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Administrative Law Keyed to Schwartz
Federal Crop Insurance Corp. v. Merrill
Citation:
332 U.S. 380 (1947)Facts
In March 1945, the Merrill Brothers applied for insurance under the Federal Crop Insurance Act to cover their wheat farming operations in Bonneville County, Idaho. They informed the local Agricultural Conservation Committee, acting as agent for the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation, that they were planting 460 acres of spring wheat, with 400 of those acres being reseeded on winter wheat acreage. The Committee advised them that the entire crop was insurable and recommended acceptance of the application to the Corporation’s Denver Branch Office. The formal application did not disclose that any part of the insured crop was reseeded. In May 1945, the Corporation accepted the application. In July 1945, most of the Merrill Brothers’ crop was destroyed by drought. When notified, the Corporation discovered that the destroyed acreage had been reseeded and refused to pay the loss, citing regulations that explicitly excluded spring wheat reseeded on winter wheat acreage from coverage. These regulations had been published in the Federal Register on February 7, 1945, before the Merrills’ application.
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