Farmers' & Merchants' Bank v. Stockdale

• Decision Date: 08 October 1903
• Citation: 96 N.W. 732,121 Iowa 748
• Parties: FARMERS' & MERCHANTS' BANK, Appellant, v. CHARLES STOCKDALE, Appellee
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

96 N.W. 732

121 Iowa 748

FARMERS' & MERCHANTS' BANK, Appellant, v. CHARLES STOCKDALE, Appellee

Supreme Court of Iowa, Des Moines

October 8, 1903

Appeal from Franklin District Court.--HON. J. R. WHITAKER, Judge.

ACTION to recover the value of certain personal property alleged to have been wrongfully converted by the defendant.Plaintiff claims under three several chattel mortgages; one dated December 27, 1897, executed by W. D. Moore to D. B. Parkstrustee, and covering "all the corn, hay, oats, and other farm products I now own, and all other corn, oats, and hay I may in the future acquire."The mortgage is in usual form, acknowledged before O. F. Myers, notary public and recorded January 19, 1898.It is conceded that Parks was a trustee for the plaintiff bank.The second mortgage is dated October 5, 1899, executed by W. D. Moore, and Clara A his wife, to the plaintiff bank, and covers, among other things, "all other personal property I now own, or in the future may acquire during the life of this mortgage."This mortgage was duly recorded on October 21, 1899.The third mortgage bears date November 19, 1900, is executed by W. D. Moore and Clara A., his wife, to the plaintiff bank, and covers, among other things, "all my stock of corn and corn fodder, whereever it may be, whether owned by me now or in the future acquired, raised, or purchased, especially all such as is bought to fatten cattle and hogs fed by me or to be fed by me; all hay, oats, straw and other products bought or raised by me now or in the future used by me in feeding and farming.All of which property I now own and the same is in my possession in section 29, township 91, range 20, in said county, and in other places in said county."This mortgage was made a matter of record January 3, 1901.In August, 1901, the said W. D. Moore and Clara A., his wife, to secure an existing indebtedness, executed and delivered to this defendant a mortgage on "corn growing on section 20, township 91, range 20, raised by us during the year 1901."This mortgage was duly recorded September 2, 1901.In November, 1901, the defendant took possession of the corn under his mortgage, and sold the same.This action is brought to recover the value of such corn.There was a trial before a jury, resulting in a verdict and judgment in favor of defendant.Plaintiff appeals.

Affirmed.

Jno.M. Hemingway and J. Y. Luke for appellants.

B. H. Mallory for appellee.

OPINION

BISHOP, C. J.

The contentions of appellant are two: That the mortgages held by it were valid and subsisting liens upon the particular property in question, superior to any lien or claim of defendant, and that the record of such mortgages gave defendant constructive notice of the existence thereof that, even if it shall be held that defendant did not have constructive notice by reason of the property description contained in said mortgages, still he had actual notice of the existence of such mortgages, and that plaintiff claimed a lien on the property in question by virtue thereof.At the close of all the evidence in the casethe plaintiff embodied its contentions, in substance, as above stated, in a motion to direct a verdict in its favor, which motion was overruled.The court instructed the jury that the mortgage introduced by plaintiff, being the first in point of date, was insufficiently acknowledged, and that the other two mortgages respectively did not contain a sufficiently certain description of the property sought to be mortgaged, and in consequence thereof the record of said mortgages did not impart constructive notice to the defendant.By a separate instruction the question of actual notice is submitted to the jury.As to the first mortgage, it appears that O. F. Myers, the notary before whom the acknowledgement was taken, was at the time a partner in the banking firm (the name Farmers & Merchants' Bank being one employed simply by a private banking partnership), and was the acting cashier of the bank.That such acknowledgment was...