[Download] "Hunt Foods v. Wellington Phillips and H." by United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit. # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Hunt Foods v. Wellington Phillips and H.
- Author : United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.
- Release Date : January 07, 1957
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 69 KB
Description
In this diversity case, appellees Wellington Phillips and H. W. Liholm, partners doing business under the name of Wellington Phillips & Co., seek damages for breach of contract. In 1951 appellees were engaged in the business of bidding for sales of canned goods and other products to military purchasing offices in California. Appellee Phillips was the chief moving force behind the partnership, having had some twenty-five years experience in various aspects of the grocery and canned food business. The appellees bidding business in 1951, although fairly new, was profitable, and the outlook for the future was bright. Phillips, in August and September, 1951, talked to Mr. Flynn, Hunt Foods Sales Manager for the Northern California District, as to the possibility of exclusively handling Hunts products in the military commissaries. Various discussions later took place between Phillips, Flynn, Mr. Miller, District Sales Manager for all districts of Hunt Foods, Mr. Reed, Export and Government Supply Manager, and Mr. Church, Credit Manager for Hunt Foods. It was disputed at the trial as to the gist of those conversations. Phillips had critical discussions with Mr. Flynn, who was deceased at the time of the trial. Phillips alleged that he told Flynn that his then bidding business in 1951 was very profitable and he would earn $15,000 profit that year; that he told Flynn that he would be willing to act as jobber in sales of Hunt Foods products to the military commissary stores in Northern California if such appointment were exclusive and that he would sell no other brand of canned food products to such commissary stores. Phillips said he told Flynn that because Hunt Foods salesmen were presently selling at wholesale prices to the commissary stores, that it would take him a period of time to obtain a profit for himself on the resale of such products to the stores until changing market conditions or general price changes made it feasible to add or create a mark-up or percentage of profit for himself. Hunt Foods products were then selling considerably below the price of other brands for the same quantity, and it was the intention of Phillips to eventually obtain a fair profit margin by increasing the resale price of Hunt products more than would be done by competitors when there was a price increase, and to decrease Hunt resale prices less than the decrease of competitors when there was a general price decline. In both situations Hunt products would still be selling below that of competitors.