164 Iowa 8 | Iowa | 1913
I. This action was brought to recover for the conversion of certain electrical machinery. The appellee claims: That the appellant converted to its own use fifty-eight transformers, three exciters, one 230 K. W. generator, and one switchboard, and that by reason of said conversion the appellee is damaged in the sum of $8,284.06, with interest thereon from November 8, 1911, at 6 per cent. That the appellee contracted said property to one Joseph A. Bortenlanger, conditionally, appellee retaining the title to or ownership of said property, “until full and final payment therefor shall have been made according to the terms of said contract, which
For answer the defendant claimed that the plaintiff sold, furnished, and delivered said transformers, exciters, generator, and switchboard, and each and all of them, to said Joseph A. Bortenlanger with the intention and for the purpose of having the said Bortenlanger use the same in the construction of a power plant and lighting system for the defendant city under a contract which the said Joseph A. Bortenlanger Company had with the defendant city, and the said Joseph A. Bortenlanger did so use the same with the knowledge and consent of the plaintiff. It therefore alleges: That plaintiff is barred and estopped from maintaining this action, because it first clothed Joseph A. Bortenlanger with the indicia of ownership by delivering the property in question to him, and then without objection stood by and permitted appellant, without any notice, actual or constructive, of the claim made thereto by appellee, to pay Joseph A. Bortenlanger, its contractor, $3,352.40, or 90 per cent, of the estimated value of the transformers and exciters, and by reason of such payment the appellant claims to have the right of possession of all the property in controversy, and that the appellee is barred and estopped from asserting title thereto. That Joseph A. Bortenlanger, who had agreed with the appellant to furnish the material and build for it an electric light and power plant and install in said appellant’s power house on appellant’s land, used said property in controversy, and the same had become a ‘fixture thereto, and thereby had become and was the abso
There was a trial to a jury, resulting in a verdict in favor of plaintiff for $8,284.06, with interest, and the defendant appeals.
II. The appellant is a city of the second class; the appellee was at the time of the transaction under consideration a foreign corporation, with its principal place of business outside of Iowa; and Joseph A. Bortenlanger and the Joseph A. Bortenlanger Company were also nonresidents of the state. Desiring to erect and establish an electric light plant for municipal purposes, the city of Atlantic, on the 21st day of March, 1911, entered into a contract with the Joseph A. Bortenlanger Company under which the latter, for a consideration of $43,000 and certain old machinery, agreed to furnish and install the necessary machinery and fixtures, and to furnish all material and labor for the completion of the plant according to the plans and specifications which were made the basis of the contract. On March 15, 1911, Allis-Chalmers Company made proposal to furnish certain machinery for said work, such proposal having been directed to Mr. Joseph Bortenlanger for the city of Atlantic, Iowa, which was on the 15th day of March, 1911, accepted by Bortenlanger at Omaha, Neb., and on the 5th day of April, 1911, such was approved by the Allis-Chalmers Company at Milwaukee, Wis., thus completing the execution of the contract.
So far as is pertinent to the principal question raised in
The title and right of possession to the machinery herein specified remains in the company until all payments hereunder (including deferred payments and any notes or renewals thereof, if any) shall have been fully paid in cash, and it is agreed that the said machinery shall remain the personal property of the company, whatever may be the mode of attachment to realty or otherwise, until fully paid in cash. Upon failure to make payments, or any of them, as herein specified, the company may retain any and all partial payments which have been made, as liquidated damages, and shall be entitled to take immediate possession of said property, and be free to enter the premises where said machinery may be located, and to remove the same as its property, without prejudice to any further claims on account of damages which the company may suffer from any cause.
This contract was filed for record May 17, 1911, in the office of the county recorder of Cass county, Iowa, in which county is the city of Atlantic, which was before any part of the machinery claimed had been furnished; but, as both of the parties were nonresidents, such did not amount to constructive notice, were such sufficient. Code, section 2906. Four estimates were made of the work done by Bortenlanger under his contract with the city, and payments were made upon them in accordance with the provisions of the contract. Included in the estimates upon which payments were made were a considerable portion, but not all, of the machinery and equipment furnished by the Allis-Chalmers Company, but that which was not in the estimate was delivered and awaiting installation. No part of the money received by Bortenlanger was paid to the Allis-Chalmers Company. On the 9th day of September, 1911, by formal written notice to the mayor and city council of Atlantic, Bortenlanger abandoned the contract with the city, and thereafter the city caused the work to be completed.
III. Many errors are assigned. Some relate to instructions given, the failure to instruct upon questions directly raised by the pleadings, and rulings upon the admissibility of evidence. Many of them depend upon the determination of the law as to the ultimate right of recovery under conditions such as are here presented, and we therefore will first consider that which we conclude to be the controlling question in the case.
IY. The theory upon which the cause was tried in the district court was that the nonliability of the city must be made to depend upon want of notice by it of appellee’s reserved title, and this element entered into the various counts pleaded by way of defense. The action in the present case is for conversion, based upon the alleged ownership of the property. It clearly appears from the evidence that the property was generally so attached to the real estate as to become a part of it, and that its removal could not be accomplished without substantial damage to the structure of which it forms a part. With these facts before us, together with
VII. Instruction No. 17, which incorporated instruction No. 11 by reference, is claimed to have been erroneous. The two instructions stated the degree and nature of proof required before plaintiff could recover, and defeating the right of recovery only upon proof that “plaintiff is barred and estopped to claim title to said property, as against the defendant city, as will be hereafter explained. ’ ’ The only statement as to what would in the present case constitute an estoppel appears in instruction No. 19, to which we already have referred. We think in the several instructions bearing upon that question there was an omission to present to the jury the different rights pleaded by defendant, not only as to its liability for the whole claim, but also for such part of it, if any, as might be represented by machinery received and installed after notice, if any part had been so installed before notice.
For the errors noted, the judgment of the lower court is Reversed.