Transamerica Leasing Corp. v. Van's Realty Co.

427 P.2d 284, 91 Idaho 510
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedMay 10, 1967
Docket9788
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 427 P.2d 284 (Transamerica Leasing Corp. v. Van's Realty Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Transamerica Leasing Corp. v. Van's Realty Co., 427 P.2d 284, 91 Idaho 510 (Idaho 1967).

Opinion

McQUADE, Justice.

This case concerns a lease of machinery by Skaggs Utah Leasing Corporation to Van Kleeck Creamery, Inc. With regard to the lease, appellant, Van’s Realty Co., Inc., is successor in interest to Van Kleeck Creamery, and respondent, Transamerica Leasing Corporation, is successor in interest to Skaggs Utah Leasing Co. Western Frozen Products Co., Inc., not a party to this proceeding, 1 built the machine. As the following statement of facts reveals, Van Kleeck assisted Western regarding the machine’s construction, but the degree of Van Kleeck’s participation and the nature of Van Kleeck’s relation with Western is disputed. Western asked Skaggs to finance the venture by purchasing the machine from it when constructed, and then immediately to lease it to Van Kleeck. This was done, but the parties controvert whether Skaggs’ role was only that of financial intermediary or whether Skaggs assumed responsibility for the machine’s efficient operation. The machine, composed of a number of separate devices, was delivered by Western to Van Kleeck, whereupon Skaggs paid Western the purchase price and Van Kleeck began remitting monthly rent to Skaggs. The machine never operated properly and this action brought by Skaggs to recover rent from Van Kleeck must determine as between the successors of Van Kleeck and Skaggs which will bear the los. The pertinent facts are detailed hereinafter.

In early 1958, Harold Komberec and Harold Fiedler conferred' with Royal Shields, then acting manager of Van Kleeck Creamery, in the creamery’s Coeur-d’Alene office, regarding the production' and sale of a novelty ice cream confection, Froz-O-Log. 2 Komberec and Fiedler showed Fields samples of the' confection and a small machine, non-automatic in some of its operations, which produced the novelty food. After agreeing with Shields on a royalty payment plan, Komberec and Fiedler soon began manufacturing Froz-O-Logs in Van Kleeck’s Coeur d’Alene plant, the creamery supplying some of the materials and marketing the finished product. The venture prospered and, as Royal Shields testified, “eventually our demand grew to such an extent that the machine was not capable of producing enough logs.”

In the spring of 1960, Harold Ellison, a managing official of Western Frozen Products Co., Inc., met with Royal Shields in Van Kleeck’s Coeur d’Alene plant concerning the construction of a larger and more efficient Froz-O-Log machine. This meeting followed up an earlier discussion during which Shields had told Ellison that Van Kleeck intended to expand its production of the confection. The managing officials of Western Frozen Products (who besides Harold Ellison were David Ellison and Harold Ellsworth) consulted with Komberec and Fiedler, who were then operating the original Froz-O-Log machine in Van Kleeck’s plant, regarding the original machine’s mechanical operation. Komberec and Fiedler, according to Fiedler’s testimony, “went with Western Frozen Products in an effort to develop an automatic equipment system.” Komberec’s and Fiedler’s business relation with Western was as follows, Fiedler testified:

“We [Komberec and he] did not have finances to handle a product like this [constructing a new, fully automatic machine] * * * therefore we had *513 agreed with Western Frozen Products [that] * * * we would furnish to them the amount of research and development we had, the information we had and they would take it from there and furnish the funds in order to develop a piece of equipment that would meet the industry standard at that time.”

The project to develop a new, automatic Froz-O-Log machine was admittedly a speculative venture. The collaboration between Western Frozen Products and Kom-berec and Fiedler, according to Fiedler, “was the first stage in development of an automatic machine” to make the confection. Fiedler also testified: “there was speculation as to whether or not you could manufacture this type of automatic machine to manufacture Froz-o-Logs,” and the machine’s construction was “sort of a trial and error process.” Komberec testified that during 1960 the confection was a “new innovation” and “the equipment * * * used * * * was in the development stage.” Royal Shields, who holds a college engineering degree, had been in the creamery business for at least twenty-five years by 1960 and during that year managed a business and interlocking operations with gross annual sales above one million dollars. Van Kleeck Creamery was constantly expanding, amp-liying its products and services, during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s and Shields knew, he testified, that an automatic Froz-O-Log machine would be a “new innovation.” Fiedler said he “assumed” that Shields knew during early 1960 that a fully automatic Froz-O-Log machine had never been constructed.

Approximately one month after their first conference in the spring of 1960, Harold Ellison and Royal Shields again met a Van Kleeck’s office in Coeur d’-Alene, at which time Ellison reported that he had procured a design for an automatic Froz-O-Log machine. In response to a question concerning the initial expense during its construction, Ellison immediately made outside inquiries about financing. A lease was offered by a third party but was unacceptable to Shields. Shortly thereafter, David Ellison and Harold Ellsworth, on behalf of Western Frozen Products, approached Lewis North, then president and the managing official of Skaggs Utah Leasing Co., to determine if Skaggs would consider issuing a lease on the new machine to Van Kleeck Creamery. Skaggs Utah Leasing Co. was at that time primarily a one-man operation, North being its only employee (although a credit committee had some control over prospective leases). The company leased a variety of items, including furniture and fixtures, cash registers, trailers and heavy duty machinery. The officials of Western Frozen Products gave him no description of the mechanics in the new device, North testified, 3 nor did he inquire about the machine’s operation. He was told only that the new machine would be specially built to make Froz-O-Logs. On behalf of Skaggs Utah Leasing Co. North told Western’s officers, he testified, that “we would be glad to consider it [a lease] based on the financial stabilization of” Van Kleeck Creamery.

Skaggs limited its investigation of the prospective lease to examination of Van Kleeck Creamery’s financial position; no technical study was made of the machinery itself. This was Skaggs’ normal procedure, for North testified, “Our basis, of course, was handling the money. The machinery would be up to the manufacturer and the client, the manufacturer’s client.” Skaggs’ credit committee shortly determined to issue the lease to Van Kleeck and as a preliminary matter, on May 25, 1960, Skaggs granted Western Frozen Products an option to repurchase the Froz-O-Log machine at the end of the original lease which Skaggs was about to contract with Van Kleeck. This was at Western’s re *514 quest, “possibly to protect their franchise agreements” on the Froz-O-Log product, North suggested.

Skaggs never had any direct contact with Van Kleeck’s; all of Skaggs’ business regarding issuance of the lease was arranged with the officials of Western.

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Bluebook (online)
427 P.2d 284, 91 Idaho 510, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/transamerica-leasing-corp-v-vans-realty-co-idaho-1967.