144 Iowa 592 | Iowa | 1909
Prior to the transactions in controversy the plaintiff had been for some time in the employ of the Port Huron Machinery Company as a salesman of farm implements. After leaving that service in 1902 he purchased from the company a traction engine at the agreed price of $1,275, giving his promissory note for the amount secured by chattel mortgage on the engine. Shortly after-wards, in June, 1902, plaintiff purchased from said company a secondhand threshing outfit for $806. In settle
It will thus be seen that after this settlement there was owing from plaintiff to the company, according to his theory of the facts, the amount secured by the real estate mortgage and the outstanding $268 note due December 1, 1904. Soon after making the settlement plaintiff left Nebraska, having first arranged with a bank at Humboldt, in that state to pay off or take up the real estate mortgage he had given the Port Huron Company, and on November 8, 1904, the bank paid defendant tbe full amount of said mortgage indebtedness, $1,144.87.
It appears, however, that at the time of this payment by the bank the company, acting as it claims it had a' right to do under the chattel mortgages given by the plaintiff at the time of his purchases, had already seized and sold both the engine and threshing outfit. Prom these foreclosures- it realized over and above expenses $132 for the outfit last sold the plaintiff, which sum it credited on the first $268 note, while on the sale of the engine it realized the net sum of $300, which it claims to have indorsed upon .the $1,275 note originally given for said property. It is the further claim of plaintiff that these _ foreclosures were irregular and wrongful, and made without notice to him or to his agent, the bank, and that the latter paid off the real estate mortgage in full before it discovered these
Plaintiff brings his action at law, stating his theory of his dealings with defendant as hereinbefore indicated, and alleges that by seizing and selling the property under the chattel mortgages aforesaid the company wrongfully converted the same to its own use to plaintiff’s damage in a sum more than equal to the amount then due from him to said company, and that the sum paid by the bank was an overpayment which the company, as a matter of right and justice, should be required to repay, and he asks judgment accordingly. The defendant denies plaintiff’s claim, and denies that the machinery sold under the chattel mortgages was reasonably worth more than the sum obtained therefor and credited upon the plaintiff’s indebtedness. By way of counterclaim it asks judgment against the plaintiff for $151.64, which it alleges remains due on the notes given by plaintiff after giving him credit for all payments and for the proceeds of the foreclosure sales. To the counterclaim plaintiff replied, pleading much the same matter covered by his petition and other matters above recited, and which need not be here repeated. On trial to a jury there was a verdict in plaintiff’s favor for $777.-01, which the court refused to set aside, and defendant appeals from the judgment rendered thereon.
The verdict of the jury is supported by the evidence on the part of the plaintiff which, in some material respects, finds corroboration in the testimony offered in defense, and we can not say that it does not work substantial justice between ’the parties. No prejudicial error is shown, and the judgment appealed from is affirmed.