The Cedar Rapids Gazette , Fri., May 30, 1986

KNICKERBOCKERS WIN GRAIN DISPUTE LAWSUIT
By Roland Krekeler
Gazette courts reporter

INDEPENDENCE - Two former Eastern Iowa farmers have been awarded $506,858 on their lawsuit against companies that manufactured and sold them a pneumatic grain handling system.

Kal and Robert Knickerbocker alleged in their suit that the companies were responsible for the loss of most of their 1982 corn, because the system cracked the corn, making it more subject to mildew.

The manufacturer, CSI of Blomkest, Minn., and the dealer, Ogden Ag Systems, which formerly did business in Oelwein, contended the corn spoiled because it was too wet and was not properly cared for and that the equipment was not used properly.

A Buchanan County District Court jury last week returned a verdict of $485,858 for the loss of the corn and $21,000 for damage to the Knickerbockers' storage bins caused by the damaged corn.

Kal Knickerbocker, formerly of Stanley and now of Florida, and Robert, formerly of Arlington and now of Arizona, operated farms that stretched from northern Buchanan County 70 miles north into Minnesota and then east into the state of Wisconsin.

They received a $3 million verdict in federal court in Cedar Rapids in January on a lawsuit against the First National Bank of Oelwein. The suit alleged they were forced out of farming because the bank in 1983 failed to pay rent on 4,200 acres they farmed.

During that trial the bank brought out evidence that a federal agency had accused the Knickerbockers of fraud in connection with an alleged shortage of corn.

One of their attorneys, Tom Riley of Cedar Rapids, said Thursday that the Buchanan County verdict showed that the jury agreed with the Knickerbockers that the corn had been chemically burned up.

He also said that shortly before the trial started three weeks ago the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service in Washington, D.C., dropped fraud penalties that had been assessed by the local office.

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