Terrill v. Killion

70 N.W.2d 835, 70 N.W.2d 8351, 246 Iowa 1137, 1955 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 442
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedJune 7, 1955
Docket48471
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 70 N.W.2d 835 (Terrill v. Killion) 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
Terrill v. Killion, 70 N.W.2d 835, 70 N.W.2d 8351, 246 Iowa 1137, 1955 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 442 (iowa 1955).

Opinion

Wennerstrum, C. J.

This court has given permission to the plaintiff to appeal from an interlocutory order overruling a motion to strike a petition of intervention. Rule 332, R. C. P. The plaintiff, in his petition, alleged the defendant is an auctioneer with sales barn facilities in Adair County, Iowa, where he conducts public sales of livestock; that plaintiff on or about February 23, 1951, delivered to the defendant some thirty-three head of young feeder pigs and entered into an agreement with the defendant to sell them for plaintiff at public auction; that defendant did sell and deliver to various purchasers the plaintiff’s pigs and received from the sale of them approximately $1000; that on or about May 1, 1951, plaintiff demanded of the defendant the proceeds received from the sale of the pigs, less the commission due the defendant, but said defendant has refused to account to or pay plaintiff. He prayed for judgment for the amount claimed due him.

At a later date the intervenor filed his petition of intervention, “* * * against both the plaintiff and the defendant * * wherein it was alleged the plaintiff was a nonresident of the state of Iowa; that at the time of the sale the intervenor was present and when defendant offered plaintiff’s hogs for sale, as his agent, it was orally represented the hogs were vaccinated against hog cholera and enteritis and were immunized against said diseases; that intervenor relied on said representations and bought a number of the sows belonging to the plaintiff and for which he paid defendant, as agent of plaintiff, $581.21 and thereafter took the hogs to his farm where he already had other hogs; that shortly after the hogs were brought to his farm they became sick, which necessitated the employment of a veterinarian and the isolation of said hogs from his previously owned animals in order to prevent contagion and infection; that despite the action taken by the intervenor and the veterinarian, twenty-two of the hogs he purchased at the sales barn and twelve hogs which he had previously owned died and fifteen hogs were stunted in their growth and damaged by said enteritis; that as a result of the representation made by the plain *1139 tiff and the intervenor’s reliance thereon he sustained damages as follows: worthless hogs purchased, $581.21; death of other hogs infected, $450; damage to other hogs infected $350; cleaning and sterilizing pens and hog houses, $250; for a total damage of $1631.21. It was further alleged the plaintiff authorized the sale of the hogs, that they were warranted to be free of disease; and the intervenor further alleged that it is the fact the defendant believed said hogs were immunized against said disease and without the knowledge of defendant as to the true facts sold said hogs on the basis of plaintiff’s warranty.

Although the initial statement in the petition of intervention is to the effect that the action was against both the plaintiff and the defendant, yet the intervenor in his prayer “ * * * demands judgment against the plaintiff in the sum of $1631.21, and for costs of suit.” Subsequently the plaintiff filed an amended and substituted motion to strike the petition of intervention therein stating: “* * * that said intervenor is not interested in the subject matter of the litigation between plaintiff and defendant, nor is he interested in the success of either party to said action, nor is he interested in said litigation adversely to either the plaintiff or the defendant or both of said parties but is a mere interloper. Plaintiff further moves the court to strike said Petition of Intervention for the reason that it does not state a cause of action against either plaintiff or defendant. That such Petition of Intervention will unduly delay the action of plaintiff against defendant and will be prejudicial to the rights of plaintiff.”

The trial court overruled the motion to strike. The plaintiff then appealed, first having obtained permission from this court.

I. The authority for and the necessary conditions which must exist to permit a petition of intervention are found in rule 75, R. C. P., which is as follows: “Any person interested in the subject matter of the litigation, or the success of either party to the action, or against both parties, may intervene at any time before trial begins, by joining with plaintiff or defendant or claiming adversely to both.” (Italics supplied.)

This rule, as noted in 1 Cook’s Iowa Rules of Civil Pro *1140 cedure, Revised Edition, is a condensation of section 11174, 1939 Code. Statutes of a similar nature and with somewhat similar wording are found in section 2930, Revision of 1860; section 2683, Code of 1873; section 3594, Code of 1897, and section 11174, Codes of 1924, 1927, 1931 and 1935. Inasmuch as these prior statutes are virtually of the same wording as our present rule the prior decisions of this court are applicable. 1 Cook’s Iowa Rules of Civil Procedure, Revised Edition, page 505.

II. From our consideration of the pleadings filed in this case, and particularly the petition of intervention, it is apparent to us the intervenor is not interested in the subject matter of the litigation except as a potential creditor of either the plaintiff or the defendant. The intervenor is not interested in the success of either party to the action because his claim is not dependent on which of these parties may succeed. It is likewise true he makes no claim adverse to both parties inasmuch as in the prayer of the petition of intervention he only seeks judgment against the plaintiff. It should also be kept in mind he does not, as permitted by rule, join either the plaintiff or the defendant in their respective claims. The action of the intervenor is an individual one agaiust the plaintiff wherein he makes a claim against him and indirectly the funds held by the defendant. He does not, as authorized by the rule, make any claim adverse to both parties.

It is the conclusion and holding of this court the intervenor has not brought himself within the provisions of this rule, that he is a mere interloper and by his petition of intervention seeks to make a claim to the funds in controversy without bringing an action as a creditor or claimant against either the plaintiff or the defendant. It is apparent the intervenor is endeavoring to control the disposition of the fund held by the defendant without bringing an attachment action and the filing of a statutory bond.

A prior decision of. this court, Massachusetts Bonding & Ins. Co. v. Novotny, 200 Iowa 227, 230, 202 N.W. 588, 590, supports our conclusion the intervenor in the present case is a mere interloper. In the cited case it is stated: “In Iowa, intervention is governed by statute; and, if a person attempts to take ad *1141 vantage of this remedy without bringing himself within the provisions of the statute, he is considered a mere ‘interloper’, who acquires no rights by his unauthorized interference, unless there was a waiver of objections. Henry, Lee & Co. v. Cass County Mill & Elev. Co., 42 Iowa 33; First Nat. Bank of Leon v. Gill & Co., 50 Iowa 425; Des Moines Ins. Co. v. Lent, 75 Iowa 522.”

III. The necessary interest of a mere creditor to permit a petition of intervention is commented upon in 39 Am.

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Bluebook (online)
70 N.W.2d 835, 70 N.W.2d 8351, 246 Iowa 1137, 1955 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 442, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/terrill-v-killion-iowa-1955.