Alexander Pickering & Co. v. Chinese American Cold Storage Ass'n

The appellant, a British corporation, brought suit to recover damages from the appellee, an American corporation, for breach of a purported written contract. A copy of the contract was attached to the complaint, and was admitted by the pleadings to be a true copy.

The court below rendered judgment for the appellee on the sole ground that the “contract * * * Was void and unenforceable from its inception.”

The case was tried to the court, sitting without a jury. The bill of exceptions does not contain an exception to the ruling that the purported contract was void for uncertainty. The trial court wrote a “Decision and Judgment,” which was entered as the judgment in the case. It specifically set forth the court’s “conclusion of law” that the purported contract was void and unenforceable. The “decision and judgment” set forth a statement of the facts, interspersed informally with a discussion of the law. The court stated that its decision “required specific findings of fact”; but no statement of facts by the court, other than the informal and incidental references appearing in the decision and judgment, is to be found in the record.

Incorporated in the “Decision and Judgment” of…