Reinert v. California Almond Growers Exchange

70 P.2d 190, 9 Cal. 2d 181, 1937 Cal. LEXIS 378
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 1, 1937
DocketL. A. No. 15137
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 70 P.2d 190 (Reinert v. California Almond Growers Exchange) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reinert v. California Almond Growers Exchange, 70 P.2d 190, 9 Cal. 2d 181, 1937 Cal. LEXIS 378 (Cal. 1937).

Opinion

EDMONDS, J.

Questions concerning the rights and obligations of parties to a cooperative marketing agreement are presented by this case in which the appellant seeks an accounting of transactions with the respondent exchange during a period of eight years. In addition to the demand for a general accounting the appellant challenges the right of the exchange to make certain deductions for reserves and working capital and other charges. The trial court adopted an account submitted by the exchange and found that there was nothing presently due and payable to appellant at either the time of the commencement of the action or the judgment.

Appellant is the assignee of a corporation which during the years from 1924 to 1931 was the owner of large almond orchards and marketed its crops through the respondent exchange. The latter is a cooperative non-profit marketing association of almond growers. It was organized in 1910 and during the years in question conducted an extensive business in preparing, packing and selling almonds produced by its members. The claims of the appellant against the defendant Paso Robles Almond Growers Association have been adjudicated in another action between them and are not in controversy upon this appeal.

In 1924 appellant’s assignor entered into a crop agency agreement with the respondent making the exchange its marketing agent. This agreement was later replaced by another, substantially the same as the first, which remained in effect [184]*184until 1932. By each of them the exchange was appointed sole agent ánd attorney-in-fact for plaintiff’s assignor, with full power to transact such business and take such steps as it deemed necessary, without power of revocation. The exchange agreed to prepare for market and sell the almonds as agent for plaintiff’s assignor and ratably to divide the proceeds of the sale of almonds of like variety and grade pooled therewith after deducting from said proceeds the ratable proportion of the expenses and expenditures of the exchange incurred in preparing and selling said almonds, and in providing for and carrying on the business operations and corporate purposes of the exchange as might from time to time be determined by its board of directors in accordance with its by-laws.

During the time appellant’s assignor was a member of the exchange nuts delivered to it were handled in pools according to variety. During a part of the time the pools were subdivided by grading the different varieties. Under this system the nuts delivered by the different members were mingled and payment to each was based upon the number of pounds of nuts contributed to the particular pool. The amounts received by the exchange for nuts varied not only with market fluctuations but also depended upon such factors as variety, whether shelled or unshelled, and the type of container used. Certain expenses such as the cost of boxes and containers, and transportation charges were charged directly to the pool. General expenses for maintenance of the exchange and the cost of its operations were considered as charges against the entire crop of the year and were charged to the growers accordingly. The business of the exchange as shown by the statements in evidence is an extensive one, with gross proceeds of over $20,000,000 for the crop years from 1924 to 1931 inclusive.

During these years appellant’s assignor delivered about seven million pounds of nuts to the exchange. Respondent agrees that the amount of almonds claimed to have been delivered under the contracts is correct and it admits that the appellant is entitled to a full and complete accounting therefor. The dispute concerns the nature and extent of the accounting which the respondent should give. The demand of the appellant is for what she terms a judicial accounting. She asserts that the exchange is a trustee and when called [185]*185upon by the cestui que trust must render such account under the supervision of the court and establish by evidence the correctness of each item of debit and credit.

The respondent contends that the appellant has had a complete accounting with full information concerning all transactions which her assignor had with it. The evidence of the respondent shows that during the years it was dealing with appellant’s assignor it furnished various statements concerning the disposition of the different deliveries of nuts, and that after this controversy arose it opened its books for examination by plaintiff’s auditor. This information and the detailed statements submitted with its answer the respond-' ent claims amount to an accounting. In the trial court it successfully contended that the appellant was limited to showing in what respect the account submitted by it was incorrect and the issues were restricted to a consideration of the account as rendered by the exchange. However, the court received evidence concerning certain charges which the appellant contends the exchange had no right to make but it found all of the deductions were proper. Concerning appellant’s right to an accounting it found “that the statement of account attached to the answer of the defendants as Exhibit A is correct and true and represents correctly the credits to which the plaintiff is entitled and the debits properly chargeable against the plaintiff and is adopted by the court as its statement of account resulting from the accounting taken by the court”.

Whether the exchange should have been required to submit further details of its business during the time the appellant’s assignor was a member is the first question presented upon appeal. The appellant insists that she has not been given the essential particulars of the items upon which the exchange computed the amounts to which her assignor was entitled. In particular she insists that the statements submitted by the exchange do not account by pools; that they do not show the credits to and charges against each pool nor how many pounds of nuts were included. It is claimed that the figures submitted by the exchange cannot be checked without this information.

An agent to whom goods are consigned for sale under an agreement that the proceeds after the deduction of expenses and other specified items are to be paid to the principal [186]*186must inform the principal of the price received for the goods and state the details of the charges which he has made against the proceeds. The accounts submitted by the respondent do not measure up to this requirement. The appellant is entitled to an accounting which will give her complete information concerning the credits to and charges against all pools in which the nuts delivered by her assignor were packed and sold. (Johnson v. Staple Cotton Coop. Assn., 142 Miss. 312 [107 So. 2]; Arkansas Cotton Growers’ Coop. Assn. v. Brown, 168 Ark. 504 [270 S. W. 946, 1119]; Rhodes v. Little Falls Dairy Co., 230 App. Div. 571 [245 N. Y. Supp. 432], affirmed 256 N. Y. 559 [177 N. E. 140].)

The exchange insists that its by-laws do not contemplate that there must be a tabulation by individual pools of the gross proceeds or expenses. But they make it the duty of the directors not only to provide for pools of the principal varieties of almonds, with reference to size, grade and other features, but also require the board of directors to render to each member as soon as practicable after the close of the season a statement or statements of the almonds received, of the pools established, and of all sums received from the sale or distribution of the almonds.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
70 P.2d 190, 9 Cal. 2d 181, 1937 Cal. LEXIS 378, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reinert-v-california-almond-growers-exchange-cal-1937.