{
  "id": 2516947,
  "name": "M. A. Rogers & Company v. Miles A. Leach",
  "name_abbreviation": "M. A. Rogers & Co. v. Leach",
  "decision_date": "1906-03-20",
  "docket_number": "",
  "first_page": "199",
  "last_page": "201",
  "citations": [
    {
      "type": "official",
      "cite": "127 Ill. App. 199"
    }
  ],
  "court": {
    "name_abbreviation": "Ill. App. Ct.",
    "id": 8837,
    "name": "Illinois Appellate Court"
  },
  "jurisdiction": {
    "id": 29,
    "name_long": "Illinois",
    "name": "Ill."
  },
  "cites_to": [],
  "analysis": {
    "cardinality": 259,
    "char_count": 4133,
    "ocr_confidence": 0.558,
    "pagerank": {
      "raw": 2.0446031217563963e-07,
      "percentile": 0.7506090123401017
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    "sha256": "b56ac3210e81e2faef0042af2f9c850124826783f11be38b2b743e78254ef5ff",
    "simhash": "1:ba511a9a64af06c1",
    "word_count": 700
  },
  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T19:18:02.092160+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
  },
  "casebody": {
    "judges": [],
    "parties": [
      "M. A. Rogers & Company v. Miles A. Leach."
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "Mb. Justice Baume\ndelivered the opinion of the court.\nMay 21, 1903, appellee, a grain dealer, at Oornland, Illinois, sold to appellants, grain buyers at Hew Orleans, Louisiana, 10,000 bushels of Ho. 3 yellow corn at forty-two cents, and on July 2, 1903, appellee sold to appellants 5,500 bushels of Ho. 3 yellow corn at forty-eight and one-half cents. The corn was sold on Hew Orleans terms, viz.; f. o. b. Oornland, Hew Orleans official weights and grades, appellee to bill the corn \u201cnotify M. A. Rogers & Co., Hew Orleans, La., and make draft with B. of L. attached, leaving sufficient margin to cover contingencies.\u201d\nThis is a suit by appellants against appellee to recover $193.35 claimed by appellants to have been overpaid to appellee on drafts attached to bills of lading for the corn so sold. There was a verdict and judgment in the Circuit Court in favor of appellee.\nThe controversy in the case grows out of the difference in weight of the corn as weighed by appellee at Cornland and as weighed by certain individuals assuming to act as public weighers in New Orleans.\nIt is insisted on behalf of appellee that the language of the contract, viz.: \u201cNew Orleans official weights and grades\u201d, required appellants to have the corn weighed and graded in New Orleans \u201cby some official authority of the State of Louisiana, the city of New Orleans, or some authority authorized to appoint officials\u201d, and that-appellee is not bound to accept weights and. grades determined by persons not so officially authorized. The court adopted the construction of the contract contended for by appellee and so instructed the jury.\nAt the time of the shipment of the corn under the contract there was no person in New Orleans who was appointed by authority of the State of Louisiana or of the city of New Orleans to act as official weigher, nor was there any statute of the State of Louisiana or ordinance of the city of New Orleans providing for the appointment of such official weigher.\nIt is disclosed by the evidence that for many years shipments of grain to Hew Orleans had been weighed by persons in the employ of individuals and private corporations conducting the business of warehousemen; that certificates by such persons of the weights of grain had been accepted by grain dealers in the due course of business as true and correct; that freight charges and settlements between consignors and consignees were uniformly based upon such certificates of weights.\nThe word \u201c official,\u201d used in the contract to designate weights and grades of the corn shipped, is not to be interpreted in the limited sense of pertaining to the act of a public officer, one appointed and commissioned by the state or city government, but in this-case must be held to mean such weights and grades as are determined by persons who act publicly and disinterestedly and whose certificates of weights and grades are uniformly accepted and acted upon in the regular course of business as true and correct.\nThe weight of the corn shipped by appellee was determined and certified to by persons whose acts in that regard were official within the meaning of the contract, and in accordance with theuniform custom and trade usage in New Orleans, and in the absence of proof of fraud, appellee is bound thereby.\nIt follows that the court erred in admitting evidence of the weight of the corn at Oornland, and in instructing the jury as to the meaning of the word \u201c official \u201d as used in the contract.\nThe judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.\nReversed and remanded.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "Mb. Justice Baume"
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "Wallace & Beokus, for appellants.",
      "Blinn & Covet, for appellee."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "M. A. Rogers & Company v. Miles A. Leach.\n1. Weights and measures\u2014'\u2018official,\u201d as used with respect to, construed. A contract providing for \u201c official weights and grades \u201d does not mean that an officer appointed under a statute or ordinance shall do the required weighing and certifying where there is no such officer.\nAction of assumpsit. Appeal from the Circuit Court of Logan County; the Hon. Thomas A. Harris, Judge, presiding. Heard in this court at the November term, 1905.\nReversed and remanded.\nOpinion filed March 20, 1906.\nWallace & Beokus, for appellants.\nBlinn & Covet, for appellee."
  },
  "file_name": "0199-01",
  "first_page_order": 217,
  "last_page_order": 219
}