Those cases were considered by the Court of Appeals in the well-known Meredith litigation. The first decision in that litigation was the case of Meredith v. John Deere Plow Co. of Moline, Illinois, 8 Cir., 1950, 185 F.2d 481, certiorari denied, 1951, 341 U.S. 936, 71 S.Ct. 856, 95 L.Ed. 1364. The plaintiff Meredith sought to recover damages for a breach of an oral sales agency agreement.

JOHNSEN, Circuit Judge. Appellee brought suit in the District Court for an injunction, to prevent appellant from continuing, commencing or prosecuting any proceeding against it, in state or federal court, attempting to relitigate the same cause of action, or any right, question or fact relating to the subject matter thereof, which had been involved in the decisions of the District Court and the affirmances made thereof by this Court, in Meredith v. John Deere Plow Company of Moline, Illinois, 8 Cir., 185 F.2d 481; Meredith v. John Deere Plow Company of Moline, Illinois, 8 Cir., 206 F.2d 196; and Meredith v. John Deere Plow Company of Moline, Illinois, 8 Cir., 244 F.2d 9. Appellant is a farm-implement dealer in Iowa, who has also been admitted to the bar of that State. For a period of eight years, he has been subjecting appellee to the annoyance, burden and expense of a continuing series of lawsuits, instituted by him pro se, all of which have been predicated on the theory and claim that appellee has, since 1945, been wrongfully depriving him of the right to handle appellee's line of farm implements and machinery.

The contract provisions controlling of the litigation have twice previously been before us, in suits brought by appellant against appellee, and have been held by us to be without enforceability under Iowa law and for that reason to be incapable of supporting a claim upon which relief could be granted. In the first suit, Meredith v. John Deere Plow Co. of Moline, Illinois, 8 Cir., 185 F.2d 481, 482, we held that an action for alleged breach of the contract could not be maintained by appellant, because the effect of particular provisions of the agreement was to make the relationship between appellant and appellee terminable "by either of the parties at will without incurring liability for damages to the other." In the second suit, Meredith v. John Deere Plow Co. of Moline, Illinois, 8 Cir., 206 F.2d 196, we affirmed the trial court's dismissal of an attempt by appellant to obtain an accounting under the contract, upon the same ground.

Meredith v. John Deere Plow Co. of Moline, 89 F.Supp. 787 (1950). On appeal this judgment was affirmed, 185 F.2d 481 (C.A. 8, 1950), and certiorari was denied, 341 U.S. 936 (1951). In 1952 petitioner instituted an action against Deere in the U.S. District Court to enforce an alleged association agreement between him and Deere.

Accord Kaldi v. Farmers Ins. Exch., 117 Nev. 273, 21 P.3d 16, 18, 20 (2001); Patillo v. Equitable Life Assurance Soc'y of U.S., 199 Mich.App. 450, 502 N.W.2d 696, 699 (1992); James H. Washington Ins. Agency v. Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co., 95 Ohio App.3d 577, 643 N.E.2d 143, 147 (1993). Other cases in which we have applied the general rule include Crowell v. Campbell Soup Co., 264 F.3d 756, 761-62 (8th Cir. 2001); Friedman v. BRW, Inc., 40 F.3d 293, 296 (8th Cir. 1994); Engelstad v. Virginia Mun. Hosp., 718 F.2d 262, 266 (8th Cir. 1983); Percival v. Gen. Motors Corp., 539 F.2d 1126, 1129 (8th Cir. 1976); McGinnis Piano Organ Co. v. Yamaha Int'l Corp., 480 F.2d 474, 479-80 (8th Cir. 1973); Maple Island Farm, Inc. v. Bitterling, 209 F.2d 867, 878 (8th Cir. 1954), cert. denied, 348 U.S. 882, 75 S.Ct. 123, 99 L.Ed. 694 (1954); Meredith v. John Deere Plow Co., 185 F.2d 481, 482 (8th Cir. 1950), cert. denied, 341 U.S. 936, 71 S.Ct. 856, 95 L.Ed. 1364 (1951); Moore v. Sec. Trust Life Ins. Co., 168 F. 496, 498-500 (8th Cir. 1909), cert. denied, 219 U.S. 583, 31 S.Ct. 469, 55 L.Ed. 346 (1910). North Dakota has codified this general rule for contracts of employment.

