Opinion ID: 1834309
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Breach-of-Contract Claims.

Text: The court of appeals ruled adversely to the feed store on the breach-of-contract claims. We have reviewed that court's conclusions upholding a directed verdict on this portion of the case and find that it was correct. The breach-of-contract claims turned on the December 1990 conversation between the bank and the Golden Sun credit manager. At this time, the Golden Sun credit manager was seeking information on behalf of his own company. He was not acting as an agent of the feed store. The credit manager testified at trial that he did not interpret the statement made to him by the bank president as a guarantee of the Beuthiens' feed obligation or a subordination of the bank's claim against the Beuthiens. Under these circumstances the feed store, which only obtained a secondhand account of this conversation, was entitled to no higher expectations than the party to whom the statements were made. There is no basis for finding either an express or implied contract guaranteeing payment of the account by the bank. A verdict was also properly directed on the feed store's companion claim of equitable estoppel. In order to sustain that type of claim, the party asserting it must show that the statement relied on was false or misleading and, in addition, show that it was made with the intent that it be relied on. Davidson v. Van Lengen, 266 N.W.2d 436, 441 (Iowa 1978). In the present case, the evidence was insufficient to permit an affirmative finding on either of these requirements.