43 Iowa 146 | Iowa | 1876
The plaintiff delivered at the elevator owned by defendants three hundred and sixty-one bushels of corn, and received twelve instruments of writing, each given upon the delivery of a part of the corn. They were all in the form of the' one of which the following is a copy, dates and quantities only being different:
Cass County Mill and Elevator Co., 1 January 5, 1875. f
“Beceived in store of C. E. Marks one load of corn, subject to storage. No. of bushels, 2,920. Norton, T.”
During the night after the day of delivery of the last load of corn the elevator was burned. The action is brought to recover the value of the grain delivered by plaintiff, being based upon the claim that the corn was sold to defendants, and that the transaction, as exhibited by the receipts, under a custom prevailing at the place where defendants were doing buiness, amounted to a purchase at the market price of the grain when plaintiff should demand payment.
The defendants on the other hand insist that, under these written contracts, their liability is that of warehousemen, and that the instruments cannot be varied or contradicted by oral evidence of a custom, changing their purport and effect.
The language of these instruments is plain and unmistakable. It expresses a contract of bailment, and will bear no other interpretation. Writings almost in the same language have been held by the courts to set out such a contract, and to be incapable of explanation by parol evidence. Stapleton v. King, 33 Iowa, 29, and authorities cited; Goodyear v. Ogden, 4 Hill, 104; Barber v. Brace, 3 Conn., 9; Wakefields v. Steadman, 12 Pick., 562; Barsley v. Hamilton, 15 Pick., 40.
We are brought to the conclusion that the several rulings
Reversed.