Opinion ID: 1794630
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: findings of county court

Text: The trial court entered a money judgment for Bristol and against Rasmussen in the amount of $2,935 and made extensive findings of fact in an eight-page order. The trial court acknowledged that Bristol's evidence was substantially composed of his observations and opinions based upon his knowledge and experience in farming this quarter section for the past 16 years. The proof of negligence offered by Bristol was essentially that on only two occasions, water had failed to adequately drain from Bristol's land. On both occasions, an obstruction was in place across Indian Creek on Rasmussen's land. In addition, during the 1989 occurrence, removal of the obstruction by Rasmussen's tenant resulted in the immediate draining of the pooled water from Bristol's land. The trial court recognized Bristol did not offer any expert testimony as to causation, nor did Rasmussen offer any expert testimony to refute Bristol's claim. However, the trial court did not find expert testimony necessary, as Bristol's testimony concerning the discovery of the obstruction, the effect after removal, and the nonexistence of any other obstructions went unrefuted. Moreover, Snodgrass' testimony revealed that Rasmussen was responsible for the obstruction and that Rasmussen did not utilize any engineering expertise in the construction of the 1990 obstruction. The trial court found that Bristol's claim of complete destruction of the affected soybean crop went unrefuted and that the destroyed crop was unmatured. The court found Bristol to be qualified to give his opinion of the number of acres affected by the flooding. The trial court then concluded that of the 15 acres flooded in July 1990, only 10 can be attributed to Rasmussen's negligence, due to the fact 5 acres of soybeans on the same land were destroyed in the 1992 flooding when Rasmussen was not obstructing Indian Creek. The trial court then found that the measure of damages for the destruction of the unmatured crop is the value of the crop had it matured, minus the salvage value if any, minus the costs saved by not having to harvest and transport the crop to market. The court found that Bristol would have received $5.70 per bushel market value at harvest time, less $20 per acre that was saved for not harvesting and transporting to market the 10 acres of destroyed soybeans. In addition, the court found Bristol's probable yield to be 55 bushels per acre, the average yield for the soybeans not destroyed by the 1990 flooding. The court recognized that the testimony as to yield was based upon full-season soybeans and that the destroyed soybeans were short-season soybeans with a different estimated yield. However, the trial court found no other evidence existed as to any other expected yield, nor was there any evidence as to any further circumstances which would have prevented this short-season crop from maturing and being harvested. Thus, the court calculated Bristol's total damages as $2,935 and entered judgment accordingly.