Sommers ex rel. Sommers v. Interstate Surety Co.

201 N.W. 717, 48 S.D. 57, 1924 S.D. LEXIS 141
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 31, 1924
DocketFile No. 5461
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 201 N.W. 717 (Sommers ex rel. Sommers v. Interstate Surety Co.) 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
Sommers ex rel. Sommers v. Interstate Surety Co., 201 N.W. 717, 48 S.D. 57, 1924 S.D. LEXIS 141 (S.D. 1924).

Opinion

DttLE'ON, J.

This is an appeal by the defendant from the judgment entered in favor of plaintiff and from the order denying ,a new trial. This action was instituted by the plaintiff to recover the value of certain grain delivered to and stored with the Richmond Equity Exchange, a corporation, upon bonds executed [59]*59by said company and the state, as provided by statute for operating warehouse andi storing grain business.

The facts as shown by the record in this case are: The Richmond Equity Exchange owned two buildings or elevators on the right of way of the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway, standing about 15 rods apart at Richmond, a small town in this state. The company had conducted its business as warehouse in these two buildings as one business or concern. It had but one office which was located in the larger of the two buildings; one set of books; one manager; one scale book; one storage ticket book, containing tickets of a single series. It owned no other elevators, and did business in no other place; stored wheat, oats, barley, flax, and all grain delivered to it in both buildings, and issued tickets therefor from the single series of .storage tickets, except at time when either one house or other was full. Wheat and rye were stored in the larger building and oats and flax in the smaller building. The tickets for storage of grain for both buildings were issued from the sam'e storage ticket book without any regard to which building the grain was deposited in.

The application of the Richmond Equity Exchange for warehouse license gives the following: “Capacity (as two houses), 18,000-12,000 bushels.” Was bonded for the year commencing August 1, 1920, and ending July 31, 1921, by two bonds of $6,000 each. The conditions of the two bonds were identical in that, “if said Richmond Equity Exchange should faithfully perform its duty as a public warehouseman, and shall faithfully and unreservedly comply with all the laws of the state of South Dakota in relation thereto, then this obligation to be void, otherwise to remain in full force and virtue.”

The buildings or warehouses as described in the bonds as warehouses named' “Richmond Equity Exchange, having- a capacity of 12,000 bushels,” and as “Richmond Equity Exchange B, having capacity of 18,000 bushels.” During" the month of August and the fall of 1920 the 48 storage ticket holders for whom judgment was rendered stored grain with the Richmond Equity Exchange in its buildings at Richmond, S. D., consisting of wheat, oats, barley, rye, and flax, and received storage tickets as set forth in findings. All tickets were issued from the single [60]*60storage book, and were of the same series and numbered in consecutive order.

In December, 1920, the Richmond Equity Exchange shipped the grain of the ticket holders, and on January 23, 1921, it was adjudged bankrupt. On February 7, 1921, a trustee was appointed, and the storage tickets were presented to the trustee with claims and demands on February 7, 1921. The trustee sold the grain left on hand, and credits were given therefor, -being about 17 per cent. The balance due on the storage ticket exceeding the face of both bonds of defendant, judgment was rendered for $13,-412.27; debt, damage, and interest. The case has been to Supreme Court upon demurrer and demurrer overruled as to the complaint.

The .appellant in his brief and argument in this court presented several assignments of error, which we may classify in three parts: (x) Admissibility of evidence. (2) Estoppel from claiming on storage tickets. (3) sufficiency of evidence to sustain findings and judgment.

The first contention as to admissibility of evidence involves a number of storage tickets to which the appellant objects, giving as a reason that no foundation has been laid, and that it was not shown that any grain had been delivered. Appellant also objected to- certain evidence, for the reason that it did not show, to which warehouse same was delivered. These objections and assignment of errors may all be considered together, as all involve the same question of law.

The appellant contends that, as there were two separate bonds given by the warehouseman on separate buildings, therefore there are two separate and distinct contracts, and that the evidence should show which of the bonds covers the tickets for grain or which building the grain was stored in. ^ Such contention cannot be sustained.

A receipt or a storage ticket is prima facie evidence of the matter specified therein, and, we think, not only prima facie when issued by a warehouseman but conclusive as to 'the party issuing same under section 9753 of the Code of 1919, which provides :

“No warehouse receipt shall be issued except upon actual delivery of grain into such warehouse.”

And Section 9759 states:

[61]*61“No person doing a grain warehouse or grain elevator business in this state, having issued a receipt for the storage of grain as in this article provided, shall thereafter be permitted to deny that the grain represented thereby is the property of the person to whom such receipt was issued, or his assigns thereof and such receipts shall be deemed and held, so far as the duties, liabilities and obligations of such bailee are concerned, conclusive evidence of the fact that the person to whom the same was issued, or his assigns thereof, is the owner of such grain and is the person entitled to make surrender of such receipt and receive the grain thereby promised to be delivered.”

The receipts issued by the Richmond Equity Exchange for grain are conclusive that it received the grain; hence were properly admitted as evidence without showing actual deliveries.

.[3] The appellant further contends that the storage tickets must show that the grain was delivered and deposited in a certain one of the buildings before same could be admited as evidence to prove to the court which bond was affected. We think this contention cannot be sustained. The fact being within the knowledge of the warehouseman, it would be his duty under the law to designate on the storage ticket if these building's were separate warehouses or elevators, and the company issuing the tickets or its bonded security could not take any advantage of its neglect to perform, a duty that the business placed upon it, and, if there was any such designation of building, required in this case, the burden of proof would rest upon the defendants rather than upon the ticket holder. Farmer Elevator Co. of Westport v. Quinn-Shepherdson Co. (S. D.) 199 N. W. 201; Marshall v. Andrews et al, 8 N. D. 364, 79 N. W. 851.

The contention of the appellant is that certain evidence of the value of the grain in December, 1920, at the time of the shipment of the grain outside of the state, and also- of the value at the time the Equity Exchange voluntarily became a bankrupt and the trustee in bankruptcy took possession of all its property, should not have been admitted. The appellant does not point out or claim in his brief that the only evidence of value was that nf December, 1920, and February, 1921, and that no other evidence was considered by the court in deter[62]*62mining the value. If the court determined the value from other proper evidence, then this evidence might be immaterial. We do not think it necessary to determine in this case. Neither the warehouseman by voluntary bankruptcy and transfer of all property to trastee nor demands on trustee were a conversion of property at that time.

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Related

State Ex Rel. Vojta v. Deibert
240 N.W. 332 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1932)
Larson v. National Surety Co.
214 N.W. 507 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1927)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
201 N.W. 717, 48 S.D. 57, 1924 S.D. LEXIS 141, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sommers-ex-rel-sommers-v-interstate-surety-co-sd-1924.