $39,145.88.
As observed, supra, the rentals reserved under the lease consisted of two elements, a fixed rental of $3,000 a month until June 28, 1946, and $2,750 a month thereafter until the end of the term. The fixed rentals were paid until the end of the term and are not in dispute.
'1. A sum equal to twenty per centum (20%) of the market price of all oil staves which during the term of this lease are manufactured and made ready for shipment at said plant.
'3. In the event the Lessee shall cause to be removed or shipped from the premises air dried and listed staves, such staves shall be included in determining the number of staves produced during each twelve months of the terms of this lease, and the Lessee shall pay to the Lessors sums equal to the percentages of the market price of such staves on the same basis and in the same manner as is provided in Paragraph 2 hereof.
'23. The fair average price at Louisville, Kentucky, for the monthly periods subsequent to May 31, 1947, after deducting cost of transportation in carload lots from Dermott, Arkansas, is $15.00 per set for finished bourbon staves; $5.00 per set for finished bourbon heading;. $2.80 per set for the finished oil staves, and $1.15 per set for finished oil heading.
It will be observed that the prices fixed by the court following May 31, 1947, were the same prices agreed upon by the parties at their conference on December 10, 1946, for the period prior to May 31, 1947. Seagram contends that in so finding the court erred.
While there was no current over-the-counter market for staves and heading at Louisville, Kentucky, nor anywhere else in the United States, after May 31, 1947, there were occasional sales of staves and heading and also of whiskey barrels at Louisville and elsewhere. This situation was due to the fact that after the war in Europe ended conditions affecting the market changed radically. One reason for this was the difficulty of the distillers to procure grain for making whiskey due to the 'Marshall Plan' which became effective and under which large quantities of grain were shipped to Europe. Another was the fact that during the war distillers had leased or purchased many stave and heading mills in which they manufactured a large part of their needed supply. Seagram had at one time 35 such mills.
In the circumstances, Seagram contends that market price should be based upon the prices for which staves and heading actually sold in several instances; that from a compilation of those prices an average could be found.
On the other hand the Bynums contend that the 'market price' should be computed upon the basis of the 'average' cost of production in the mills owned and operated by Seagram.
In its opinion the trial court did not discuss findings 23 and 24, supra. Therefore, we do not know upon what considerations such findings are based.
In this situation it is our duty to determine the correct rule of law to be applied to the evidence and then to decide whether the court applied the rule to attain the result found.
Clearly the sales relied upon by Seagram, and the cost of production of staves and heading after May 31, 1947, until the mill ceased operation on February 26, 1948, relied upon by the Bynums, are proper elements to be considered, but they are not the only factors or influences to be considered. Neither the law of supply and demand nor the cost of production may be ignored. All the elements entering into the concept of fairness must also be considered, because they must be assumed to have been the guiding rule in the minds of both parties when the contract was written. Tureman v. Altman, Mo. Sup., 239 S.W.2d 304, 309. Here no fraud had been charged, but the lessors have sought to obtain the highest rentals possible while the lessees have sought with equal stubbornness to obtain as low rentals as possible.
Judge Parker in United States ex rel. Tennessee Valley Authority v. Powelson, 4 Cir., 138 F.2d 343, 345, said: ' * * * Market value is nothing but a hypothetical concept based upon what, in the opinion of those who know, a willing buyer would have to pay a willing seller of property in order to purchase it.' See, also, Huber v. Moran, 8 Cir., 140 F.2d 823, 824; Shamrock Oil & Gas Corporation v. Coffee, 5 Cir., 140 F.2d 409.
Basing their arguments upon actual sales of staves and barrels during the period following May 31, 1947, appellants reached the conclusion that the fair market price of a set of unfinished bourbon staves was $10.70 and of a set of heading was $3.91. During this period finished bourbon barrels sold for prices ranging from $18 to $20 per barrel, and it was undisputed that the fair percentage of the total cost of a finished bourbon barrel attributable to the staves and heading required to make it is between 75 and 80 per cent. Upon the same theory appellants contend that for the same period the fair average value of air-dried and listed staves and heading was $9.90 and $2.75 per set respectively.
