U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 1971

Loren McFarlin and v. Federal Crop Insurance Corporation

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · Decided March 22, 1971 · Browning, Chambers, Koelsch, Per Curiam

438 F.2d 1237; 1971 U.S. App. LEXIS 11238 (Federal Reporter, Second Series)

Counsel

Fullerton, Lang & Richert, Fresno, Cal., for appellant., William D. Ruckelshaus, Asst. Atty. Gen., Alan S. Rosenthal & Raymond D. Battoechi, Attys. Dept, of Justice, Washington, D. C., John P. Hyland, U. S. Atty., Sacramento, Cal., for appellee.

Cases that cite this one

3 later published cases cite this decision.

McAndrew v. School Committee of Cambridge (Mass. App. Ct. 1985)
Donovan v. I AND J, INC. (District Court, D. New Mexico 1983)
Pitner v. Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (Idaho 1971)

This list shows which later cases cite this one. It does not say how they treated it, and no review of that has been done. Not a substitute for Shepard’s or KeyCite — verify before relying.

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

The summary judgment of the district court is affirmed on the authority of Federal Crop Insurance Corporation v. Merrill, 332 U.S. 380, 68 S.Ct. 1, 92 L.Ed. 10.

All of the elements for an estoppel between private persons are present. We have spent a lot of time trying to distinguish the Merrill case and have failed. We have to hold the literal terms of the contract apply.

The facts are most aggravating. Something is wrong when the citizen can recover for a dented fender caused by a postal employee at the wheel of a government truck and one cannot when he is booby-trapped by an employee of Federal Crop Insurance. Had McFarlin known he had no government insurance, he could have bought private insurance on his oranges. But righting such wrongs has not been assigned to us.

Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.