Masonite Corp. v. Pacific Gas & Electric Co.

Defendant Pacific Gas and Electric Company (hereinafter appellant or P G and E) appeals from the trial court’s judgment awarding respondent damages in the sum of $46,508 plus interest for breach of contract. The relevant facts may be summarized as follows:

By a written agreement executed September 28, 1966, appellant undertook to provide natural gas for respondent corporation, a commercial consumer, which maintained and operated a hardboard plant in Ukiah, California. Although respondent utilized gas for the diyer and space heaters, 99 percent of all gas supplied by P G and E was used for the three main boilers generating steam for the production of fiber and hardboard.

The computation of bills which lies at the core of the present controversy involved a relatively complex procedure consisting of several steps. First the raw cubic feet of gas (the so-called volume) had to be measured. This took place by a P G and E gas meter located on respondent’s premises. The volume was recorded by an index which was attached to, and driven by, the meter. The index, in turn, drove a pen which recorded the volume “waves” on a circular flow chart. Second, the additional element…