J. C. Millett Co., a Corporation Doing Business as Key Distributing Co. v. Distillers Distributing Corporation

Appellant, a wholesale distributor to retailers of alcoholic beverages in the State of California, hereafter Distributor, appeals from a judgment of the District Court in a court-tried diversity suit denying it relief for three claimed breaches of a written contract it had with Calvert Distillers and Carstairs Brothers Distilling Corporation, importers and manufacturers’ agents for such beverages, hereafter Importer, and from the denial of Distributor’s motion to amend the pleadings to conform to the proof of another violation of the contract.

The contract provides that its agreements shall be construed under the law of the State of California and the parties do not question that it is the applicable law.

A. The contract provides that the Distributor was not the sole agent for the Importer in selling the alcoholic liquors to retailers in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties and Importer violated no agreement in soliciting orders for another distributor there.

The provision of the agreement first alleged to be violated is paragraph 6 providing:

The violation contended is that in the alcoholic beverages business the words “promote the sales” mean, inter alia, the employment by the…