These estimates fail, we think, properly to consider the cost of production as an element of a fair price. They are too low. A fair and equitable appraisal of all the factors properly to be considered will result in a price somewhere between the price contended for by the lessors and found by the court and the price contended for by the lessees.
After May 31, 1947, and prior to February 26, 1948, when operations were suspended, there was shipped from the Dermott plant 20,749 sets of finished bourbon staves, on which the court awarded additional rentals based on the price of $15 a set in the amount of $55,047. The appellants, basing their computation on the price of $10.70, contend that the correct rentals should be $39,266.86. During the same period 11,568 sets of finished or 'circled' bourbon heading were shipped for which the court allowed rentals based upon the price of $5 a set in the amount of $11,568. Appellants, computing the rentals on the price of $3.91 per set, contend that the rentals should be only $9,046.18. In view of the conclusion we have reached above the court should reconsider the evidence and the factors affecting these prices and recompute the rentals accordingly.
Another item in dispute relates to additional rentals based on the sale of certain miscellaneous finished stock in storage at the plant in Dermott when operations finally ceased, which stock was later shipped and sold by Seagram on the open market. The total value of this stock was fixed by the Bynums at $15,401.77 and the total amount received by Seagram was $11,854.45. It was error to attribute a higher value to this stock than that which was received for it. The parties agree that the rate to be applied is 20%. The correct additional rental is, therefore, 20% of $11,854.35 or $2,370.89, instead of $3,081.35 as found by the court. The difference is $710.46 for which amount Seagram should be given credit on the judgment rendered.
At the time the Dermott mill suspended operations on February 26, 1948, large quantities of rough unfinished stock were on the yard consisting of bourbon staves, bourbon heading and oil staves and oil heading. It is agreed that 7401 sets of such rough or unfinished bourbon staves and heading were shipped from the Dermott plant during the lease year ending May 31, 1948. At the time of such shipments such rough stock was selling for $9.90 per set. The Bynums contended that had the mill not suspended operations all of such stock could have been finished at the plant and that, therefore, additional rentals should have been estimated on the theory that such stock had been finished at the mill and shipped out prior to May 31, 1948, and that it should take the price of $15 per set. On the other hand Seagram contended that it should take the market price prevailing in 1948 when it was shipped. The court fixed the market price at $12 per set and allowed a rental of 20% thereon amounting to $17,762.40 which in effect allocated the shipments to the year beginning May 31, 1947. Had the rental been estimated on the basis of the year beginning May 31, 1948, when the stock was actually shipped the rental would have been estimated at 15% on the basis of $9.90 per set instead of 20% at $12 per set. We find no explanation of this either in the opinion or in the findings of the court. We have considered the arguments of counsel for the Bynums, but we are convinced that the court erred in this regard. The rental under the terms of the contract and the interpretation placed upon it by the parties in the years preceding 1948 are convincing that the 15% rental rate should be applied to the selling price. The judgment should be corrected accordingly. A similar error occurred in estimating the rental on the item of 2,265 sets of oil staves on the yard. The correct basis is 15% and not 20%.
The same situation exists in the record in reference to the computation of additional rentals for rought bourbon heading on the yard when operations at the plant terminated. It is agreed that there were at that time 30,114 sets of such heading which the court valued at $4 per set for the purpose of estimating rentals. Seagram contends that the correct value of all such heading was $2.75 per set. The court should also reconsider this finding, giving due consideration to the price for which such rough heading could be purchased at the time it was shipped and as the market was thus influenced by the operation of the law of supply and demand.
Another item in dispute consisted of an estimated recovery of 10% of borubon staves and heading in the yard. Seagram contends that there was no evidence to support a finding that such recovery was possible. The evidence on this point was in conflict. The finding of the trial court cannot, therefore, be said to be clearly erroneous.
