Movsesian v. Chernabaeff
Movsesian v. Chernabaeff
Opinion of the Court
This action for damages arose out of a lease covering 160 acres of property in Kern County. Defendants, as owners, leased the property to plaintiffs on November 12, 1942, which lease contained an option to renew it for the calendar year 1944, upon the same terms. It provided that “A written notice handed to or mailed to the lessors ... on or before November 1, 1943, shall be sufficient expression on the part of the lessees that they have elected to exercise said option. ’ ’
Although the evidence is conflicting on the point, defendants testified and the court found that on two occasions, one in July and the other in August, 1943, plaintiffs informed defendants that they did not intend to exercise their optional right to the acreage for the year 1944, and that thereafter, and prior to November 1, 1943, defendants, relying upon such information, made a lease of that property to another. That lease was dated September 22, 1943, acknowledged and recorded October 2,1943. Plaintiffs, on seeing the notice of such recordation, prepared a notice of exercise of their optional rights and dated it September 30, 1943. Upon the evidence produced, the court, in addition to other findings, found that plaintiffs were estopped to claim the optional rights. Judgment was entered for defendants. The question presented on this appeal is the sufficiency of the evidence to support the findings.
Plaintiffs went into possession of the property on January 1, 1943, added gypsum to the soil, and planted it to potatoes. The crop was taken off in July. Thereafter, according to plaintiffs, the land was scraped, plowed and disked in preparation for the 1944 planting. The defendants, under the obligations of the new lease, went on the 160 acres in September, 1943, and cultivated the land for tenancy by the new lessee. It was testified that about September 22d plaintiffs asked defendants if they had already leased the property because “they read it
A witness for defendants testified that in July, 1943, he and defendant Sam Chernabaeff went to the ranch occupied by plaintiffs and that they asked them if they were going to take up the option for 1944; that plaintiffs said they did not want to because “they had lost so much money on it” and had “not made wages.” The plaintiffs testified that they never saw this witness before the time of trial. Sam corroborated the testimony of his witness and in addition said that he talked with plaintiffs again in August as to whether they were going to take up the option; that plaintiffs said “No” and that at that meeting Sam told them that he needed a little money and asked for an advance of $500 if plaintiffs intended to take up the option; that plaintiffs said that they would not give him a dime because they were not figuring on taking it up; that plaintiffs never told him of any different arrangement until he received a notice that was served on him; that right after the second conversation he started disking the property and on October 11, 1943, he was arrested for trespass; that at that time plaintiffs had no equipment on the property and the “weeds were growing”; that he put the new lessee in possession on January 1, 1944, but under that lease defendants were obligated to disk the property before the new lessee took possession. However, on cross-examination he was asked if he knew, at the time the lease to the third party was made, that plaintiffs were trying to hold the land for another year and trying to lease it out. He answered: “I guess so.” A witness was produced who testified that in response to an advertisement inserted in the newspaper by plaintiffs he talked to plaintiffs in the fall of 1943, around September 16, and plaintiffs offered to sublease this particular property to him for 1944 at $25 per acre, which offer he rejected.
_ It will therefore not be necessary to pass upon the other questions presented.
Judgment affirmed.
Barnard, P. J., and Mussell, J., concurred.
A petition for a rehearing was denied May 19, 1950, and appellants' petition for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied June 29, 1950.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.