General Electric Company v. United States Dynamics, Incorporated, 403 F.2d 933, 1st Cir. (1968)

403 F.
2d 933
5 UCC Rep.Serv. 1053
GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, Plaintiff, Appellee,

v.
UNITED STATES DYNAMICS, INCORPORATED,
Defendant, Appellant.
No. 7136.
United States Court of Appeals First Circuit.

Nov. 19, 1968.
Harold M. Linsky, Boston, Mass., for appellant.

Frank B. Frederick, Boston, Mass., with whom William B. Duffy, Jr., and
Johnson, Clapp, Ives & King, Boston, Mass., were on brief, for appellee.
Before ALDRICH, Chief Judge, McENTEE and COFFIN, Circuit Judges.
COFFIN, Circuit Judge.
Appellee, General Electric Company (G.E.), sued appellant United States

Dynamics, Incorporated (Dynamics) seeking rescission of a contract for the
purchase of a gas purifying machine, alleging nonconformity with
specifications. Dynamics denied any breach and asserted that the contract was
for a purifier to be constructed in accordance with sample and that the
equipment was so constructed. It also counterclaimed for its expenses in
making changes in the purifier and for the value of the sample machine which
has not been returned. The court rendered summary judgment for G.E. on both
its complaint and Dynamics' counterclaim on the basis of the pleadings,
depositions, exhibits, and affidavits.
The apparatus in suit was designed to remove oxygen from nitrogen in a pipe
line. It proved defective (so far as G.E.'s needs were concerned) in failing
adequately to exclude hydrogen-- used in reactivating certain chemicals used in
the process-- from the main stream of gas flowing through the system. In 1962,
G.E. took delivery of a small gas purifier from Dynamics for observation and
testing to see whether G.E. would be interested in purchasing a machine with

much larger capacity. By both brochure and conversation G.E. was advised that
the model operated so that 'No hydrogen mixes with the main gas stream.' G.E.
had the model for over a year and found that it could remove oxygen as
claimed.
3
Thereafter a contract for a larger unit was entered into. Dynamics by letter
agreed that the purchase order included the following documents: a Dynamics
letter of price quotations; a G.E. Purchase Order and Specifications requiring in
part that 'No other impurities should be introduced into the affluent nitrogen'; a
Dynamics letter of agreement to comply with the terms including a specific
'guarantee that the equipment * * * will purify the quantity of gas specified to
the level required'; a guaranty of supply of chemicals and a patent indemnity
agreement.
The equipment was made, delivered, and installed. Trouble soon developed in
that hydrogen was detected in the main stream of gas. Dynamics undertook to
solve the problem. G.E. shipped the unit back to Dynamics. Consultation with a
testing laboratory revealed no ready solution. The unit was once again installed
at G.E. for further tests. Finally, G.E. returned it to Dynamics, which accepted
it without prejudice. Only toward the end of this travail was it ascertained that
the smaller model itself was defective in excluding hydrogen from the main
stream.
Summary judgment is defended by G.E. on the ground that all the evidence
demonstrates that the equipment did not exclude impurities from the gas stream
as the contract required; that the contract between the parties, represented by
the documents referred to above, was integrated and superseded all previous
negotiations or understandings. Dynamics argues that the written contract
should not govern since it, having no test facilities of its own, relied on G.E.'s
superior testing facilities, and was misled by G.E.'s favorable reports of the
operation of the model to make a guaranty of purity. Alternatively, Dynamics
argues that the proper interpretation of the contract is that it called for a sale by
sample; i.e., a contract to produce simply a larger scale version of the smaller
model rather than a device which would meet certain specifications.
While we are fully aware that summary judgment is a judicial device available
only when the effluent stream of controversy has been purified by the exclusion
of any genuine issues of material fact, see e.g., Rogen v. Ilikon Corp., 361 F.2d
260 (1st Cir. 1966), we are satisfied that the test has been met in this case. We
note first that the letter above referred to, identifying the documents to be
considered part of the purchase order effectively integrated them into one
contract. A.L.I., Restatement of Contracts, 228 (1st ed. 1932). This being so,
the specification proscribing the introduction of impurities into the effluent
nitrogen and the explicit guarantee that the equipment would purify the gas,
cannot, absent very special circumstances not here present, be nullified by
antecedent understandings. See 3 Corbin on Contracts, 573, p. 357 (1960);
Dunlop Tire and Rubber Corp. v. Thompson, 273 F.2d 396 (8th Cir. 1959).
7
What Dynamics is really contending is not that there was an antecedent

understanding or negotiation but an antecedent misunderstanding in that
Dynamics allegedly expected G.E. to test for exclusion of hydrogen as well as
removal of oxygen while G.E., not conscious of such expectation and testing
only for oxygen removal, unintentionally misled Dynamics by its reports that
the model was operating satisfactorily. This set of circumstances could not,
however, be categorized as a 'course of dealing,' 'usage of trade,' or 'course of
performance' which could explain or supplement the integrated contract under
the Uniform Commercial Code as enacted in Massachusetts General Laws, c.
106 2-202. Nor can Dynamics profit by section 2-316(3)(b) of the Mass.
Uniform Commercial Code, M.G.L.A. c. 106, 2-316(3)(b), having to do with
negation of implied warranties if a buyer has examined a sample. Wholly apart
from the question whether a smallscale model can be considered a 'sample' of a
much larger device, inspection could not offset express warranties.
Dynamics, to take a view of the evidence most favorable to it, would have us
read out of a contract a subsequent express commitment in writing because of a
prior inchoate impression from G.E. that the commitment was a safe one to
make. No more can we do this than to say that a seller of a horse who relies on
the innocent bad judgment of a buyer that the horse is sound and expressly
warrants its soundness can escape the burden of his bargain.
What we have said disposes also of that part of Dynamics' counterclaim which
seeks recovery of expenditures in attempting to make the equipment conform to
G.E.'s specifications. As to the claim for the value of the earlier model, still
held by G.E., we note first that there was never any request by Dynamics to
return it. Secondly, regarding Dynamics' allegations that G.E. replaced certain
portions and removed certain chemicals, the record indicates only that the
portions were replaced to improve the model's operation and that some pellets
of chemicals were removed from the model for analysis. There is no indication
that either action was not permitted or contemplated by Dynamics, was
damaging to the apparatus, or could possibly be categorized as an exercise of
dominion.
10
Affirmed.

General Electric Company v. United States Dynamics, Incorporated, 403 F.2d 933, 1st Cir. (1968)

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General Electric Company v. United States Dynamics, Incorporated, 403 F.2d 933, 1st Cir. (1968)

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403 F.

GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, Plaintiff, Appellee,

United States Court of Appeals First Circuit.

Harold M. Linsky, Boston, Mass., for appellant.

Appellee, General Electric Company (G.E.), sued appellant United States

testing to see whether G.E. would be interested in purchasing a machine with

What Dynamics is really contending is not that there was an antecedent

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