Associated Fruit Co. v. San Joaquin Fruit Growers & Shippers, Inc.

Action to recover a commission provided for under a contract for the sale of certain grapes.

Plaintiff Associated Fruit Company is a corporation engaged, among other things, in marketing fresh grapes grown in the San Joaquin Valley. Defendant San Joaquin Fruit Growers and Shippers is also a corporation conducting a like business, and defendant Dan K. Kazanjian is an individual who produces, buys, and sells fresh grapes. On February 20, 1922, the parties entered into a contract in writing whereby said defendants agreed to deliver to plaintiff during the month of September, 1922, twenty-five carloads of Muscat grapes in open lugs, which plaintiff agreed to sell for the account of said defendants, and for which services to be performed on the part of plaintiff defendants agreed to pay five dollars per ton. It is alleged in the complaint that under the usage and custom of the trade in fresh grapes a carload ordinarily contains twelve tons and that under the contract defendants were bound to furnish three hundred tons. Upon the execution of the contract plaintiff made an accommodation advance to defendants in the sum of two thousand dollars, for which defendants gave their promissory…