Humboldt Trust & Savings Bank v. Entler

349 N.W.2d 778, 39 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 313, 1984 Iowa App. LEXIS 1489
CourtCourt of Appeals of Iowa
DecidedApril 24, 1984
Docket83-252
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 349 N.W.2d 778 (Humboldt Trust & Savings Bank v. Entler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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Humboldt Trust & Savings Bank v. Entler, 349 N.W.2d 778, 39 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 313, 1984 Iowa App. LEXIS 1489 (iowactapp 1984).

Opinion

SCHLEGEL, Judge.

Defendants Entler appeal and plaintiff bank cross-appeals from judgment in an action upon promissory notes executed by defendant, Howard Entler. Entler asserts that: (1) the evidence was sufficient to establish a course of dealing under which the bank waived its security interest in identifiable proceeds obtained from the sale of crops; and (2) the evidence was insufficient to establish that their 1981 Buick was identifiable proceeds from the sale of crops and thus within the scope of a security agreement. Plaintiff bank asserts on cross-appeal that: (1) the action is equitable and thus reviewable de novo; and (2) the evidence was insufficient to establish a course of dealing under which it waived its rights under a perfected security agreement to grain sold by the debtor to defendant cooperative. Defendant cooperative asserts that the action is substantially legal in nature and thus triable and reviewable at law. The cooperative also claims that the bank waived its security interest in the crops through a prior course of dealing. We affirm on both the appeal and the cross-appeal.

The bank filed a petition in April, 1981, captioned as equitable, seeking recovery based on the unpaid notes executed by Entler. Recovery was sought from Entler, his wife, and the cooperative which had purchased grain subject to the bank’s perfected security interest in Entler’s crops. Following trial to the court, judgment was entered allowing the bank to recover proceeds from the Entlers which consisted of a house and car, which were found to be identifiable from the sale of grain subject to the security interest. Recovery from the cooperative was denied on the ground that a course of dealing between Entler and the bank had given Entler implied authority to sell the grain and thus extinguished the bank’s security interest as against a third-party purchaser. Entler’s appeal and the bank’s cross-appeal followed.

I.

The bank and the cooperative raise a preliminary issue involving the scope of our review. The bank claims the case was filed in equity and tried as such; therefore, our review is de novo. Iowa R.App.P. 4. The cooperative asserts that, since the bank sought a money judgment, the case was actually tried at law and, therefore, we must accept the trial court’s findings of fact if they are supported by substantial evidence. Iowa R.App.P. 14(f)(1). This issue arose in the context of the larger issue involving whether the bank waived its right to pursue the proceeds of Entler’s grain sales to the cooperative because of an alleged prior course of dealing.

We do not find it necessary to determine whether our review is de novo or on error, however, because we would reach the same result in this case under either standard.

II.

The main issue is whether the bank retained a security interest under Iowa law in the grain after its transfer to defendant cooperative. The applicable law is Iowa Code section 554.9306(2). That section provides:

*781 Except where this Article otherwise provides, a security interest continues in collateral notwithstanding sale, exchange or other disposition thereof unless the disposition was authorized by the secured party in the security agreement or otherwise, and also continues in any identifiable proceeds including collections received by the debtor.

As we noted in Ottumwa Production Credit Association v. Heinhold Hog Market, Inc., 340 N.W.2d 801, 802 (Iowa Ct. App.1983), “[t]he ‘otherwise’ language, upon proper proof, includes a prior course of dealing, Hedrick Savings Bank v. Myers, 229 N.W.2d 252 (Iowa 1975), and constitutes authority to sell pledged collateral under § 554.9306(2). Id. at 256.” Notwithstanding the fact that there is a specific prohibition of sale without written consent contained in a security agreement, a holder of a security interest may be held to have impliedly authorized the sale of collateral by a prior course of dealing. Hedrick Savings Bank v. Myers, 229 N.W.2d at 255-56.

“Course of dealing” is defined in Iowa Code section 554.1205(1) as “a sequence of previous conduct between the parties to a particular transaction which is fairly to be regarded as establishing a common basis of understanding for interpreting their expressions and other conduct.” It follows that, when the parties’ actions fall outside the “sequence of previous conduct,” there is no “understanding” between the parties authorizing the transaction. In order for a buyer to take collateral free of a properly perfected security interest under the “course of dealing” doctrine recognized in the Hedrick case, that buyer must present proof of a course of dealing and show that the purchase involved was within that course of dealing.

Since 1972 the defendants, Brenda and Howard Entler, were self-employed tenant farmers operating under cash rent arrangements and crop share leases with Howard’s family. The Entlers periodically borrowed operating capital from plaintiff bank during this period of time. Each of the promissory notes provided that “[debtor will not sell or offer to sell or otherwise transfer or encumber the collateral or any part thereof without written consent of Secured Party, will keep the Collateral in good order .... ” The bank at no time actually gave written consent for sale of collateral. It did, however, accept payment on the Entlers’ loans from the sale of collateral. Prior to 1980, the Entlers paid off all loans from plaintiff bank with proceeds from the sale of grain in which the bank had a properly perfected security interest. In 1980 they sold grain to defendant cooperative and used the proceeds from these sales to purchase a homestead. In addition to a homestead, the Entlers purchased a 1981 Buiek through, in part, trade-in of a Jeep that had, in part, been purchased with funds obtained from the cooperative in 1980 as proceeds from the sale of grain. Various of these transactions involved accounts which the bank did not monitor for the purpose of detecting transactions involving grain subject to its security interest. Subsequently, Entler filed for bankruptcy without having made any payments on the seven promissory notes involved in this case.

We recently affirmed a grant of summary judgment to a third-party buyer in Ottumwa Production Credit Association v. Heinhold Hog Market, Inc., 340 N.W.2d 801, under the exact same factual situation. In that case the creditor had expressly authorized the sale of collateral but had required the borrowers to return the proceeds to it. Id. at 802-03. The creditor argued in that case that the fact that it did not authorize the borrower to use the proceeds from the sale of the collateral generated a material issue of fact and required a reversal for trial. We ruled that the creditor had lost its security interest in the collateral as a matter of law. Id. at 803. Our focus in that case was on whether the sale of the collateral was authorized, not whether the borrower disposed of the proceeds in a manner not impliedly authorized.

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349 N.W.2d 778, 39 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 313, 1984 Iowa App. LEXIS 1489, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/humboldt-trust-savings-bank-v-entler-iowactapp-1984.