Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 8.djvu/482

 468 FEDBBAL BEPOBTEB. �Dethiok and others v, Balfodb and others. [Oireuit Court, D. California. August 22, 1881.) �1. CoNTBACT—CoNSTBtrcTioN—" Change vs Duties"— Rev. St. f 2838. �A written contract entered into at San Francisco, in the atate of California, for the sale of goods to arrive from Calcutta, contained this clause: " Any change in duties to be for or against purchasers." The rate of duty on the bags con- stituting the subject-matter of the contract has not been changed since the contract was made. The amount of duty actually paid was, however, consider- ably less than the amount whieh it would have been necessary to pay on the same goods if they had been entered at the time when the contract was made, owing to a change, meanwhile, in the estimated value of the rupee, in which currency, under section 2838 of the Revised Statutea, the invoice of such mer- chandise was required to be made out. In an action by the purchaser of the goods to recover the amount of this difference, hdd, the parties, by the words "change of duties," intended a change in the rate of duty by authority of congress, not a difference in the amount of duty merely. �2. 8amb— Same. �Hdd, further, that the court would put that construction upon these words whether it viewed them in the light of the general and legislative history of the country, or in the light of the common understanding as to the meaning of these words, when used in this connection, among the merchants of the mercantile community where the contract was made; i. «., those of San Fran- cisco. �Sawyeb, C. J. On the fourteenth of Novem'ber, 1879, the plain- tiffs and the defendants, interchangeably, entered into the following «ontraet : �"No. 172 p. San Feancisco, 20e California street, Nov. 14, 1879. �" I have this day sold to Messrs. E. Detrick & Co., on account of Messrs. Balfour, Guthrie & Ce, flve hundred thousand (500,000) standard 22 by 36 grain sacks, ex Evelyn, from Calcutta, at the duty paid priee of nine and flve- €ights cents (9| cents) eaeh, U. S, gold coin, on delivery in good order and con- dition on the fifteenth day of May next. Marks and numbers to be declared on receipt of invoice, and allowance on damaged baies, (if any,) failing a sat- isfactory adjustmenfc, to be submitted to arbitration. Contract void, should vessel not arrive by or on the lif teenth of May, 1880. It is at sellers' option, on or before (irst prox., to change the character of this contract to positive delivery, at nine and three-quarters cents (9| cts.) each, for the first day of June. �" Approved : Balfour, Guthrie & Co. �" WiLSON White, Broker. �"Any change in duties to be for or against purchasers. B., G. & Co., by R. B." �Ali the material facts of the case, except the testimony as to the meaning attributed by the merchants of San Francisco to the memo- randum at the foot of the contract, "any change in duties to be foi ��� �