Moats v. Strange Bros. Hide

185 Iowa 356
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedJanuary 27, 1919
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 185 Iowa 356 (Moats v. Strange Bros. Hide) 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
Moats v. Strange Bros. Hide, 185 Iowa 356 (iowa 1919).

Opinion

Gaynor, J.

Plaintiff brings this action to recover a balance claimed to be due on the purchase price of certain wool.

On or about the 16th day of October, 1916, plaintiff had 3,000 pounds of wool in bales stored in his barn. He had also 270 head of. sheep, from which the wool had not [357]*357been clipped. Plaintiff claims that, on said day, defendant purchased all of said wool, clipped and unclipped, at 29% cents per pound, and paid down, at the time, $25 to apply on the purchase price. The unclipped wool was subsequently clipped, and netted 1,613 pounds. It is apparent, then, that plaintiff claims he sold to the defendant wool totaling 4,613 pounds, at 29% cents per pound, amounting to $1,360.83. It is conceded that defendant has paid to plaintiff, on the purchase price, only $604.16. The plaintiff claims, therefore, that there is still due him $756.68, and for this he asks judgment.

Defendant admits that plaintiff owned and had in his possession 3,000 pounds of wool, and that the same was stored in plaintiff’s barn substantially as claimed by plaintiff; admits that he owned 270 head of sheep, from which the wool, though ready for clipping, had not yet been clipped; and says that, on said date, plaintiff offered to sell said wool, clipped and unclipped, at 29% cents per pound, and that defendant agreed to purchase it at that price, and paid $25 down; but says that the stored wool was to be sacked by plaintiff and delivered to defendant at the railway freight station at Missouri Valley, and, when so delivered and weighed, and the amount ascertained, the undipped wool was to be clipped by plaintiff, sacked and delivered, and paid for the same as the stored wool; that it was to bind this agreement that defendant paid to plaintiff the sum of $25; and further says that defendant has always been ready and willing to receive the wool and to pay plaintiff for the same, whenever delivered and received by defendant, as contemplated in the contract; that, at divers times, plaintiff was requested to deliver the wool, but had neglected and failed to do so, except as hereinafter stated; that, some time prior to the commencement of this action, the wool in storage, while in storage in plaintiff’s barn, was partially destroyed by fire, and plaintiff was un[358]*358able to, and never did, deliver more than 435 pounds of the same, and never did deliver to the defendant, at Missouri Valley or any other place, more than 2,048 pounds, in all, of said wool, which, at 29% cents per pound, amounts to $604.16; that this sum defendant has paid, and there is nothing, therefore, due plaintiff.

To recapitulate, the contract, whether made as alleged by plaintiff, or as alleged by defendant, was made on the 16th day of October, 1916. The fire that partially destroyed the wool occurred on the 10th day of November, 1916. (There were 435 pounds saved from the fire. Immediately after the fire, the defendant’s agent came to plaintiff’s farm, and directed plaintiff to’ haul to Missouri Valley the wool saved from the fire. It was so hauled, and received by the defendant at Missouri Valley, there weighed by defendant, and shipped by defendant’s agent to the defendant at Sioux City. Defendant’s agent testifies that, after the fire, he went to plaintiff’s place, and arranged to have the 435 pounds of wool which had been saved from the fire brought to Missouri Valley, and it was there weighed, and shipped to the defendant at Sioux City, and paid for at the contract price, but not at the time it was received and weighed. The 270 sheep were sheared on the 10th day of January, 1917, and 1,630 pounds of wool secured from the shearing. This was shipped by defendant to its place of business at Sioux City, and there received and-paid for, but not at the time it was received. Therefore, of all the wool that plaintiff had at the time the contract was made, 2,048 pounds were shipped to the defendant, received by the defendant, and paid for by the defendant, as hereinafter more fully explained, after the fire occurred. All the wool received by defendant was paid for the defendant at the contract price.

The controversy, therefore, is over the difference between the total amount of the wool, 4,613 pounds, and the [359]*359amount received by the defendant, 2,04-8 pounds, making a difference, represented by the burned wool, of 2,565 pounds; and it is to recover for this that plaintiff brings the action.

The real question presented by this record is: Who was the owner of this 2,565 pounds at the time it was burned? Had the title passed to the defendant, or was the title still in the plaintiff? Whose wool was burned?

If, under the arrangement and agreement between plaintiff and defendant, the title passed from the plaintiff to the defendant, and was in the defendant at the time of the fife, then defendant must sustain the loss. If the title had not passed from the plaintiff to the defendant at that time, and it was plaintiff’s wool, then he must stand the loss. This question was tried to the jury. The jury returned a verdict for plaintiff for the amount claimed, or for the wool burned, on the theory that plaintiff had sold it to the defendant with the other wool, and that it was defendant’s wool at the time it was burned. The only question submitted to the jury, and the. only question that it was required to determine, is: Was there such a completed sale of the wool in question that the title to the wool in storage had passed to the defendant before the fire? If it did, it was defendant’s wool, and defendant’s loss.

Plaintiff’s testimony tends to show that Joseph Strange, a member of defendant’s firm, came to Ms house on or about the date named,' and said that he had seen plaintiff’s wool; that it was good wool; that he would like to buy it. Plaintiff said, “I will sell you the wool.” Strange asked, “What do you want for it?” They agreed on 29V2 cents. Strange said he would take it, and would furnish the sacks for it gratis. Strange asked how much wool plaintiff had in storage, and the plaintiff told him. Strange said:

‘I will make settlement for 3,000 pounds, and if there is any more, you will get it.’ He said he would weigh it at [360]*360Missouri Valley. He asked me if I would haul it to Missouri Valley. I told him I would. That was after he said he would take it, and would give me 29% cents a pound. Thereupon, he wrote out and delivered to me the $25 check. He said, ‘Will you haul it to Missouri Valley?’ and I said, ‘I will. You will get all the wool. It is yours. The wool is yours, even that on the sheep’s back; but I cannot clip it until I get some man to clip it for me.’ I said, ‘When will you take it?’ and he said, ‘Next week, and I will ship the sacks right down.’ He shipped the sacks, but he never came.' I never received any word from him as to when he wanted the wool hauled to Missouri Valley, before it was burned. I was ready to bring in the wool at any time I received word from Mr. Strange to haul it in. I hadn’t sacked the wool at the time of the fire. I was ready to sack it, but the reason I had not sacked it is that I was afraid something might destroy it, — pigs or something,— so I kept it cased up. I had it cased up nicely, so that nothing could get at it. At the time of the fire, it was all in the barn, in the place where it was when Strange bought it. After the fire, one of defendant’s agents came down to my place, and we sacked the wool that was saved from the fire, amounting to 435 pounds, and hauled it in for them under the direction of this agent. He was at the farm, and directed that it be hauled in. It was hauled in.

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Bluebook (online)
185 Iowa 356, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moats-v-strange-bros-hide-iowa-1919.