Ardsley History in the Courts
Secor v. Ardsley Ice Co.
Appellate Division — Second Department
133 App. Div. 136, 117 N.Y.S. 414 (1909)
Affirmed without opinion - New York Court of Appeals
201 N.Y. 603 (1911)
Facts
On the 1st day of May 1902, plaintiff Secor (“Secor”) entered into a written contract with defendant Ardsley Ice Co. (“Ardsey Ice”) for the purchase of a retail ice delivery business in the Villages of Dobbs Ferry, Ardsley, Hastings, and Irvington for $2,500. [1]
In connection with the sale of Ardsley Ice’s retail ice delivery business, which included four horses, three ice wagons, and three sets of double harnesses, Secor agreed to purchase from Ardsley Ice “all the ice that he will use in the continuance of said retail business at two dollars ($2.00) per ton provided that Ardsley Ice shall have such quantities of natural ice for delivery to Secor as shall be necessary for him in his retail business.” [2]
Ardsley Ice was given the option to deliver its natural ice to Secor at either the ice houses at Woodlands Lake or the siding of the New York and Putnam Railroad at Ardsley station in the village of Dobbs Ferry. This agreement would remain in effect until 1907, when Ardsley Ice’s lease of Woodlands Lake (where the ice was harvested) from Drexel, Morgan, was scheduled to expire. [3]
For four years, Ardsley Ice delivered ice to Secor for his retail business at two dollars ($2.00) a ton. In 1906, the price of ice increased. As the court explained: Ardsley Ice delivered ice to Secor and sent him a bill at four dollars ($4.00) per ton. Secor protested in writing, asserting his contract; Ardsley Ice repudiated the agreement. Secor tried to get ice elsewhere but found he could not purchase it as cheaply as Ardsley Ice was now selling it. Still insisting on his contract and paying all bills under protest, Secor purchased ice from Ardsley Ice during the year at the market price, then brought this action to recover the difference under a theory Ardsley Ice had breached its contract with Secor.” [4]
A jury trial was held on March 5, 1908, before the Hon. Arthur S. Tompkins in the Westchester County Supreme Court in the Village of White Plains. The trial transcript contains the following testimony of an exchange that took place in Quimby’s office where Mr. Glover (the Secretary and Treasurer) of Ardsley Ice was present:
Secor (to Quimby): Haven’t you made a mistake in my bill?
Quimby and Glover: “Why, we don’t think so.”
Secor: “Why, you have charged me four dollars per ton, and I have a contract for two dollars.”
Quimby: “That contract is no good; you can’t hold us that contract, it is void.”
Secor: “That is funny. I don’t owe you any money.”
Legal Issue
Is Ardsley Ice required to charge Secor only two dollars ($2.00) per ton when Ardsley Ice never mutually agreed to sell ice to Secor for two dollars ($2.00) per ton?
Arguments of the Parties
Ardsley Ice:
There was no agreement or promise on the part of Ardsley Ice to furnish any quantity of ice at any price per ton to Secor, and consequently, there can be no violation of any such agreement;
The contract, if there was a contract, was terminable at any time by either party and was terminated by Ardsley Ice’s refusal to further deliver natural ice at two dollars ($2.00) per ton to Secor;
The payments made by Secor were purely voluntary as neither fraud nor duress is alleged; and
It would be a great misfortune if Ardsley Ice should get only a tithe of the value for its ice, while doubtlessly, Secor was getting from his customers full retail price.
Secor:
The payment of $2500 and the assuming of Ardsley Ice’s contracts to take the ice as specified in the contract was sufficient consideration to uphold the contract;
The contract implies a promise on the part of Ardsley Ice to furnish ice to Secor at $2 per ton except when Ardsley Ice did not have it on hand to supply. That Secor was to purchase it of Ardsley Ice at $2 per ton implies a sale to make a purchase;
Ardsley Ice sold and delivered ice under the contract to Secor for years and thereby established the terms of the contract by such practical construction thereof; and
No other price was suggested until Ardsley Ice ascertained the scarcity of ice in the winter of 1906 and began charging the market price, which was double the contract price.
After both parties rested, they asked the Court, and not the jury, to decide the case.
The Trial Court’s Decision
On March 30, 1908, sitting in Nyack, Justice Tompkins ruled in favor of Secor as follows in pertinent part:
I think that the written contract implies a promise by [Ardsley Ice] to furnish ice to [Secor] at two dollars per ton during the continuance of Ardsley Ice’s lease, with Drexel, Morgan and Company, provided said term should not extend beyond January 1, 1907, and provided that [Ardsley Ice] should have such quantities of natural ice, for delivery to [Secor] as shall be necessary for him and his retail business, and that [Secor] is entitled to recover his damages for Ardsley Ice’s refusal to supply sufficient ice for [Secor’s] customers at that price.