Seagram's objection is that the court estimated the market price of all this rough stock at the price of finished stock, that is at.$2.80 per set for rough bourbon staves and $1.15 and $1.00 for rough bourbon heading, whereas its market value in its rough unfinished condition did not exceed $4,938.65. On this basis the court's allowance was excessive in the amount of $16,446.87.
'4. A sum equal to twenty percentum (20%) of the market price of all heading for barrels which, during the term of this lease, is manufactured and made ready for shipment at said plant.' And they point to the fact that the lease makes no provision for shipping rough oil staves and heading from the plant.
The fact stands out clearly, however, that these rough staves and heading were not 'manufactured and made ready for shipment at said plant', and the finding of the court is inconsistent with its holding that the lessee was not required to operate the plant during the entire term of the lease. The undisputed evidence of Seagram that the market value of these staves and heading was no more than $4,938.65 should have been sustained, and the court erred in estimating their value on the basis of finished stock.
On the issue of the amount of Seagram's indebtedness to the Bynums as additional rentals upon stock produced at the Dermott plant after May 31, 1947, the judgment of the court is reversed and the case remanded with instructions to reconsider and recompute the amount thereof in accordance with the foregoing opinion.
The second question presented on the appeal is whether the lessees are liable to the lessors on account of additional rentals upon staves and heading produced by the lessees from timber near Gleason, Tennessee. The court entered judgment against the defendants on this issue in the amount of $34,714.44 as of April 5, 1950. The defendants contend that they are not liable to the plaintiffs in any amount on this claim.
The circumstances involved on this feature of the controversy may be briefly stated. In August, 1945, R. T. Wilkie, Seagram's agent, and W. W. Bynum, at Wilkie's request, met at Brownsville, Tennessee, to inspect a tract of timber. At Bynum's suggestion while there they inspected a tract owned by one Nants. Bynum claimed to be responsible for the discovery of the timber and claimed it as 'his proposition.' Seagram thereafter purchased the timber for $50,000, receiving a deed therefor November 26, 1945.
'1. That the contact was peculiarly yours.
'2. That the equipment other than motor transportation is being furnished from the leased property, and the supervision will be by the Bynum Brothers.
The 'equipment' referred to in paragraph 2 consisted of a portable stave mill at the plant at Dermott but not in use.
The Bynums rely upon this letter as a statement of the terms of the contract; and W. W. Bynum testified that he orally accepted its terms on two occasions thereafter.
The tract of timberland so acquired was wet and swampy, and there was no suitable place on it to locate the stave mill. Therefore, Wilkie on September 26, 1945, obtained for Seagram a two-year lease on eight acres of land near the timber tract to provide a place on which to locate the portable stave mill to be brought from Dermott.
The testimony shows that the timber purchased could not be logged during the winter months because the ground was too wet. Seagram's witnesses testified that they frequently urged Bynum during the winter and spring of 1945-6 to move the mill to the location near Gleason, Tennessee, and to put it in operation as soon as possible; but Bynum testified that Seagram's officers prevented them from moving at all times, although they insisted on doing so in June, 1946, and thereafter.
In January, 1946, Seagram acquired a stave mill at Jackson, Tennessee, not far from the Gleason tract of timber.
Thereafter the white oak timber from the Nants tract at Gleason, Tennessee, was manufactured into staves and heading at Jackson, Tennessee.
First, that the contract was void for want of mutuality because the Bynums neither as employees of Seagram nor as lessors were ever obligated to supervise the cutting of the Gleason timber; that the contract relied upon differed from the contract alleged in the complaint; that the Bynum brothers did nothing which they were not bound to do by their contracts of employment; and that they did not bind themselves to do anything more than they chose to do.
The evidence, however, warranted the court in finding that the contract was reduced to writing by Seagram's agent and accepted orally by the Bynums. Thus there were mutual promises imposing obligations upon both parties. This is sufficient to constitute a binding contract under the authority cited and relied upon by Seagram. Grayling Lumber Co. v. Hemingway, 124 Ark. 354, 187 S.W. 327.
