Littau v. Midwest Commodities, Inc.

316 N.W.2d 639, 1982 S.D. LEXIS 269
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 3, 1982
Docket13284
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 316 N.W.2d 639 (Littau v. Midwest Commodities, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Littau v. Midwest Commodities, Inc., 316 N.W.2d 639, 1982 S.D. LEXIS 269 (S.D. 1982).

Opinions

FOSHEIM, Justice.

Harlan Pease, Telford Tofflemire and Midwest Commodities, Inc. (Midwest) appeal from a Judgment entered in favor of Merlyn Littau. We reverse in part, affirm in part and remand.

Midwest held a meeting at Winner, South Dakota on November 9, 1978 to promote Sunoil 1000 hybrid sunflower seed. At this meeting Appellee discussed becoming a dealer of this seed with Appellant Toffle-mire, Chuck Lefforge (a defendant below) and Roy Leicht (apparently an agent of Midwest, but not a defendant). The following day, Appellee met again with these people and agreed to sell Sunoil 1000 seed. Appellee then paid for, and took delivery of, 55 bags of seed with assurance from Midwest that any unsold seed could be returned. He placed an order for 90 additional bags of seed in April of 1979. When the 1979 sunflower planting season ended, Ap-pellee had sold or planted 31 bags of the seed. On June 29, 1979, a stop sale order was imposed on the remaining 114 bags of seed by the South Dakota Department of Agriculture because the variety name of the seed was misrepresented on the labels attached to each seed bag. The name incorrectly read “Sunoil 1000 Hybrid Sunflowers”; it should have read “894 Hybrid Sunflowers.” Appellee applied for and was granted a release from the stop sale order so that the seed could be returned to Midwest for proper labelling, he then requested from Midwest permission to return the 114 bags of unsold seed and refund of his purchase price. Midwest refused.

The main issues are whether the evidence supports the trial court’s findings and whether such findings support the conclusions of law.

On the issue of the sufficiency of the evidence to support the trial court’s findings, we are mindful that “[findings of fact shall not be set aside unless clearly erroneous, and due regard shall be given to the opportunity of the trial court to judge of the credibility of the witnesses.” SDCL 15-6-52(a). Thus we cannot disturb the trial court’s findings unless, after reviewing the evidence, we are “left with a definite and firm conviction that a mistake” was made by the trial court. In Re Estate of Hobelsberger, 85 S.D. 282, 181 N.W.2d 455, 459 (1970). In this case the Defendants rested absent any proffered testimony.

The record leads us to conclude the trial court clearly erred in finding that Appellants represented to Appellee that the seed was certified. The following excerpt is representative of Appellee’s testimony concerning the November 9th and 10th conversations with Appellant Tofflemire, Mr. Lefforge and Mr. Leicht.

Q. (by Mr. Benson) At this meeting, these three gentlemen, who you’ve previously indicated, Roy, Chuck and Tel were present, you- and your wife, and you had some discussion with these gentlemen as to becoming a seed dealer, is that right?
A. Seed dealer, right, yeah.
Q. Do you remember any particular conversation from any of those particular people?
A. Well, we just kind of talked together over a cup of coffee there about selling seed.
Q. You were all at this table when this discussion took place?
[642]*642A. Yeah.
Q. What transpired as far as the discussion at that time?
A. Well, he just asked me if I was interested, and I said, “Yeah, I'd talk about it.” So the — I said, “Give me some booklets about it.” And he kind of talked to me, and my wife talked it over, and I said I’d probably take it. So we took it.
Q. Well, what did he [Tofflemire] specifically state, in a more specific terms, as to the seed itself?
A. Well, this — it was a — I was just the only dealer out there to sell pretty good out there, and—
Q. —You’d have a large territory, then?
A. Yeah, a large territory out there.

Appellee’s testimony indicates no oral representations about certification. It appears, however, from Appellee’s testimony that he got the impression the seed was certified when he received a letter from Mr. Tofflemire directing him to procure the 1978 South Dakota Certified Seed Directory,1 which included the name of Mr. Lef-forge. The belief that this meant the seed was certified is negated by the fact that on the inside cover of the seed directory, under the clearly printed words “PLEASE NOTE,” it is explained that the inclusion of a grower’s name in the directory does not necessarily mean the grower’s seed is certified, but rather means that application for certification has been made and that the seed has passed all inspections to date.2 The finding that Appellants misrepresented the seed as certified is also refuted by the fact that none of the seed bags Appellee picked up on November 10th were tagged with a blue tag, indicating that the bag contained certified seed. Appellee testified that he is an experienced farmer and also a Northrup King seed dealer. According to the testimony of Mr. Glen Koskinen, a seed marketing specialist for the United States Department of Agriculture, if a seed dealer takes delivery of bags of seed which are not affixed with blue tags, he knows immediately that the seed is not certified. Mr. Koskinen also testified that a seed dealer with certified seed for sale would normally want to advertise that fact. Appellee, however, made no mention in his advertisements that the seed he offered for sale was certified. This is consistent with Appellant Tofflemire’s instruction to Appellee in the November 24, 1978 letter: “You should run a classified add [sic] in your paper also. Just say to the effect that you are the local dealer and are now taking orders for sunoil 1000 sunflower seed, and give your phone # .” Likewise, the promotional information appellee was given at the November 9th meeting (a brochure advertising Sunoil 1000 and a general fact sheet on sunflower production) did not advertise the seed as certified.

The trial court also found “[t]hat the seed sold to the Plaintiff was represented to be a clean, quality seed of uniform size. That state and federal tests of this lot number or commercial unit and Plaintiff’s Exhibits # 20-24 established that the seed was not of the quality represented and that a high percentage of the seed was worm-eaten, that it contained large pieces of inert matter or trash which would not normally pass through a farmer’s planter, that the seed was not graded as to size and is practically worthless.” That finding is clearly erroneous. It appears the trial court made this finding based on the results of federal and state tests done on Sunoil 1000 seed other than that sold to the Appellee. The best evidence whether the seed purchased [643]*643was as represented comes from appellee’s testimony. He answered “yes” to a direct question whether the seed was as represented except for the brand name.

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Littau v. Midwest Commodities, Inc.
316 N.W.2d 639 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1982)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
316 N.W.2d 639, 1982 S.D. LEXIS 269, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/littau-v-midwest-commodities-inc-sd-1982.