Plaintiff's representative states that the cargo in question was ready for shipment by February 15 at which date he engaged space on the Stanley Dollar, scheduled to sail from Taku Bar on February 26, for San Francisco. It did not in fact sail until March 5 and the cargo was not loaded until March 4 On March 10 defendant was notified of the shipment and on the same day he replied, declining to accept delivery.
There is no question as to the good faith of either party; but plaintiff claims that it was unable to comply with the requirement to ship "by direct steamer to San Francisco during the month of February" and that having done their utmost to meet that requirement ihat the delay in shipment should be excused. On the other hand defendant relies on the principle that "in the contracts of merchants, time is of the essence" and its manager testifies that the reason for fixing the limit at February 29 was to insure delivery in San Francisco before April 1, since arrival later would require the cargo to be classed as last season's crop and necessitate a reduction in price.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.