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10 Wend. 374

Kemble v. Wallis & Newcomb

New York Supreme Court

Decided May 15, 1833

New York Supreme Court · decided 1833-05-15

Demurrer to declaration. The plaintiff in his third count declared that the defendants made a certain agreement with him in the words following: (setting forth the agreement in hcec verba:) “ We, the subscribers, do agree to pay J. C. Kemble the cost or amount of publishing a work of 300 pages of original matter, written by Derick Newcomb, of Pittstown, and do bind ourselves to be responsible to said Kemble for 1000 copies of the said work, if the said Newcomb should fail in…

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Decided 1833-05-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently February 1909

3 state decisions

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Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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¶1By the Court,

Sutherland, J.

¶2The reasonable, and I think the true construction of the contract, as set forth in this count, is, that the defendants would be responsible for the expense of printing, to the extent of 1000 copies of the work mentioned therein. The responsibility of the surety was limited to that amount; but the contract did not bind the plaintiff to print 1000 copies at all events, whether they were required or not, so as to make the printing of that number a condition precedent to his right to recover any thing. The direction of Newcomb, therefore, to the plaintiff, to print only 800 copies was not a variation of the contract, but a modification, contemplated and provided for by the contract itself.

¶3The delivery of 800 copies to Newcomb three months before the commencement of the suit is sufficiently averred. An offer to deliver, and a refusal by Newcomb to receive them more than three months before the commencement of the suit, gave a right of action on the contract; and although Newcomb did subsequently receive them, the right of action accrued at the time of the tender and refusal, and not at the time of the actual acceptance. There is no legal objection in a case like this, to stating the particular facts and circumstances of the case, instead of averring an absolute delivery, to which, in judgment of law, those facts are equivalent.

¶4*377Notice to Wallis of' the delivery of the books, and of the neglect or refusal of Newcornb to pay, was not necessary; it was not provided for in the contract. The undertaking was absolute, to pay, if Newcomb did not, in three months after delivery. 8 Wendell, 421, 2. 7 id. 290. 5 id. 504. 1 Chitty's Pl. 322, 3, 8 Wendell, 452. 11 Mod. 48. 2 Salk. 457.

¶5Judgment for plaintiff on demurrer, with leave to defendant to amend.

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