Hiram Walker - The Pregnant-Cow Case

The Pregnant-Cow Case

Hiram Walker was also a cattle breeder and was party to a famous contracts case, Sherwood v. Walker, known as "The Pregnant-Cow Case." (33 N.W. 919 (Mich. 1887).) According to the majority opinion, Walker agreed with Theodore Sherwood, a banker, to sell him a cow of distinguished ancestry known as "Rose 2d of Aberlone". The price was $80, both parties believing Rose to be sterile. When Walker discovered that she was pregnant and worth between $750 and $1,000, he refused to deliver her. Sherwood sued and prevailed in the trial court, but lost on appeal. This case illustrates the contract law rules of rescission of contract by mutual mistake. Because both parties believed they were contracting for a sterile cow, there was a mutual mistake of fact, and therefore ground for rescission. However, the dissent in the case, written by Justice Sherwood, notes that Sherwood believed that Rose "might be made to breed" and purchased her on that chance.