Dist. Ct. erred in granting defendants’ motion for summary judgment in action alleging that defendant wrongfully converted plaintiff’s pickle line rolls that had been stored at defendants’ facility awaiting plaintiff’s purchase order to defendants to recondition said rolls. While Dist. Ct. based its ruling on finding that plaintiff had abandoned said rolls where plaintiff did not communicate with defendants regarding said rolls for approximately 32 months under circumstances where parties had assumed that plaintiff would place purchase order within few months, Ct. of Appeals found that there was insufficient evidence for Dist. Ct. to decide on summary judgment that plaintiff had intended to abandon said rolls. This is so, since reasonable jury could conclude that plaintiff’s prolonged silence, standing alone, did not constitute decisive and unambiguous intent to abandon said rolls, especially where there was no evidence that anyone at plaintiff told defendants that it did not want said rolls or did not intend to use or sell them. Dist. Ct. did not err, though, in granting defendants’ summary judgment motion with respect to plaintiff’s similar breach of contract claim, since there was no meeting of minds with respect to how long defendants had agreed to store rolls, and since plaintiff did not know at time of alleged contract formation when, if ever, it would issue purchase order.
Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Conversion