Elkader Cooperative Company v. Matt

LeGRAND, Justice.

This case involves the distinction between an oral agreement which is itself a contract and one which is only preliminary to a written contract to follow.

Plaintiff Elkader Cooperative Company (the Cooperative) buys corn from farmers for future delivery. It immediately resells the corn for a two-cent per bushel markup to the Farmers Grain Dealers Elevator at McGregor, Iowa (the Elevator). Defendant Francis Matt, a farmer, was familiar with this practice, having sold corn to the Cooperative in earlier years.

Under the evidence, the jury could have found that in the fall of 1968…