Vander Vorste v. Northwestern Nat. Bank

• Decision Date: 24 November 1965
• Docket Number: 10247,Nos. 10246,s. 10246
• Citation: 81 S.D. 566,138 N.W.2d 411,20 A.L.R.3d 960
• Parties: , 20 A.L.R.3d 960 Richard W. VANDER VORSTE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. NORTHWESTERN NATIONAL BANK, as Receiver of Richard W. Vander Vorste, Defendant and Appellant, and North Central Investment Corporation and the South Dakota Corporation, Interveners and Appellants.
• Court: South Dakota Supreme Court

Page 411

138 N.W.2d 411

81 S.D. 566, 20 A.L.R.3d 960

Richard W. VANDER VORSTE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. NORTHWESTERN NATIONAL BANK, as Receiver of Richard W. Vander Vorste, Defendant and Appellant and North Central Investment Corporation and the South Dakota Corporation, Interveners and Appellants.

Nos. 10246, 10247.

Supreme Court of South Dakota.

nov. 24, 1965.

Danforth, Danforth & Johnson, T. R. Johnson Sioux Falls, for defendant and interveners-appellants.

Robert L. Jones, Sioux Falls, for plaintiff-respondent.

RENTTO, Judge.

This litigation is an outgrowth of North Central Investment Corporation and the South Dakota Corporation v. Vander Vorste, S.D., 135 N.W.2d 23. In that case the plaintiffs were awarded judgment against the defendant in the sum of $74,192.50, a part of which was declared to be a fraud judgment, and granted foreclosure of a chattel mortgage executed by the defendant covering numerous motor vehicles and other items of equipment and supplies used by him in his electrical highline construction business. In connection therewith the Northwestern National Bank, defendant herein, was appointed receiver and directed to take charge of all of Vander Vorste's property. Our decision handed down on May 10, 1965 struck out the fraud portion of the judgment.

The plaintiff brought this action in four counts against the receiver and another party. We are here concerned with only the fourth cause of action which asserted a claim against only the Northwestern National Bank. The gist of plaintiff's claim is that the bank, as receiver, took possession of certain items of his personal property temporarily stored on a tract of land in Sioux Falls and that it carelessly and negligently cared for such property causing it to be damaged resulting in a diminution of its value, and that numerous items thereof were stolen or otherwise disappeared. The North Central Investment Corporation and the South Dakota Corporation were permitted to intervene and join with the bank in resisting plaintiff's claims.

At the conclusion of all of the evidence the defendant and the interveners moved for a directed verdict which was denied, after which the issues were submitted to the jury under instructions to which the defendant and interveners made no objection. The jury found for the plaintiff on all of the issues and fixed the damages at the sum of $7100. Plaintiff's attorney thereupon filed a notice of claim for an attorney's lien upon the judgment to be entered thereon. The defendant and interveners moved for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and in the event that such were denied that the amount of the verdict or judgment entered thereon be offset against the unsatisfied judgment that the interveners had against Vander Vorste.

An order denying the motion for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict was entered on March 10, 1965. The plaintiff did not resist the application for a setoff, but did request that the setoff, if any, be applied on the fraud portion of the judgment that the interveners had secured against him and asked that the lien of his attorney for one-third of the judgment be given priority and paid first. In its ruling on this motion, also entered on March 10, 1965, the court ordered that the lien of plaintiff's attorney have priority to the judgment of the interveners against the plaintiff and that after the satisfaction of such attorney's lien, the interveners may apply the remaining portion of such judgment to the fraud portion of the interveners' judgment against the plaintiff. The defendant and interveners appeal from this order and from the judgment entered on the verdict.

A receiver has the duty to preserve and protect the property and assets of the estate over which it has been appointed for the benefit of all persons interested. 75 C.J.S. Receivers Sec. 168. In caring for or managing such property a receiver must use ordinary care and prudence. The standard of care required of it is that care and diligence which an ordinarily prudent man would use in caring for and handling his own property under like circumstances. If it uses such care it has fulfilled its duty as receiver and is not liable for losses which occur to the property in its charge; but when it fails to exercise this degree of care and diligence it becomes answerable for the consequences of its neglect and derelicition. 45 Am.Jur., Receivers, Sec. 354. This is the standard of care which the jurors were instructed to apply in determining the issue of liability.

One of appellants' principal complaints is that the evidence is insufficient to warrant the finding by the jury that the receiver was negligent. The receiver took possession of the property shortly after its appointment on July 6, 1962. It consisted of a large number of trucks, trailers, vans, and many tools, supplies and other equipment. At the time the receiver took possession of the property it was stored on some vacant lots in the southwest part of Sioux Falls in what appears to be an industrial area. It remained on these lots which were unfenced, unlighted and unguarded until it was sold thereon by the receiver on July 11, 1963. Plaintiff had stored his property on these same lots for about three years before the receiver took over with only one instance of pilferage. Because he had his office on these lots someone was there every day and he maintained a yard light at night.

The plaintiff claimed that he made frequent trips to look at the property after it was taken over by the receiver. On some of these trips he observed evidence of pilferage which he reported to the receiver's trust officer. Also he was suspicious of cars which he observed driving around the property and had them reported to the trust officer together with their license plate numbers. From pictures which he took of the equipment a few months before the sale he testified in detail as to the loss of parts from and damage done to various items of the property after it was taken over by the receiver. He also testified concerning items of property which he claimed were left on the lots by him, but had disappeared before the sale.

Shortly after the receiver's appointment it had the property inspected and...