Theodore Hamm Brewing Co. v. Flagstad

182 Iowa 826
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedFebruary 8, 1918
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 182 Iowa 826 (Theodore Hamm Brewing Co. v. Flagstad) 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
Theodore Hamm Brewing Co. v. Flagstad, 182 Iowa 826 (iowa 1918).

Opinion

Evans, J.

The garnishee is' a live stock commission agent, engaged in business at the stockyards of Sioux City. The funds in its hands are the proceeds of a shipment of stock consigned to it for sale for Flagstad. Flagstad is a farmer, and a resident of South Dakota. The intervener is a bank, -engaged in business at Webster, in the same state. The record discloses no dispute in the evidence upon any material fact. Flagstad is a man of no means. The fair inference from the evidence is that he is insolvent. Some time prior to October 23, 1916, the plaintiff had obtained a judgment against him in South Dakota. At about the time of the shipment of the cattle in question, the plaintiff brought an action in Woodbury County upon such foreign judgment, and sued out a writ of attachment and served •the same by garnishment, as already indicated. The intervener’s claim to the proceeds of the cattle thus sought to be [829]*829reached by plaintiff’s attachment is predicated upon- a chattel mortgage upon the cattle thus shipped. The substance of the story leading up to the mortgage-and to the subsequent shipment of the cattle is that, in the spring of 1916, Flagstad conceived the idea of renting a tract of land from the Indian Agency, and of buying a considerable number of cattle to be pastured thereon during the season of 1916. He entered into an arrangement with the intervener, whereby he was permitted to issue checks upon the bank for the purchase price of such cattle as he might choose to buy, and whereby he should give his note for the sum total of his checks, to be secured by a mortgage upon all the cattle thus bought by him. Such note and mortgage were also'to- in-elude the sum of $200, being the amount loaned to him to pay the rental for the rented pasture. Under this arrangement, Flagstad purchased 84 head of cattle, and received the same into his possession and kept the same in such pasture. He also executed his note to the bank, secured by a mortgage on all said cattle, for the sum total of $2,639, being the exact amount of the cost of the cattle, plus $200 pasture rent. The shipment of the cattle was made on October 23d. A few days before that time, Cooper, the bank official with whom Flagstad’s arrangement was made, went with Flagstad to the pasture wherein the cattle were kept, and selected 41 for the purpose of shipment. It was agreed between them that they should be shipped to Steele-Siman & Co., in the name of Cooper. Ten days later, they were shipped from the station of Waubay; but they were so shipped in the name of Flagstad, and not Cooper. The shipment in the name of Flagstad was done without the knowledge or consent of the bank, and without any actual fraudu-. lent intent on the part of Flagstad. Some complication enters into the story at this point. Shortly prior to this date, Flagstad had bought from farmers in the vicinity of Waubay 24 head of cattle, for the purpose of immediate shipment. He had paid for these with checks on La Salle, [830]*830a banker at Waubay, under an arrangement with La Salle. These 24 head of cattle were delivered to him at Waubay, at the saíne time that he was shipping the 41 head for Cooper. The two bunches of cattle, making a total of 65 head, were commingled, and shipped in two carload lots* Upon the advice of La Salle, Flagstad shipped them in his own name, because he could thereby obtain return transportation without charge. A sight draft for $1,000, in favor of La Salle, and drawn on the commission merchants, was attached to the bill of lading. Flagstad attempted to separate the two lots at the yards in Sioux City, but was advised by the commission merchants that they were already bunched according to quality, and that some of them were .already sold. The result was that the proceeds of the two lots were commingled in the hands of the commission merchants. Out of these proceeds, La Salle’s sight draft was paid. So far as appears herein, this was the full extent of his interest in the shipment. A balance of $1,201.67 remained in the hands of the commission merchants, at the time of the service of the garnishment upon them. The intervener claims these proceeds as being the proceeds of its 41 head of cattle, which should have been shipped in its name. The claim of the intervener was resisted by the plaintiff upon three principal grounds: (1) That the intervener’s mortgage was defective in description, and that it was, therefore, invalid and void, at least as to innocent third parties; (2) that, at most, the' lien of the intervener could attach to the mortgaged property only, and not to the proceeds of the sale thereof; (3) that the mortgaged property and the proceeds thereof had become so commingled with other property and the proceeds thereof that the identity of the proceeds of the intervener’s cattle has been lost, and that it cannot say that the moneys in the hands of the garnishee are the proceeds of its 41 cattle.

In order to dismiss the intervener’s petition, the trial [831]*831court must have sustained at least one of these grounds of attack.

1. Garnishment claims by third parties: priority controlled by rights of defendant in garnishment. I. It is to be noted first, that no question of innocent third parties is involved. The plaintiff is not only an attaching creditor, but a garnishing • creditor. In either character, its rights arise no higher than the rights of Flagstad. Whatever the rights of the bank are, as against Flagstad, it may maintain them as against the attachment and as against the garnishment, regardless of any question of notice, actual or constructive, to the attaching and garnishing creditor. For the purpose, therefore, of simplifying the discussion, we may eliminate the plaintiff from the discussion, and confine our inquiry to the question of right, as between the intervener and Flagstad.

The description in the intervener’s mortgage was as follows:

“* * *, the following described property, now in my possession in the town, county and state aforesaid, and free from all incumbrances, to wit: Eighty-four (84) cattle, located on the northwest quarter of the southeast quarter, Section 9, Township 123, Range 53, and south one half of southwest quarter Section 9, and south one half of northwest quarter Section 16, and south one half of northeast quarter Section 17, and northwest quarter of southeast quarter Section 17, in Township 123 North, Range 53, and west one half of northwest quarter of northwest quarter Section 22, Township 123 North, Range 53, and bought of the following parties: Waddel’s auction, 3 steers and 3 cow. S. T. Lasell, 7 cattle. Frank Rumpoa, 3 steers. Frank Block, 8 steers. Albert Morris, 1 steer. Anton Block, 1 steer. Carl Sten, 9 cattle. Frank Rumpoa, 1 steer. S. T. Lasell, 1 cow. F. F. Block, 2 steers. Ed Burns, 2 steers. August Golombiewski, 1 cow and 1 steer. Jacob Rumpoa, 1 cow. August Skroi, 1 cow and 2 steers. Anna [832]*832Moitks, 6 cattle. W. J. Johnson, 5 steers. John Nelson, 3 steers. Lars Erickson, 3 steers. Jacob Pionk, 6 cattle. Ed Erickson, 3 steers. Frank Figurski, 2 cattle. Tillie Block, 2 cows. T. P. Snaza, 2 steers. Frank Kurkowski, 1 cow. Bernard Henning, 5 steers. Frank Block, 1 steer.”

2. Chattel mortgages: requisites and validity: description: sufficiency. Regardless of the question of the sufficiency of the description for the purpose of ° x x constructive notice to third parties, we are clear that the description is sufficient as between the parties to the mortgage. Our previous holdings leave little room for debate upon that question. Wells v. Wilcox, 68 Iowa 708;

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