Allied Mutual Insurance v. Farmers National Co.

303 F. Supp. 555, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10331
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Iowa
DecidedAugust 1, 1969
DocketCiv. No. 68-C-2031-C
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 303 F. Supp. 555 (Allied Mutual Insurance v. Farmers National Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Allied Mutual Insurance v. Farmers National Co., 303 F. Supp. 555, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10331 (N.D. Iowa 1969).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

HANSON, District Judge.

This ruling is predicated upon (1) plaintiff Allied Mutual Insurance Company’s motion for partial summary judgment, and (2) defendant Farmers Terminal Elevator Company’s motion for summary judgment on its counterclaim. Inasmuch as both motions raise essentially legal matter in the nature of motions to dismiss for failure to state a claim, and in absence of any request for hearing thereon, the Court considers these matters upon the present record.

This is an action in the nature of inter-pleader arising out of the alleged failure of a bonded statutory warehouse. 28 U.S.C. § 1335. The complaint alleges that on or about November 16, 1966 the plaintiff Allied Mutual issued as surety a statutory warehouse bond which recited as principal the defendant Lohrville Grain Co., Inc.; that during the period of the bond the warehouseman Lohrville was found to have insufficient commodities in store to meet outstanding warehouse receipts; that Lohrville has been unable to make up said shortages; and that diverse claimants under various documents of title now threaten the plaintiff Allied Mutual with multiple litigation and a total liability inconsistent with its bonded obligation. Allied Mutual has paid the full amount of its bond into the registry of the Court. The relief sought, inter alia, is a requirement that all claimants against the surety upon its bond interplead to prove the validity and amount of their respective claims.

Pursuant to this complaint Farmers Terminal has filed its claim alleging

that during the month of January 1968 said Defendant purchased fifteen (15) carloads of ,#2 corn from the Lohrville Grain Company, Lohrville, Iowa; that said purchase called for immediate delivery to the grain terminal at Omaha, Nebraska, and said Farmers Terminal Elevator Company, Inc., paid for same in the amount of $30,000.00; that Lohrville Grain Company failed to deliver nine (9) carloads of said corn which on the date of purchase had a fair market value of $19,248.88 on the Omaha market. Copies of the checks so issued are marked Exhibit “A”, attached hereto and made a part hereof.

[557]*557Together with resistance to Allied Mutual’s motion, Farmers Terminal has appended two documents which read in relevant part:

CONFIRMATION OF PURCHASE
Omaha, Nebr. (1/15/68; 1/23/68)
Lohrville Gr. Co.
Lohrville, Iowa
We confirm purchase from you per-of (10 ;5) cars _Bushels_at_per Bushel F.O.B. Delivered Omaha _Weights -Grades Shipment (20 days; 20 days) Bill cars to us - _ (20,000.00; 10,000.00) _

Farmers Terminal thus claims that the above recitation of facts, the checks and Confirmation of Purchase documents, all require a conclusion that Allied Mutual is liable to this claimant upon its bond within the meaning of Iowa Code Chapter 543.

Allied Mutual is liable to this claimant, if at all, through the language of its bond which defines the ambit of the risk. The bond provides for liability of the surety if the principal fails to

faithfully perform the duties of a licensed warehouseman, in conformity with the provisions of the said Chapter 543 * * * an(i such obligations as a warehouseman which may be assumed by him under contracts * * * with depositors of agricultural products in such warehouse * * *

The above language clearly defines the surety’s liability in terms of those statutory obligations and duties which its principal has assumed. This limitation is consistent with the general rule. See 9 Appleman, Insurance Law and Practice, Section 5745. The cited language, moreover, indicates that bond coverage extends only to obligations and duties undertaken by the principal as a warehouseman. This is a phrase of art. Iowa Code Section 543.1(8) defines “warehouseman” as “a person who uses or undertakes to. use a warehouse for the storage of agricultural products for compensation.” Cf. Iowa Code Section 554.-1201(45). It follows that Allied Mutual cannot be liable upon its bond to this claimant unless Lohrville’s liability derives from the use of “a warehouse for the storage of agricultural products for compensation.”

The state of the record negatives any conclusion but that the Lohrville-Farmers Terminal transaction constituted a contractual sale of agricultural commodities with a fixed price and a delivery time of 20 days from date of purchase. And although it may be probable under this record that the goods in question were never deposited with Lohrville, the Court must explore all possible fact patterns which the defendant Farmers Terminal might prove at trial. The instant sale and delivery thus might have taken three forms:

(1) Lohrville was “selling short.” At no time were the contract goods in storage with Lohrville.
(2) The contract goods were in storage with Lohrville when the contract was made.
(3) The contract goods were not in storage with Lohrville when the contract was made but were purchased by and delivered to Lohrville before the breach.

It is clear that form No. 1 falls outside the coverage of the bond. There must be a “storage of agricultural prod[558]*558ucts” before the surety’s liability may arise.

It is equally clear that forms No. 2 and No. 3 are exclusive of bond coverage. Allied Mutual is liable only for transactions related to storage of products for compensation. Farmers Terminal has never claimed herein, and the terms of the documentary evidence tend to negative, any possibility that a storage of commodities for compensation was a part of the bargain and sale. The “Confirmation of Purchase” documents are silent; for all that appears Lohrville was free to procure the contract goods from any source at any time before delivery date. Nor do the pleadings of Farmers Terminal herein suggest the possibility of a compensated storage arrangement. Rather, the defendant’s resistance to plaintiff’s motion states that “in truth and fact the transaction as set forth * * * was a completed purchase of grain with a delivery order accepted by Lohrville * * Title to the contract goods could not have passed to Farmers Terminal, nor was there ever any competent identification of goods to the contract. Iowa Code Sections 554.2401, 554.2501. It suffices to say that no claim has ever been made that a compensated storage arrangement ever existed, the defendant Lohrville describes the transaction as “a completed purchase of grain,” and no fact appears supportive of any contrary inference. The Court need not conjure up absurdities to avoid summary relief. The surety was liable under its bond for damages arising out of transactions which involved “the storage of agricultural products for compensation.” Whether this plaintiff’s motion is construed as predicated upon Rule 12 or Rule 56, it is clear that no fact pattern reasonably provable by Farmers Terminal will support its claim and that Allied Mutual is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.

Farmers Terminal asserts, however, that the above result is changed by the operation of Iowa Code Section 543.17 which provides in relevant part:

“543.17 Acceptance of bulk grain for purposes other than storage

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Related

True v. Merchants Mutual Bonding Co.
251 N.W.2d 543 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1977)
Allied Mutual Insurance v. Farmers National Co.
309 F. Supp. 732 (N.D. Iowa, 1970)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
303 F. Supp. 555, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10331, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/allied-mutual-insurance-v-farmers-national-co-iand-1969.