In finding ambiguity, the court simply ignores the general principle that a personal services contract of indefinite duration may be terminated at will by either party. See 1 RICHARD LORD, WILLISTON ON CONTRACTS § 4.20, at 451 n. 7 (4th ed. 1990); Meredith v. John Deere Plow Co. of Moline, Illinois, 185 F.2d 481, 482 (8th Cir. 1950). North Dakota has codified that principle for contracts of employment.

The general rule is that contracts having no fixed term are terminable at will by either party. Meredith v. John Deere Plow Co., 185 F.2d 481, 482 (8th Cir. 1950). Such rule is applicable to insurance agency contracts having no fixed termination.

Other jurisdictions have held distributorships similar to the one at bar to be without consideration. E.I. Du Pont De Nemours Co. v. Claiborne-Reno Co., 64 F.2d 224, 89 A.L.R. 238 (8th Cir.), is an example where an exclusive distributorship in Iowa was cancelled, as it was in Arkansas in Silbernagel v. Hirsch Distilling Co., 99 F.2d 829 (8th Cir.); in Iowa in Meredith v. John Deere Plow Co. of Moline, Illinois, 185 F.2d 481 (8th Cir.), cert. den. 341 U.S. 936, 71 S.Ct. 856, 95 L.Ed. 1364; in West Virginia in Motor Car Supply Co. v. General Household Utilities Co., 80 F.2d 167 (4th Cir.); in Mississippi in P.P. Williams Co. v. Colorado Milling Elevator Co., 246 F.2d 240 (5th Cir.); in Georgia in Sealtest Southern Dairies Division v. Evans, 103 Ga. App. 835, 120 S.E.2d 887; in Tennessee in Curtiss Candy Co. v. Silberman, 45 F.2d 451 (6th Cir.). Implied promises as consideration in distributorship arrangements are discussed in 1 Corbin, Contracts, 456, and by other text writers; however, in the case at bar where an express agreement is alleged, but no promise by the seller, there would seem to be no room for such implication assuming that consideration can be so implied in similar circumstances.

And we fail to find in these other facts anything of sufficient substance which could serve to avoid, on a theory of modification of the contract or of waiver or of estoppel, or otherwise, the effectiveness of the termination of the agency. Compare E.I. Du Pont De Nemours Co. v. Claiborne-Reno Co., supra, 8 Cir. 1933, 64 F.2d 224, 232; Meredith v. John Deere Plow Co., 8 Cir. 1950, 185 F.2d 481, 482, cert. den. 341 U.S. 936, 71 S.Ct. 856, 95 L.Ed. 1364; Drake v. Block, 1956, 247 Iowa 517, 74 N.W.2d 577, 580. The fact situation here is far different from that recently presented to us in Minnesota Amusement Co. v. Larkin, 8 Cir. 1962, 299 F.2d 142.

The District Court dismissed because the relationship alleged was, on its face, one that under the law of Iowa was terminable at will and accordingly unenforceable. Such action was affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals on December 20, 1950, 8 Cir., 185 F.2d 481, certiorari denied, 341 U.S. 936, 71 S.Ct. 856, 95 L.Ed. 1364. A second suit on the same grounds was dismissed in the District Court and affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals on July 31, 1953, 8 Cir., 206 F.2d 196, certiorari denied, 346 U.S. 898, 74 S.Ct. 223, 98 L.Ed. 399. Meredith's alleged claim against the John Deere Plow Company was fully and conclusively adjudicated against him in the two foregoing cases.