Carpenter v. Land O'Lakes, Inc.

976 F. Supp. 968, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13404, 1997 WL 542934
CourtDistrict Court, D. Oregon
DecidedAugust 27, 1997
DocketCivil No. 94-1566-FR
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 976 F. Supp. 968 (Carpenter v. Land O'Lakes, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Carpenter v. Land O'Lakes, Inc., 976 F. Supp. 968, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13404, 1997 WL 542934 (D. Or. 1997).

Opinion

FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

FRYE, District Judge.

The following constitutes findings of fact and conclusions of law pursuant to Rule 52 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

BACKGROUND

The three plaintiffs, Monte Carpenter, his wife Mary Carpenter, and their son, Rodney Carpenter, own the fifth plaintiff, Carpenter Dairy.1 The Carpenters allege that the defendant, Land O’ Lakes, Inc. (Land O’ Lakes), delivered feed to the Carpenter Dairy prior to June 5, 1993, and this feed [970]*970caused serious and widespread health problems in them dairy herd. The Carpenters allege five claims: breach of the implied warranty of merchantability, breach of the implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose, strict product liability, negligence, and fraud.

The case was tried to the court from June 10, 1997 through June 20, 1997. During the trial, the court granted Land O’ Lakes’ motions for a directed verdict against the Carpenters’ fraud and negligence claims, against the Carpenters’ request for punitive damages, and against a finding of causation from mycotoxins.2

FINDINGS OF FACT

Since 1991, Land O’ Lakes has sold to the Carpenters feed for dairy cattle consisting of rolled corn and barley. The Carpenters received a load of this feed every seven to thirteen days. The load of feed at issue here was delivered to the dairy on May 28, 1993 and was fed to the dairy herd within two feedings of its delivery. There was no visible mold in the feed at the time of its delivery.

Rodney Carpenter was primarily responsible for feeding the dairy herd. The herd was fed feed which was made by combining in a mixer wagon the rolled corn and barley purchased from Land O’Lakes with hay, soy bean meal, whole cottonseed, and a mineral supplement. A mixer wagon chopped the hay and mixed the other ingredients with the hay. Rodney Carpenter did not time the mixing process but judged by sight whether the hay was chopped sufficiently. The mixer wagon used at the dairy was not capable of chopping the hay into one-half inch or less lengths. The Carpenters stored the feed in a pile on the floor of a commodity barn. When Rodney Carpenter was preparing the total mix ration for the next feeding, he would use a front-end loader to scoop up the feed and dump it into the mixer wagon. A scale on the mixer wagon allowed him to measure the amount of the ingredients being added to prepare the total mix ration. The herd was fed twice a day. Rodney Carpenter did not recalculate the amount of the total mix ration to make for each feeding until the number of cows to be fed changed by nine or ten.

In April of 1993, Dr. Patrick Randall, a nutritionist from Land O’Lakes, went to the dairy and spoke with Rodney Carpenter. Rodney Carpenter told Dr. Randall that the feed was not any good, and that the fresh cows3 were going off their feed and drying up shortly after giving birth. Dr. Randall checked the ratio of ingredients that Rodney Carpenter was putting in the mix ration and determined that the amount of rolled corn and barley used in the mix was too high. In Dr. Randall’s opinion, the ratio of ingredients in the mix was causing the fresh cows to go off their feed and to dry up. He suggested to Rodney Carpenter that he reduce the amount of rolled corn and barley used in the mix. Instead, Rodney Carpenter added a mineral supplement from Purina, another manufacturer, to the mix ration. He did not make any other changes in the mix ration when he added the mineral supplement to the mix — that is, he did not reduce the amount of rolled corn and barley in the mix.

By June 5,1993, the feed delivered on May 28, 1993 by Land O’Lakes had a crust of mold and did not flow freely. Ledges and walls had formed within the feed pile due to the mold. Dairy farmers refer to this as “bridging.” Rodney Carpenter examined the feed as he scooped it up with the front-end loader. He had seen this bridging in the feed a few days before the morning of June 5,1993, but it did not cause him concern and he continued to feed the herd from the feed pile. Some of the cows had also started eating less, or had “gone off feed,” a few days before June 5, 1993, but this fact also had not caused him concern. The cows had been fed the moldy grain for a few days before the morning of June 5,1993.

On June 5,1993, the Carpenters conducted an auction at the dairy farm in order to sell some unneeded machinery, some heifers, and some calves. After the auction had started, Rodney Carpenter asked Monte Carpenter to come to the barn and check on the herd. After the second request, Monte Carpenter [971]*971went to the barn and found many sick cows. Some could not walk; others appeared to be dazed; many were “ganted.”4 Monte Carpenter checked the feed pile and noticed a crust of mold on the pile. The Carpenters’ veterinarian, Dr. Paul Jones, was summoned to treat the herd. Land O’Lakes sent a load of rolled corn and barley to replace the moldy feed in time for the afternoon feeding on June 5,1993.

The Carpenters began buying cows to replace the sick and unproductive ones on June 8,1993. All of the cows which had eaten the moldy grain, or the calves of these cows, had died or were sold by October of 1994. The herd that replaced the sick and unproductive cows does not have any of the health problems which manifested after the cows had eaten the moldy feed. After June 5, 1993, the cows which had eaten the moldy grain had the following problems: rumen acidosis, decreased milk production, abortions, problems with rebreeding, birthing calves which died within a week, and deaths.

Rodney Carpenter told John Rosecrans, a ruminant nutritionist, in June of 1993, that when the cows went off feed and their milk production dropped, he held the amount of rolled corn and barley in the mix ration constant and reduced the amount of hay.

Land O’ Lakes had quality assurance goals for procuring raw ingredients. It sought to purchase corn which conformed to United States Department of Agriculture grade No. 2 and which had a maximum moisture level of 15.5%. The Land O’ Lakes Rivergate mill, where the feed purchased by the Carpenters was produced, uses 300 tons of corn a day and cannot always procure corn which meets its quality assurance goals. If the raw corn does not meet these quality assurance goals, Land O’ Lakes uses the corn but takes steps during the manufacturing process to improve the quality of the corn. Land O’ Lakes also applied a mold inhibitor to its rolled corn and barley feed during the time at issue.

The Carpenters kept information on each cow on “cow cards.” Mary Carpenter was the primary recorder of the information on the cow cards. The cow cards, sorted by the numbers assigned to each cow, were used and reused and contain inaccuracies and inconsistencies. The court finds that the cow cards were not changed by the Carpenters in an effort to increase their damages or to mislead the court, but the inaccuracies and inconsistencies lessen the probative value of these cards.

Both Rodney and Monte Carpenter suffered bruises when sick cows fell on them. Monte Carpenter also had a front tooth knocked askew. Neither received medical treatment for their injuries.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Pacificorp v. Northwest Pipeline GP
879 F. Supp. 2d 1171 (D. Oregon, 2012)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
976 F. Supp. 968, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13404, 1997 WL 542934, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carpenter-v-land-olakes-inc-ord-1997.