The second contention is that even if valid, Seagram was warranted in rescinding the contract by reason of the lessor's abandonment and refusal to perform. Here, again, the evidence is in conflict. It is true that two witnesses testified that Seagram's officers urged the Bynums for 13 months to move the portable stave mill to the Gleason location and to begin operations there and they neglected and refused to do so, while only one witness, W. Wy. Bynum, testified to the contrary. But the veracity of the witnesses and the weight of the evidence were questions primarily for the trial court and this court cannot say that its finding is clearly erroneous. Rule 52(a), Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A.
There remains for consideration on this issue the holding of the court that Seagram should pay an additional rental of 15% of $25,000, or $3,750, based on the sale of the timber other than white oak on the Gleason tract.
Appellants' third contention is that the court erred in finding and holding that Seagram was liable to the three Bynums for their salaries as employees of Seagram subsequent to their discharge on November 1, 1948.
The court held that there was no justification for the discharge of the Bynums; that they were wrongfully discharged; and that each of them was entitled to his salary from November 1, 1948, to July 31, 1950, the date of the termination of the employment contracts, less the amounts required to be deducted for social security and federal income taxes. Judgment was accordingly entered in favor of W. H. Bynum for $14,376.20; in favor of W. W. Bynum for $12,233.20; and in favor of W. B. Bynum, Jr., for $8,209.12, all of said judgments to bear interest at six per cent per annum from April 5, 1950.
1. That the staves were not jointly counted.
2. That the staves were not inspected to determine the percentage of 30 inch bourbon staves suitable for that purpose.
The directive to deliver these cull staves was neither unreasonable nor trivial. The cull staves had been sold by Seagram for $1,000; and the refusal of its employees to deliver them constituted a breach of contract, rendering Seagram liable for such breach. A servant is bound to obey all reasonable orders of his employer; and his refusal to do so justifies his discharge. 35 Am.Jur., Master and Servant, Sec. 36, p. 471; Development Co. of America v. King, 2 Cir., 161 F. 91, 24 L.R.A., N.S., 812; S. Unterberger & Co. v. Wiley, 170 Ark. 976, 281 S.W. 899; Rife v. Mote, 210 Ark. 629, 197 S.W.2d 277; Von Heyne v. Tompkins, 89 Minn. 77, 93 N.W. 901, 5 L.R.A., N.S., 524; Compania Constructora Bechtel-McCone, S.A. v. McDonald, 9 Cir., 157 F.2d 749; United Autographic Co. v. Wight, 8 Cir., 272 F. 545, 552.
The case of Griffin Grocery Co. v. Thaxton, 178 Ark. 736, 11 S.W.2d 473, cited and relied upon by the court has no application here. In that case the employee was not only a servant, but a stockholder, director, vice-president, and manager of a branch house. To the extent of his holdings Thaxton was as interested in the company's business as Griffin, the president and owner of the controlling interest in the company. Here the Bynums had no financial interest in Seagram as stockholders. As lessors to Seagram of the mill property they were interested in the payment of rentals only. On the other hand their employment contracts, while entered into at the same time, were entirely distinct from and independent of the mill lease. These contracts were specific and unambiguous in their terms. The three Bynums as employees of the lessee were bound by their contracts of employment to obey the directives of their employer; and the record discloses no legal justification for their refusal to obey in the instance under consideration.
The judgment awarding W. H. Bynum, W. W. Bynum, and W. B. Bynum, Jr. their salaries subsequent to November 1, 1948, is erroneous.
On the direct appeal in No. 14,213 the judgment is reversed, and the case is remanded to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Upon this cross appeal the Bynums urge four points: 1. That the court erred in entering the judgment referred to in the preceding paragraph; (2) that the court erred in admitting testimony as to the discussion referred to in the court's opinion when the parties and their attorneys met to amend the lease October 19, 1945; 3. That the court erred in striking paragraphs 8 and 9 of the complaint and in excluding the testimony offered in support thereof; and 4. The court erred in excluding from the testimony exhibits 10 and 11, being certain government publications.
