Van Nostern v. Richey & Gilbert Co.

As the issues of law and fact in the two cases involved on this appeal were substantially the same, they were consolidated for trial in the court below. In each case, recovery was sought from the two corporate defendants for loss sustained by the plaintiff as the result of the negligent management of a warehouse in which he had stored a quantity of onions.

The plaintiff Puyear, in the summer of 1936, grew and harvested a crop of onions on land owned by the plaintiff Van Nostem, on a crop-sharing arrangement, by the terms of which Van Nostem was to receive one-third of the crop as rental. The…