Court Opinion

ID: 9848436
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:19:41.026146+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:18:17.937678
License: Public Domain

Hale, J.
(dissenting) — The facts of this case, in my judgment, present a classic example of accord and satisfaction, and I would, therefore, affirm the trial court. After all, the question of whether the parties have resolved their differences by an accord and satisfaction is largely a question of fact to be determined by the jury, or, as in this case, by the court as trier of the facts. 1 Am. Jur. 2d, Accord and Satisfaction § 11.
I agree that the printed notation on the check was insufficient to engender an accord and satisfaction, but the events leading up to the delivery of the check and the circumstance of its cashing provided more than adequate evidence, in my view, to support the trial court’s factual finding that Mr. Kibler knowingly cashed the check in full payment and satisfaction of the debt for which it had been tendered. Here are the circumstances as I see them which led inexorably to an accord and satisfaction.
William F. Kibler, plaintiff, a farmer in the Walla Walla area who did some custom harvesting, had been working for several wheat farmers with his harvesting equipment near where the defendant, an incorporated farm, had a 37-acre stand of wheat. Plaintiff, on the telephone, told Mr. Garrett, president of defendant company, that, while he had his crew and equipment in the area, he would like to harvest the 37 acres and Mr. Garrett assented.
*530Kibler testified that the agreement to harvest was made entirely by telephone; that he told Mr. Garrett his charge was $10 an acre if the wheat ran 50 bushels or less per acre; but that if it exceeded 50 bushels per acre his price was 18 cents a bushel as a “custom charge;” and that, under certain circumstances, he might charge more. He said that Garrett then told him, “Well, go ahead and cut it. We can work out the arrangements.” Other than this conversation, the parties made no further mention of and reached no agreement as to price.
Plaintiff then put his crew to work and harvested defendant’s field. The 37 acres, an irrigated field, ran 118 bushels to the acre of Gaines wheat, and plaintiff encountered difficulties because of differences in elevation called “risers” and because the field had been cut up into smaller sections by roads and several guy wires. He said that his combine had to travel at minimum speed because the field ran over 100 bushels to an acre, causing him added time and trouble.
After harvesting defendant’s 37 acres, plaintiff, September 15, 1965, sent defendant a bill for his services in the amount of $1,095.25, which figured out at the rate of 25 cents per bushel. Five days later, realizing that the 25 cents’ rate was an overcharge, he sent defendant a second billing revising and reducing the figure to 20 cents per bushel for a total of $876.20.
More than a month passed and Kibler heard nothing from Mr. Garrett until shortly after November 3, 1965, when he received through the mail defendant’s check in the amount of $444 accompanied by the following letter:
This check is for $10.00 an acre, and 37 acres is $370.00. This is what you offered to harvest our wheat for. Seeing that the wheat was fairly heavy, we are paying you $2.00 an acre more, which makes a total of $444.00. Your total pay is 50% more than we paid last year for harvesting the same acres, and 20% more than you agreed to do it for. Billing on this acreage for approximately $30.00 an acre is ridiculous.
On the face of the check were typed the words “Harvesting Wheat Washington Ranch,” and printed thereon were *531the words “Frank L. Garrett & Sons, Inc.” and in fine but legible printing the statement that cashing the check constituted acceptance of the amount in full payment. Plaintiff called his attorney and inquired whether he should cash the check; he said that he did not see, nor inform his attorney of, the caveat that cashing it constituted payment in full. On being advised that he could cash the check, he did so, making no counter proposal that he intended thereby to accept it in partial payment only or as a down payment. He brought this action for the difference between $444 and the $876 billing, without further demands upon or communication with defendant corporation.
Because the warning on the check that its cashing constituted acceptance of the face amount in full payment was set forth in such fine print, and defendant was unable to establish that plaintiff knew of the statement before cashing the check, I have, as earlier indicated, attached no significance whatever to that notation. All of the elements of an accord and satisfaction, however, I think were proved without it.
Accord and satisfaction is a contract, an agreement either express or implied from the circumstances, that the payment is accepted in full discharge and satisfaction of the claimed amount. Being a contract, it requires consideration and does not ordinarily arise where the debt is liquidated and certain, unless, of course, there is a new consideration to support it different than and apart from the consideration for the debt itself. First Nat’l Bank of Ritzville v. White-Dulaney Co., 123 Wash. 220, 212 Pac. 262 (1923). Accordingly, the mere cashing of a check containing a message that it is given in full payment and discharge of the claim or debt does not, as a matter of law, establish an accord and satisfaction if the parties to the transaction have earlier agreed that the payment is on account and not in full settlement. LeDoux v. Seattle No. Pac. Shipbuilding Co., 114 Wash. 632, 195 Pac. 1006 (1921).
In essence, then, there must be a consideration to support a contract of accord and satisfaction in the same way that other kinds of contracts need consideration to sustain them. *532Seattle Investors Syndicate v. West Dependable Stores of Washington, 177 Wash. 125, 30 P.2d 956 (1934); Katich v. Evich, 161 Wash. 581, 297 Pac. 762 (1931); and Plymouth Rubber Co. v. West Coast Rubber Co., 131 Wash. 662, 231 Pac. 25 (1924). These, and other controlling aspects of accord and satisfaction are delineated in Graham v. New York Life Ins. Co., 182 Wash. 612, 47 P.2d 1029 (1935), which, I think, sustains the trial court’s conclusion that a contract in accord and satisfaction had been established by the plaintiff’s evidence.
The instant case began with an unliquidated claim, an agreement to harvest the wheat for an unspecified sum running from $10 per acre to a greater amount, depending vaguely on unspecified contingencies. Then the creditor sent a bill demanding 25 cents per. bushel for a total demand of $1,095.25. A few days later he sent his debtor a corrected or new billing at 20 cents per bushel in the total sum of $876.20, thus conclusively establishing the unliqui-dated and uncertain nature of the obligation. The debt at the outset was unliquidated and for an uncertain amount; it remained so through the first erroneous billing for $1,095.25 and the second billing at $876.20.
It was still unliquidated and uncertain when defendant sent plaintiff a check for $444 on November 3, 1965, and stated specifically that the check was for the agreed price of $10 per acre, with an added $2 per acre because the wheat was very heavy. The assertions in the letter of transmittal that the enclosed check was 50 per cent more than plaintiff agreed to do the work for, and that the billing sent by plaintiff at nearly $30 an acre was ridiculous, all unmistakably convey the notion that the check was tendered in full payment. Under these circumstances, it should have been clear to a person of ordinary understanding that cashing the check constituted an acceptance of the $444 in full payment and discharge of plaintiff’s claim for harvesting defendant’s 37 acres.
I would, therefore, affirm.
Weaver and Hunter, JJ., concur with Hale, J.