When [Secor] found that [Ardsley Ice] would not sell the ice at the contract price he endeavored to get it elsewhere, but was unable to do so except at prices higher than even [Ardsley Ice] was charging.
He was then compelled to continue taking from [Ardsley Ice] and in so doing, got the ice at the lowest price obtainable in that or any nearby market, and the difference between the amount he was thus obliged to pay, and the price which [Ardsley Ice] by the contract obligated himself to charge, is the measure of [Secor’s] damage.
Both parties at the trial have requested the Court to direct a verdict, I accordingly direct a verdict in favor of Secor for the sum of Twenty-four hundred and 94/100 dollars ($2440.94) and with an extra allowance of five percent, thereon. [5]
On appeal, the Appellate Division upheld the trial court’s ruling that Ardsley Ice had to refund all amounts collected above the $2 per ton, but the extra allowance granted by Justice Tompkins was disallowed. [6] A further appeal to the Court of Appeals in Albany was unsuccessful and, as indicated above, was affirmed without opinion.
Legal Analysis
Would the result have been the same if the price of ice had fallen below $2 per ton and it was Secor, not Ardsley Ice, who had repudiated the agreement to minimize his losses if his customers sought a lower price? [7] In its briefs, Ardsley Ice argued that Secor’s agreement to pay $2 per ton was a naked promise and that the trial court was wrong to find an implied covenant on behalf of Ardsley Ice unless the contract was clear that was what was intended. Notably, the portion of the contract for the sale of the ice route expressly states Secor agrees to “buy” and Ardsley Ice agrees to “sell,” the route yet the court found notwithstanding the absence of such reciprocal agreements regarding the price of ice, the obligation of Seller to be limited to the $2 per ton price was “implied.” [8]As the parties had abided by the $2 per ton agreement for several years , Secor’s argument that a $2 per ton price to buy “implied” a $2 per ton price to sell carried the day.
Aftermath
The last harvest of ice from Woodlands Lake occurred in March 1924. A plaque (below) commemorating the train station at Woodlands Lake explains the lake’s surrounding area was first a dairy farm, then briefly part of Cyrus W. Field’s property, and later belonged to J.P. Morgan before the County of Westchester acquired it for parkland in 1923.
As reported below in the Dobbs Ferry Register (August 26. 1926), the ice houses used by Ardsley Ice were demolished in connection with the plans to create Westchester’s first park, now known as V.E. Macy Park: [9]
Reinhardt’s Hotel was forced to close in connection with the County’s plans for building the adjacent Saw Mill River Parkway. [10] Secor, who served as President (the title was later changed to Mayor) of Dobbs Ferry, was fatally injured in 1931 when a fruit truck crashed into him while he was chopping ice in the back of one of his delivery carts. Secor had also served as a trustee on the Ardsley School Board. He is buried in the Greenville Church’s cemetery grounds on Central Avenue in Greenburgh (Edgemont).
Annual ice carnivals were held at Woodlands Lake for several decades, beginning in the 1930s. [11] In the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s, the Scarsdale Inquirer contained advertisements (shown below) for dining and dancing at Leighton’s Woodlands Lake Restaurant in Ardsley.
V.E. Macy Park is now linked to the South County Trailway and is also the home of the Great Hunger Memorial, which commemorates the Irish potato famine. [12] However, Westchester County has struggled to transform V.E. Macy Park (particularly the lake portion) to its earlier grandeur as a premier destination for recreation (i.e., fishing, boating, hiking, and ice skating), fine dining, dancing, and entertainment as envisioned in the below 1932 announcement of its resort-like amenities:
Cantina, a popular Mexican restaurant on the Saw Mill River Parkway entrance side of the park, closed decades ago.
The building it housed is slowly disintegrating (although, as seen below, the location was “dolled up” when used for the 2019 film The Irishman starring Robert De Niro). [13]
Various plans for a railroad museum, a restaurant, or renting bicycles at the site have gone nowhere. According to current Westchester Parks, Recreation and Conservation Commissioner Kathleen O’Connor, who remembers the Cantina, the reason the proposals fail is the absence of a U-turn on the Saw Mill River Parkway enabling motorists to travel south when exiting Woodlands Lake. [14]
For now, future development at Woodlands Lake remains “on ice.”
Endnotes
[1] The full name of Plaintiff was Harry Secor. Secor lived in Dobbs Ferry but his brother Russell lived in Ardsley. In 1943, Howard Russell Secor, Harry’s nephew, was the first Ardsleyan to die in World War II just a few weeks after the Roll of Honor (discussed in the Archives section of this website and in the Spring 2021 edition of The Beacon) was built. Ardsley Ice was owned by Ardsleyan Lorenzo D. Quimby who was instrumental in Ardsley becoming an incorporated village in 1896. He later became a Village Trustee. The $2500 was paid by issuance of ten promissory notes of $250.00 each payable to Ardsley Ice (thus the retail ice delivery business, its good will and its business property were initially conveyed to Secor for not even one dollar). Quimby agreed not to compete with Secor in the retail ice trade during the term of the agreement.
