Court Opinion

ID: 6912723
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-07-23 22:29:34.923746+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:06:33.714571
License: Public Domain

CAMERON, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
Reversible error was, in my opinion, committed by the Court below in more than one particular. Its error in receiving and attributing such determinant force to the evidence of custom is so obvious and prejudicial that I will discuss that error alone in this dissent.
The battle below was pitched on the question whether the number of cubic yards furnished appellants by appellee was to be determined according to the measurement-in-place method, upon which the Government paid appellants, or by loose-truck measurement, under which appellant paid the subcontractor who did the hauling of the crushed stone. The Court below admitted, over appel*904lants’ objection, evidence of custom relating to this controversy which turned out to be the most important factor in answering this crucial question. The Court below erred, in my opinion, in admitting the evidence at all and in letting a jury verdict rest upon it.
Evidence of custom is valuable in determining the meaning of words provided it satisfies certain minimal requirements. These are thus stated in 55 Am. Jur., Usages and Customs, Sections 7 and 23-4, which text is cited with approval in the Texas case of Whitfield Transportation Co. v. Border Truck Lines, infra:
“ * * * It is a well-established rule, in the absence of anything to show actual knowledge of a party of the existence of a usage or custom, or an actual assent to be bound thereby, that a usage or custom, in order to be binding, must be general in its operation, or at least so general and universal in character that knowledge of it essential to the binding effect upon the party to be charged may be presumed, [p. 269] * * *
“ * * * The rule is usually stated to be that it will be sufficient to show that a custom is so general as to justify the presumption that the person sought to be bound thereby had knowledge of the same. [p. 283]
“ * * * Usages of trade are not recognizable in law unless they have the essential elements of certainty, notoriety, and continuity, bringing themselves home to the knowledge of those who are concerned in the trade or business to which they pertain. In order to create even a prima facie presumption that a party has knowledge of a usage incident to a particular business about which he is engaged, the usage must be shown to be a general one in that business, of such sort as that it would be unreasonable to suppose he was ignorant of it. * * * ’ [p. 284]
And, in the same text, on page 287 [gec. 27], it is noted that “* * * evidence as to usages and customs is received with caution * *
The limitations of those requirements are recognized in Texas and are well stated in the recent case of Whitfield Transportation Co. v. Border Truck Lines, Tex.Civ.App.1954, 271 S.W.2d 706, 708 (writ of error refused), which quotes from 5 Tex.Jur. pp. 1025-6, Sec. 15;
“Before such liability can be enlarged by usage and custom it must appear [from] clear and satisfactory evidence that such usage and custom was well established and so notoriously or generally known that the contracting parties knew or were charged with knowledge thereof (55 Am.Jur. pp. 282-283, Secs. 21, 22) so that in the absence of any expression to the contrary it may be assumed that the parties understood that such usage and custom was to be incorporated in their contract.”
This seems to be the last word from Texas on the subject and is much more to the point than the old case of Smith v. Smith, referred to in the majority opinion. These minimal requirements should be interpolated into the quotation in the majority opinion from 42 Tex.Jur. pp. .843-4 so as to define the circumstances which control the clause in that quotation reading: “ ‘knowledge of which may be imputed to the parties’.”
The evidence here fails to measure up to those standards. Appellee himself did not take the stand to testify that there was such a general custom or to assert knowledge of such a custom or to impute knowledge to appellants. Appellant, Morgan, testified categorically that he had no knowledge of any such custom. Appellee did not offer any testimony tending to bring home knowledge of such a custom to appellants.
The three witnesses whom appellee introduced testified, in response to leading *905questions, that there was a general custom in effect in the State of Texas of such terms as to support appellee’s contention. But they did not relate that custom to the place where this contract was entered into or to the place where it was to be performed. They did not give any testimony tending to show that the custom was notorious or that it was generally known in the trade in the area. There was no clear or satisfactory evidence from which the jury could have found that there was such a custom of such general notoriety that it would be unreasonable to assume that appellants did not have notice of it.
Nor was there any proof of uniformity. The proof tended to show the contrary. Two of the witnesses testified that, where the crushed stone was transported on railroad cars, the weight of the shipment and not the volume was taken as determining the number of cubic yards. It is clear, in my opinion, that the appellee failed to produce evidence which was clear and satisfactory on the point.
The evidence of custom was not received in obedience to procedural requirements. The trial was begun on March 7th. Appellee as plaintiff put on his proof, appellants as defendants put on their proof, and both sides rested; whereupon appellee brought in, as if in rebuttal, the three witnesses mentioned. The question of custom had not theretofore been adverted to in the testimony either of appellee or appellants. The right to introduce this evidence in rebuttal or at all was contested by appellants at every step. Appellee finally recognized that so important a provision in the contract should have been dealt with in the pleadings, and filed an amendment to the complaint; but that was not done until March 10th, the day after all of the evidence was in and the record showed no order of Court permitting the amendment. Even under the liberal provisions of Rule 15, the evidence was not permissible.
Finally, the Court below erred in refusing to instruct the jury, as seasonably requested by appellants, with respect to the eleventh hour reliance placed by appellee upon custom to supply one of the important ingredients of his case. These requests asked that the jury be instructed that, if the evidence on the question of method of measurement of each cubic yard was evenly balanced, that issue should be resolved in favor of defendants; that the ambiguity, if any, resulted from an instrument written by appellee and that any doubt resulting from the terms used should be resolved in favor of appellants unless appellee had established his version by the greater weight of the evidence. These requested instructions were all clear and proper statements of the law and should have been given. The error in refusing them was clearly prejudicial in view of the fact that the Court did not give the jury any instructions at all as to standards by which they should be guided in determining this question. The leading question put to the jury by the Court1 did not mention appellants’ theory of measurement. Following immediately after the inadequate but nevertheless emphasized evidence of appellee about custom, this placed appellants at a distinct and prejudicial disadvantage. It is my opinion that the judgment of the Court below should be reversed.
Rehearing denied: CAMERON, C. J., dissenting.

. “Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence, if any, that at the time the contract sued upon was entered into, it was the meaning and intent of the parties thereto that W. O. Pelphrey was to be paid for the limestone rock crushed by him on the basis of $1.01 per cubic yard truck measurement?”