Doden v. Housh

105 N.W.2d 78, 251 Iowa 1271, 1960 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 710
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedSeptember 20, 1960
Docket49982
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 105 N.W.2d 78 (Doden v. Housh) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Doden v. Housh, 105 N.W.2d 78, 251 Iowa 1271, 1960 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 710 (iowa 1960).

Opinion

Thornton, J.

Bach plaintiff brought an action against the defendants to recover damages for breach of warranty of fitness of feeder pigs purchased by plaintiffs from defendants at public auction. Defendant Charles N. Housh is the owner ■and operator of a livestock sales barn known as the Forest City *1273 Auction Company, Forest City, Iowa. Defendant E. E. Doane sold the feeder pigs through the sales barn at public auction. The pigs had been purchased by him in Oklahoma and trucked to the barn for the auctions.

Plaintiff John Doden, a farmer engaged in general and livestock farming, purchased 102 feeder pigs at the auction held December 12, 1956. The pigs showed signs of illness on the 15th. Doden called a veterinarian, treatment was administered. Ninety-two of the pigs died within a month.

Plaintiff Eaymond Barnes, a livestock and grain farmer, purchased 31 pigs at the auction January 2, 1957. The pigs started getting sick within a day or two. He called a veterinarian January 17. By February 19, 1957, 29 of the pigs died.

Plaintiff Harm Freesemann, a farmer, purchased 30 feeder pigs at the auction January 2, 1957. The pigs started getting sick the eighth or ninth day. At that time a veterinarian was called. Within a month all of the pigs had died.

The cases were consolidated for trial and are so presented here. The petitions of each plaintiff are identical except for dates of purchases, number of pigs and amounts claimed. Each contained a division on the theory of express warranty and implied warranty. The cases were submitted to the jury on the theory of implied warranty only. A verdict was returned for each plaintiff and judgments entered accordingly.

Defendants appeal, urging three major propositions for reversal.

I. The first proposition urged by defendants is the rule of caveat emptor applies to the sales before us and an implied warranty of fitness does not arise. Our rule has been recently very clearly stated in Ver Steegh v. Flaugh, 251 Iowa 1011, 103 N.W.2d 718. At the time this case was argued able counsel for defendants of course did not have the benefit of the Ver Steegh opinion.

Starting on page 1023 of 251 Iowa, page 725 of 103 N.W.2d the Yer Steegh opinion holds (in the case of a sale of a boar for breeding purposes):

“The applicable law is found in the Uniform Sales Act, chapter 554, Codes 1954, 1958, enacted by the Thirty-eighth General Assembly in 1919. Section 554.16 provides:
*1274 “1. Where the buyer * # * malees known to the seller the particular purpose for which the goods are required, and it appears that the buyer relies on the seller’s skill or judgment * * * there is an implied warranty that the goods shall be reasonably fit for such purpose. * * #.
“Section 554.77 says, “Goods” ’ includes all chattels personal other than things in action and money.”

At page 1025 of 251 Iowa, page 727 of 103 N.W.2d, we state in the Yer Steegh opinion, “It is clear there may be an implied warranty of reasonable fitness of an animal notwithstanding the seller’s lack of knowledge that it does not comply with the warranty and notwithstanding the difficulty of discovering this fact.”

The Sales Act makes no distinction between sales at public auction and other sales with respect to warranty of fitness. The Act also provides the answer for defendants’ contention implied warranty does not apply to an executed contract of sale. Section 554.16 provides: “* * * of goods supplied under a contract to sell or a sale.” “A sale” is an executed contract of sale.

Feeder pigs, those sold to be fed to marketable weight, are included in the provision of section 554.16, “* * * any particular purpose * * as well as animals sold for breeding, dairying or work purposes. Tuttle v. Bootes Hatcheries & Packing Co., D. C. Minn., 1953, 112 F. Supp. 705, 709 (turkey poults purchased from a hatchery to be raised for market); Stanton v. Shakofsky, 2 Ill. App.2d 527, 119 N.E.2d 812; Ver Steegh v. Flaugh, supra; and annotation, 53 A. L. R.2d 892.

As pointed out in Ver Steegh v. Flaugh, supra, the older decisions before the adoption of the Uniform Sales Act applying the rule of caveat emptor are not applicable to cases like these governed by the Act.

II. Defendants contend plaintiffs have failed to plead and prove a case of implied warranty under section 554.16(1). We will first consider their question on pleading. They say plaintiffs have failed to comply with rules 93 and 94, Rules of Civil Procedure. Rule 93 provides:

“A claim in derogation of general law, or founded on any kind of exception, shall be so pleaded as to set forth such claim or exception.”

*1275 In pertinent part section 554.16 is as follows: “Subject to the provisions of this chapter and of any statute in that behalf, there is no implied warranty * * * except as follows: # * There then follow six separate paragraphs setting out the circumstances under which there may be an implied warranty and limitations thereon. As pointed out by the able trial court this is not a statement of a true exception. It is a statement of the application of implied warranties and as such is a statement of general law. The provision could have been written in reverse with identical effect. If this is an exception, which we do not hold, the petitions clearly set forth a claim of breach of an implied warranty.

If we understand defendants’ claim relative to rule 94, it is plaintiffs have failed to designate the statute by the section number. Rule 94 provides:

“Matters of which judicial notice is taken need not be stated in any pleading. But a pleading asserting any statute, or a right derived therefrom, shall refer to such statute by plain designation. The court shall judicially notice the statutes of any state, territory or other jurisdiction of the United States so referred to.”

Here again the trial court has provided the answer. In its ruling it states such question should be raised by motion directed to the pleadings and not for the first time at the close of plaintiffs’ evidence in a motion for directed verdict. An examination of plaintiffs’ petitions discloses an action for breach of an implied warranty. We are certain able counsel for defendants were in no way misled. That the designation of the statute may take place at the pretrial conference, see Advisory Committee Comment, Volume 1, Cook’s Iowa Rules of Civil Procedure, page 620.

III. In passing on the sufficiency of the evidence to submit the cases to the jury we view the evidence in the light most favorable to plaintiffs. They are entitled to all reasonable inferences to be drawn therefrom. There must be substantial evidence in support of their theory of the case. There is more than! ample evidence to sustain plaintiffs’ causes of action in relation to the breach of the warranty and defend *1276

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Bluebook (online)
105 N.W.2d 78, 251 Iowa 1271, 1960 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 710, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/doden-v-housh-iowa-1960.