The Bynums do not contend that the lease expressly provides that the lessee shall operate the plant at its reasonable capacity to the end of the term or at all. Their contention is that the lease and the contracts of employment with three of the lessors must be read together as different writings executed at the same time between the same parties and relating to the same subject matter and that so construed there is an implied covenant on the part of the lessee so to operate the mill at capacity to the end of the term.
The controversy on this cross appeal involves only the amount of the 'additional' or percentage rentals provided for in the lease based upon the number of staves and heading produced in a lease year, that is, for each year beginning on August 1st. The 'fixed' rentals were paid to the end of the term, and the salaries of the three Bynums employed by Segram were paid until they were discharged for cause.
The first amendment to the lease under date of October 19, 1945, relieved Seagram from the obligation not to operate another plant within a radius of 100 miles of Dermott, Arkansas, as provided in the original lease; extended the term of the lease three years to July 31, 1950; and obligated Seagram and its affiliates not to divert any of its timber from the Dermott plant; to allocate to the Dermott plant one-third of its timber suitable for making tight cooperage within 100 miles of Dermott contracted after January 1, 1946, until the extended lease should terminate; and reduced the fixed monthly rental from $3,000 per month to $2,750 per month.
The three employment contracts were extended on the same date to July 31, 1950.
It is the lessors' contention that Seagram's obligation under the lease and employment contracts was to have operated the plant for the full term of the lease at its reasonable capacity to produce further additional rentals in the amount of $481,181.75, or at least in the amount of $165,966.95. These sums are in addition to the fixed rentals of $167,750 and $205,014.02 additional rentals which were paid on stock produced prior to the closing of the mill in 1948.
Seagram's contention is that, subject only to the obligation imposed upon it by the allocation-of-timber provision of the amendment of October 19, 1945, it had full power to operate the mill or not, as it might determine, the Bynum's protection against the possibility of the non-operation of the plant consisting of the unconditional obligation to pay a fixed rental for the full five-year term.
'21. Neither the original lease nor the amendments thereto contained any express covenant obligating Seagram to operate the Dermott plant at its reasonable productive capacity or to any extent.
To support their contention the Bynums point primarily to the additional percentage rentals provided for in the lease and the clauses in the employment contracts providing that each of the three Bynums was employed as a 'supervising operator for employer' of the leased stave mill; that each Bynum was to devote his entire time to such employment and to use his best efforts to operate the mill to capacity.
Here, however, the parties were not the same. The lease was executed by all the owners of the leased property, whereas the three employees owned only 45% of the leased property. Further, the purpose of the contracts was different. One was a lease; the others were employment contracts. The latter contracts were in no way dependent upon the lease. Nothing in the employment contracts depended upon the ownership of the leased property. None of the parties contended that the discharge of the Bynums on November 1, 1948, in any way affected their respective rights under the lease. See Phillips Peetroleum Co. v. Skinner, 140 Kan. 413, 36 P.2d 968, 969; Sinclair Refining Co. v. Stevens, 8 Cir., 123 F.2d 186, certiorari denied 315 U.S. 804, 62 S.Ct. 632, 86 L.Ed. 1203. It will be observed, also that the compensation of the Bynums as employees was not included in the rentals received. They were paid salaries personally and distinctly for their services as employees. Any one of them might have been discharged at any time for good cause.
The Bynums contend that additional or percentage rentals provided for in the lease obligated the lessee to operate the plant at capacity during the term of the lease. On this point the court in its opinion said: ' * * * the monthly rental which was unconditionally enjoined upon Seagram, whether it operated the mill or not, was inserted in the lease as a substitute for a covenant to operate except to the extent required by the allocation-of-timber provisions of the Amendment of October 19, 1945.' Further, it is clear that had Seagram been required to operate the plant at capacity during the term of the lease a fixed rental might easily have been agreed upon. A sliding scale of rentals in addition to a fixed rental would have been unnecessary. Or, assume that after the lease as written was executed necessary timber for operating the plant at capacity could not have been procured, could any one say that additional rentals should none-the-less be paid on the basis of capacity operation? We think the court correctly construed the lease in this regard. The expressed provisions of the lease alone must control. Industrial Products Mfg. Co. v. Jewett Lumber Co., 8 Cir., 185 F.2d 866, 869.
