Patterson v. Baltimore Steam Packet Co.

(orally). The question for the court to •determine is not what contract might have , been made in the actual or supposed relations of the parties to each other, and as a result of such relations, but what contract the .parties did in fact make. This .was a commercial transaction, and commercial contracts, made by correspondence in the pressure of business, and not under advice of ■counsel, must receive a liberal construction to carry out the real intention of the parties; and in ascertaining this intention it is important to note, from their acts and declarations while the contract was in…