[2] Harvesting ice from lakes and ponds was a major employer in the Ardsley area and beyond from roughly 1870 until replaced by both artificial ice and refrigeration toward the end of the first third of the 20th century. It was financially helpful to farmers and other tradesmen during the winter months. Ice harvesting occurred during the era when Ardsley’s commerce was dominated by the operation of grist and saw mills, farming, and coal delivery — when trade followed the route of the Putnam Division railroad to and from New York City.
[3] Drexel, Morgan was the predecessor to J.P. Morgan & Co. (shown on the 1901 map as Morgan Syndicate) which owned large tracts of land in present day Ardsley (which it had acquired following the financial distress of prior owner Cyrus W. Field) including Captain Honeywell’s House (133 Heatherdell) later occupied by radio star and broadcast pioneer Irene Beasely. Irene Beasley | Leading Role: Women in Broadcasting History ... In the mid 1950s, Beasley developed her 50 acre parcel into one acre lots known as Mockingbird Hill (i.e., Agnes Circle and Windsong Road). The area remains one of the premier residential neighborhoods in Ardsley. A biography of Beasley appears in the Spring 2020 AHS newsletter (Volume 33, No. 1)
[4] The originals legal pleadings (summons and complaint and answer), the trial transcript, motions, and the record on appeal including the underlying contract and the trial and Appellate Division decisions of this century old case are maintained at the Westchester County Archives in Elmsford under Index No. 1211/1908. Ardsley Ice’s answer to the complaint was signed by Quimby and notarized by William E. Slocum who headed the Ardsley School District for 38 years beginning in 1872. The author would like to express his appreciation to Westchester County Archives reading room manager and archivist Jackie Graziano for her assistance in obtaining these original court records. The appellate briefs filed with the Court of Appeals can be found online at Google Books. Briefs filed in Secor v. Ardsley Ice
[5] $2440.94 is equivalent to approximately $70,000 in 2021.
[6] An extra allowance can be granted where a case is particularly difficult.
[7] As Ardsley Ice wrote in its appellate brief: “Reversing the proposition, it is apparent that the Ardsley Ice Company could not recover damages against Secor had he refused and failed to buy ice from it. He would have urged that there was no consideration for his promise and truthfully.”
[8] Justice Tompkins would later preside over another case involving a successful claim made by Henry Rheinardt (who operated a hotel on Woodlands Lake) against Ardsley Ice. According to the Dobbs Ferry Register account (November 2, 1923) of the case, Ardsley Ice and Quimby were found to have interfered with the rights of Rheinhardt’s hotel guests to use a walkway over Woodlands Lake. Quimby was reported to have bitterly contested the suit. He died the following year.
[9] Valentine Everit Macy, Sr.(1871-1930) was Westchester’s first Commissioner of Parks from 1926 to 1930.
[10] Notice of Sale below appearing in the Irvington Gazette (March 4, 1927). Notably, acquisition of the land for the Saw Mill River Parkway (and the Bronx River Parkway before that) was largely accomplished by Ardsleyan James Owen, Senior Assistant Engineer of the Westchester County Park Commission. Owen (1877-1932) lived at 1030 Saw Mill River Road, the northernmost house in Ardsley which is believed to have been part of Cyrus W. Field’s original estate called “Ardsley.” A February 16, 1924, article by Owen in The Bronxville Review notes title to Woodlands Lake had been traced back to the acquisition by the Dutch (Philips) in the 1680s pursuant to the “deed from Nippizan'' with the Native American tribe known as the Weckquaesgeeks who inhabited the lower Hudson Valley including Ardsley and Dobbs Ferry. Nippizan (a creek) was later known as Nepperhan and subsequently the Saw Mill River after many dams were built across it. Owen’s posthumous landmark 1932 article on the location of Washington’s 1781 headquarters during the Philipsburgh encampment can be found in the Maps section of the Ardsley Historical Society website. Owen is buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery at the corner of Saw Mill River Road and Jackson Avenue.
[11] In the early 1900s, the Ardsley Skating Club sponsored major skating competitions at Woodlands Lake.
[12] https://parks.westchestergov.com/v-e-macy-park/great-hunger-memorial
[14] One of the other causes of the somewhat forlorn nature of Woodlands Lake is hinted in the Secor v. Ardsley Ice Co. case, to wit, the park (which has an Ardsley address as it is within the Ardsley School District), is owned by Westchester County but straddles the area between two villages - Ardsley and Irvington-on-Hudson. For a variety of reasons, the once strong “Westchester” identity of County residents has seemingly waned over the past few decades.