This testimony was admitted over the Bynums' objection that it was incompetent, but it was not denied. The argument is that such evidence is admissible only when necessary to show the construction which the parties have placed on an ambiguous contract; that the lease in this case is not ambiguous; and that the right to suspend operations under such a contract must be set out in the instrument itself to be available. As authority for this contention the case of Mayfair Operating Coproration v. Bessemer Properties, 150 Fla. 132, 7 So.2d 342, 343, is cited, in which opinion it is said: 'The nicety observed in constructing such leases in this Country would require that the right to suspend operating in the manner shown should be set out in the instrument to become available.' Reference to the opinion in that case discloses that it involved a lease for moving picture theatre, and that in addition to a fixed monthly rental the lessee agreed to pay 10% of the gross income in excess of $3,000 a year. But the lease also provided that the lessee should 'use its best efforts to obtain and maintain the highest volume of business on the premises.' There is no such provision in the lease here.
See, also, Asling v. McAllister-Fitzgerald Lumber Company, 120 Kan. 455, 244 P. 16, 46 A.L.R. 1127.
In the present case we do not think the lease is ambiguous. The court's decision on this point was right even though the testimony objected to as incompetent was not considered at all.
The Bynums next contend that the court erred in striking paragraphs 6 and 9 of the complaint. Paragraph 6 alleged that for many years prior to August 1, 1945, the date of the lease, the Bynum Cooperage Company operated the leased plant successfully and profitably; that it owned considerable timber; that its capital investment was $275,000; and that it paid its managing agents $9,000, $5,500 and $5,000 a year respectively. Paragraph 9 alleged that $3,000 rental per month, after taking into account taxes, insurance, depreciation and the loss of valuable timber rights is not sufficient to give lessors any return on their valuable property.
The court sustained a motion to strike these paragraphs, holding that both parties were precluded because the written agreement fixed the rental and that the value and earnings of the property were not in issue. Counsel say the theory of the court might be a true except for the fact that Seagram's emphasis was that the fixed monthly rental was inserted as the basic agreement of earnings anticipated by lessors. The court's theory is consistent, however, with the theory of the lessors at the time the lessee took the deposition of W. W. Bynum on February 26, 1949. Counsel for Seagram inquired and the witness testified to the cost of the plant and other matters relevant under paragraphs 6 and 9 of the complaint. At the conclusion of the direct examination counsel for Bynums moved to exclude all of the questions and answers of the witness, saying among other things: 'The contract fixed the rental and that speaks for itself and the rights of the parties were concluded by that agreement. Whether or not a good or bad trade was made for either Seagram or Bynums is not a matter at issue.' No argument of counsel could render the allegations of paragraphs 6 and 9 competent. The court did not err in striking them.
Exhibit 11 was entitled 'Report of the Federal Trade Commission on the Merger Movement', published in 1948, from which an excerpt beginning at the bottom of page 63 and continuing through page 69 was offered in evidence, together with charts of Seagram's Distilleries, National Distillers, Schenley's and others.
These exhibits were excluded on the ground that they consisted of opinions of some one who was stating his views on the subject and that they were immaterial.
It is true, of course, that statements in official documents are admissible in evidence in court when material to the issue on trial. However, it is difficult to perceive the materiality or relevance of these documents on the question whether the lease contract required Seagram to operate the leased stave mill at capacity to the end of the term of the lease.
The court did not err in excluding exhibits 10 and 11.
In appeal No. 14,214, Bynum, et al. v. Segram, et al., the judgment is affirmed.

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