Leach v. Wiles

429 S.W.2d 823, 58 Tenn. App. 286, 5 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 129, 1968 Tenn. App. LEXIS 299
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedJanuary 5, 1968
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 429 S.W.2d 823 (Leach v. Wiles) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Leach v. Wiles, 429 S.W.2d 823, 58 Tenn. App. 286, 5 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 129, 1968 Tenn. App. LEXIS 299 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1968).

Opinion

PUBYEAB, J.

The plaintiff-in-error here was the plaintiff below and the defendants-in-error were the defendants below, so we will simply refer to them here as plaintiff and defendants, respectively.

This is a suit for property damages resulting from the death of two pony stallions, which the plaintiff, E. B. Leach, insists was caused by some harmful substance contained in crimped oats processed by the defendant, E. L. Wiles d/b/a Capitol City Grain Company, and purchased by plaintiff from the defendant Bill Keith, d/b/a Hickman County Feed Company.

The declaration, as amended, contains two counts, the first of which is a negligence count alleging that the crimped oats processed or manufactured by the defendant, Wiles, and sold to the plaintiff by the defendant, Keith, were of inferior and impure quality because of the negligence of said defendants and such oats contained a toxic poison resulting in the death of the two registered Shetland’pony stallions to which the oats were fed.

*289 The second count of the declaration is based npon alleged breach of implied warranty and, as originally filed, alleged that snch implied warranty arose nnder T..C.A. Section 47-1215, which is part of the old Uniform Sales of Goods Act. However, this connt of the declaration was later amended so as to base this connt npon implied warranty arising nnder Sections 47-2-314 and 47-2-315 T.C.A. which are portions of the Uniform Commercial Code, now iii effect and also in effect at the time of the alleged sale of said crimped oats to the plaintiff on Jnly 7, 1.964.

■ However, the plaintiff has now abandoned reliance mpon the first connt, which was the negligence connt, and 'bases.his case entirely npon the second connt of the declaration which alleges breach of implied warranty nnder the two above mentioned sections of the Uniform Commercial Code.

To this declaration, both defendants filed general issne pleas of not guilty and the case was tried before the Circuit Judge, Honorable John H. Henderson, and a jury.

At the conclusion of all the plaintiff’s proof, which was all of the evidence introduced in the case, both defendants moved for directed verdicts, which motions were sustained and the trial Judge directed verdicts in favor of both defendants.

The plaintiff then filed motion for a new trial, which was overruled by the trial Court, and plaintiff has now perfected his appeal in error to this Court and filed four assignments of error.

■ A total of six witnesses testified at the trial, but the testimony of two of them namely, Dr. Luther Mullins and Mr. Frank Willard, was principally for the purpose of *290 proving the value of the two pony stallions and, therefore, their, testimony is not relevant to the matters presented upon this appeal.

The plaintiff, B. B. Leach, testified that he had been in the business of raising show ponies for about ten years and that he regularly did business with the defendant, Bill Keith, d/b/a Hickman County Feed Company; that he bought crimped oats and Omolene from Keith on July 7, 1964, but these feeds were not delivered to him until July 11, 1964; that on or about July 12, 1964, he fed the oats, which are simply crushed oats, together with Omolene, and Clovite (a vitamin) to the two pony stallions, but did not feed, any of such oats to any of his other ponies. One of these stallions was three years old and the other ten years old.

On July 15, 1964, plaintiff noticed that the three year old stallion did not want to eat, but the other did and at that time he saw no other symptoms of anything being wrong with either of them.

-On July 16, 1964, the three year old stallion died and at this time, plaintiff turned the ten year old out to pasture and this ten year old stallion was found dead July 19,1964, but it does not appear just how long he had been dead at the time he was found.

On July 16, 1964, plaintiff took the body of the three year old pony to the Ellington Agricultural Center at Nashville, where a State Veterinarian performed an autopsy. At some time thereafter plaintiff took samples of the crimped oats, Omolene and Clovite, together with hay and straw that were used for bedding, to Doctor James Wilson, who is Assistant Professor of Bio-chemistry and an expert on toxic feed diseases in livestock.

*291 Plaintiff also testified that after he purchased the crimped oats from Bill Keith, he poured them into metal drums before feeding them to the ponies and before feeding them he mixed the oats, Omolene and Clovite in a feed bucket which was not cleaned prior to feeding.

Plaintiff testified that at the time he fed the oats to the ponies, he noticed nothing unusual about them which could be detected by sight or sense of smell and that they did not appear to he molded at that time.

Plaintiff testified that he did not know exactly when he took the feed and bedding samples to Doctor Wilson, but thought it was a few days after the ponies died. Later, however, he testified it might have been as long as three or four weeks after the death of the ponies before he took the samples to Doctor Wilson.

The next witness, Doctor Luther Mullins, a dentist of Fair view, Tennessee, testified that he sold the three year old pony to plaintiff in 1963, and since most of his testimony relates to the value of the ponies, we will not summarize it here.

The next witness, Mr. Frank Willard, of Franklin, Tennessee, testified as to the value of the ponies and, therefore, his testimony will not he summarized.

The next witness, Doctor James Wilson, a Bio-chemist at Vanderbilt Hospital, testified that he is principally concerned with research of molds that are related or particularly related to moldy feed disease of animals; that plaintiff was referred to him by Doctor Mullins, who had an outbreak of toxic feed disease among his own ponies; that he began the experiment on the feed and bedding furnished to him ‘1 some time before August 10, 1964” and continued thereafter, the first test being made *292 for the purpose of determining if any toxic material was present in the feeds and such tests showed there, was no definite evidence of toxic material present in the oats or Clovite, but there was apparently some toxic material-in the Omolene.

■ He found molds present in the oats and Omolene, the latter being a sweet feed with molasses in it, and also contains corn and oats, and because of his testimony on this particular phase of the case is important, we quote it a.s follows:

“Q. Now what is the next procedure or what do you do. to determine whether or not the molds are toxic and would be injurious ?
A. After isolation of the molds, that is after getting them out in pure culture they are then inoculated or allowed to grow on a moistened food material, usually something very close to it not identical to the type’ of food from which they were isolated.
Q.' Did you do that with the molds in these three cases here?
A.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
429 S.W.2d 823, 58 Tenn. App. 286, 5 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 129, 1968 Tenn. App. LEXIS 299, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/leach-v-wiles-tennctapp-1968.