Adams v. Greeson

• Decision Date: 17 February 1962
• Docket Number: 6783 and 6784.,No. 6784,6784
• Citation: Adams v. Greeson, 300 F.2d 555 (10th Cir. 1962)
• Parties: Boyd ADAMS, d/b/a Boyd Adams Livestock Commission Company, and Western Casualty and Surety Company, Appellants, v. Willis GREESON, d/b/a Montgomery County Auction, Appellee. Boyd ADAMS, d/b/a Boyd Adams Livestock Commission Company, and Western Casualty and Surety Company, Appellants, v. Hiram WALL, d/b/a Hiram Wall Sales Company, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

300 F.2d 555 (1962)

Boyd ADAMS, d/b/a Boyd Adams Livestock Commission Company, and Western Casualty and Surety Company, Appellants, v. Willis GREESON, d/b/a Montgomery County Auction, Appellee.

Boyd ADAMS, d/b/a Boyd Adams Livestock Commission Company, and Western Casualty and Surety Company, Appellants, v. Hiram WALL, d/b/a Hiram Wall Sales Company, Appellee.

No. 6784, 6783 and 6784.

United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit.

February 17, 1962.

Robert J. Bell and A. James Gordon, McAlester, Okl., were on the brief for appellants.

Lowell E. Clifton, Oklahoma City, Okl., and Jeptha A. Evans, Booneville, Ark., were on the brief for appellees.

Before BRATTON, LEWIS, and BREITENSTEIN, Circuit Judges.

BRATTON, Circuit Judge.

These actions were to recover damages for alleged conversion of livestock. Willis Greeson instituted one of them against Boyd Adams and Western Casualty and Surety Company, and Hiram Wall instituted the other against the same defendants. The cases were tried to the court without a jury. The evidence was without substantial conflict. It disclosed these facts. Using the trade name Montgomery County Auction, Greeson was engaged in the livestock commission business at Mount Ida, Arkansas; using the trade name Hiram Wall Sales Company, Wall was engaged in a like business at Booneville, Arkansas; and operating under the trade name Boyd Adams Livestock Commission Company, Adams was similarly engaged in business at McAlester, Oklahoma. Adams was licensed and bonded under the provisions of the Packers and Stockyards Act, 42 Stat. 159, 7 U.S.C.A. § 181 et seq. Western Casualty and Surety Company executed as surety the bond given by Adams. D. F. Pierce was engaged in the business of buying and selling livestock. Most of his purchases were made at auction sales; and in some if not most instances livestock which he purchased in that manner was sold through livestock agencies.

On January 22, 1960, Pierce attended Greeson's auction sale and purchased forty six head of cattle. Four days later, he attended Wall's auction sale and purchased twenty eight head of cattle. In payment for such purchases, Pierce gave Greeson and Wall each a check drawn on a bank at Heavener, Oklahoma. Wall gave to Pierce a "BUYER'S BILL" at the bottom of which it was stated in substance that customers purchasing livestock through the company by check or draft expressly agreed that title did not pass until the fund was actually received on such check or draft. Pierce caused both lots of cattle to be promptly transported to McAlester and there delivered to Adams in his pens. At the direction of Pierce, Adams sold the cattle and accounted to Pierce for the proceeds. After each sale and accounting by Adams, the check given by Pierce for the purchase of the cattle was dishonored.

Judgment was entered for plaintiff in each case, and defendants appealed.

Jurisdiction of the court to entertain the actions is challenged. The ground of challenge is that there was diversity of citizenship but less than ten thousand dollars involved in each case. The Packers and Stockyards Act, supra, expressly empowers the Secretary of Agriculture to require reasonable bonds from marketing agencies and dealers to secure the performance of their obligations. 7 U.S.C.A. § 204. In the exercise of such power, the Secretary required every market agency and dealer to give such bond. 9 C.F.R. § 201.29. And by further regulation, the Secretary required such bond to contain a provision that any person damaged by failure of the principal to comply with the condition clauses contained therein may maintain suit to recover on the bond even though such person is not a party named in such bond. 9 C.F.R. § 201.33. The bond executed by the defendants in each of these cases was executed pursuant to such requirement. And it is provided by 28 U.S.C. § 1352 that the district courts of the United States shall have original jurisdiction, concurrent with state courts, of any action on a bond executed under any law of the United States. Less than ten thousand dollars was involved in each case, but since the bond upon which recovery was sought was executed pursuant to an authorized regulation promulgated by the Secretary, the court had jurisdiction under 28 U.S. C. § 1352 to entertain the actions. Hartford Accident and Indemnity Co. v. Baldwin, 8 Cir., 262 F.2d 202.

The Packers and Stockyards Act does not undertake to fix the respective rights of the parties to a transaction in which the owner of livestock delivers possession thereof to a purchaser who gives in payment therefor a worthless check. The act does not have the...