E. B. & A. L. Stone Co. v. De Fremery Wharf & Land Co.

Defendant de Fremery Wharf & Land Company was the owner of certain waterfront property in Oakland upon which it conducted a wharfage business. In 1914 the Wharf Company entered into a contract with plaintiff E. B. & A. L. Stone Company for a period of years. Defendant Barron Estate Company, during the second year of the contract, acquired, by purchase, the de Fremery wharves, hence its presence as a party to the action. Its interest is identical with that of the Wharf Company. In the aforementioned contract the Stone Company agreed to “handle and route the transportation of a portion of its rock, sand and gravel business, incoming . . . upon and through the wharves and bunkers of the wharf company,” at a price of five cents per cubic yard or long ton, with the stipulation that if plaintiff failed to move the given tonnage per year it should pay for the short tonnage at the rate of five cents per ton or cubic yard.

[1] The contract further provided:

“The Stone Company further guarantees to the Wharf Company that the aforesaid business handled by it upon or over the property of the Wharf Company will be sufficient to produce to the Wharf Company a sum of money, at the rate per ton…