Droge Elevator Co. v. W. P. Brown Co.

151 N.W. 1048, 172 Iowa 4
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedApril 7, 1915
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 151 N.W. 1048 (Droge Elevator Co. v. W. P. Brown Co.) 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
Droge Elevator Co. v. W. P. Brown Co., 151 N.W. 1048, 172 Iowa 4 (iowa 1915).

Opinion

Weaver, J.

Plaintiff alleges that defendant wrongfully converted to its own use “the proceeds of a carload of ground feed” belonging to plaintiff. More specifically, the circumstances on which this claim is grounded are substantially as follows:

Plaintiff, a dealer doing business at Council Bluffs, Iowa, consigned to defendant, a dealer at Memphis, Tennessee, a [6]*6shipment of feed subject to “Memphis inspection”. On its arrival at Memphis, what is spoken of as a “track inspection” was had and the feed pronounced to be in good order. Defendant at once shipped the car to a customer in Mississippi, who found the feed in a heated condition and it was promptly returned to the defendant at Memphis. Defendant, who had already remitted to plaintiff the price of the shipment, notified plaintiff of the bad condition of the feed and asked to be advised of plaintiff’s wishes in the matter.. Plaintiff then sent its agent, Mr. Schmauser, to Memphis to look after its interests and furnished him with a check payable to defendant for a refund of the price which had been paid for the feed. It also wrote defendant, requesting that it “handle the chops to the very best advantage. ’ ’ Upon his arrival at Memphis, Schmauser found the feed had been unloaded into defendant’s warehouse and, satisfying himself that the claim was just, delivered the refunding check. He also sold the feed to defendant at a materially reduced price and received defendant’s check for $420. Plaintiff repudiated the settlement so made, returned to defendant the check for $420 and refused payment of its own check which it had sent to the defendant by Schmauser. As reason for this repudiation, plaintiff alleged that defendant had concealed from Schmauser the fact that the “track inspection” had shown the feed to be in good condition on its arrival in Memphis and also concealed the further fact that the car had been shipped to another point and then returned to Memphis before complaint was made of the condition of the shipment. No further agreement or settlement appears to have been arrived at and, at a later date, defendant instituted an attachment suit against plaintiff in a justice’s court at. Memphis and caused one 'Wyatt to be garnished as a debtor of plaintiff herein. Wyatt, who was indebted to plaintiff herein for another carload of feed, answered the garnishment, admitting his indebtedness. After a continuance of six months and publication of notice, no appearance having been made, a de[7]*7fault was entered against the defendant therein (plaintiff herein) and judgment rendered confirming the attachment and requiring the garnishee to pay over the amount of his admitted indebtedness to be applied in payment of the claim for the collection of which that action was begun. Wyatt performed the judgment on his part and the money so realized was applied in satisfaction of the claim of the plaintiff therein (defendant herein). Plaintiff, refusing to recognize the validity of the attachment'proceeding, brings this action to recover damages, alleging the facts substantially as we have stated them and averring that by reason thereof defendant has converted to its own use the proceeds of the car of feed sold to Wyatt. Jurisdiction of the controversy was acquired in this state by attachment levied upon a carload of oats found in Pottawattamie county, belonging to the defendant. Defendant denies the petition and sets up a counterclaim for damages for the alleged wrongful attachment of its property.

The trial below developed very little more than is found in the foregoing statement. After hearing the evidence, the court reached the conclusion that the plaintiff was concluded by the judgment in the Tennessee court and sustained the defendant's motion for a directed verdict, in its favor.

1. Evidence : laws of sister state: constitutions : presumption. I. The appellant assigns three alleged errors of the trial court as grounds for reversal. The real point presented by .these three assignments may be stated in the single proposition that the Tennessee court had no jurisdiction of the attachment proceedings wherein Wyatt was garnished, and that the judgment entered therein, requiring Wyatt to pay into that court the amount of his indebtedness to plaintiff was void and of no effect. In support of this contention, it is said in argument that neither the Constitution of the state of Tennessee nor its laws bearing upon the jurisdiction of justices of ■the peace have been offered in evidence, and counsel urge that, under such circumstances, we are required to assume that they are in this respect like the Constitution and statutes [8]*8of Iowa. Starting with this assumption, it is pointed out that the judgment entered by the Tennessee court was for more than $400, an amount beyond the jurisdiction of a justice’s court in Iowa, and that such judgment, if rendered by a justice of the peace in this jurisdiction, would be void upon its face. If appellant is correct in its premises that, in the absence of evidence as to the Constitution and statutes of the state of Tennessee, we must treat them as being identical with our own, then, of course, further discussion upon this phase of the argument is unnecessary, and the point that the Tennessee judgment is void would have to be conceded, if the constitutional question is really in the case. But we are not prepared to go to that extent. The rule which appellant seeks to apply at this point doubtless had its origin in judicial recognition of the fact that the rules and principles of the common law prevail in substantially all of the states of our Union; hence, where litigation has occurred in one state over contracts made or dealings had or acts done in other states, it has been thought not unreasonable to assume, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that judicial interpretation of common-law rules and principles is uniform in all jurisdictions. This, in the opinion of the writer, is as far as the assumption of uniformity should ever have been carried; but it is to be admitted that we have at times exceeded this limitation and given it application to statutory law, though usually without discussion. As this extension of the doctrine has occasioned no apparent injustice, we think it’ better not to overrule the precedent thus established, but we are not willing to follow counsel in still further expanding it and making it applicable also to the provisions of the Constitutions of the several states. We may, of course, assume that every state Constitution provides for a republican form of government and is otherwise in harmony with the Federal Constitution; but beyond that, there is no reason why we should take it for granted that the fundamental law of one state is like that of another. Indeed, it is a matter of common knowledge that in [9]*9other particulars there is little, if any, uniformity. No fact is better known to courts and lawyers than that, with little or no exception, no two states are provided with the same judicial system, and that, with respect to the nature and extent of the jurisdiction conferred upon their several courts, each state is a law unto itself. Such being the case,s we are of the opinion that for this court to ignore these well and universally known facts pertaining to a matter of general public interest and say that we will presume that.the jurisdiction of a justice of a peace in Tennessee is hedged by .the same constitutional limit which prevails in Iowa would be carrying the rule of presumption to an absurd extreme.

2. Appeal and error : questions reviewable on appeal : failure to raise question in lower court.

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Bluebook (online)
151 N.W. 1048, 172 Iowa 4, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/droge-elevator-co-v-w-p-brown-co-iowa-1915.