Johnson v. Sanchez
Johnson v. Sanchez
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
This is an action against Peter Lehl and Mrs. D. T. Johnson, for work and labor performed for them by plaintiff Sanchez in “pulling and topping sugar beets” which the defendants were growing on land, 14 acres of which were owned by Lehl and 35 acres by Mrs. Johnson.
The complaint alleges that the contract between the parties was made about October 1, 1921. The defendant, Mrs. Johnson denied the allegations of the complaint; Peter Lehl not making any defense below or here. There was a so-called affirmative defense in Mrs. Johnson’s answer, alleging that on May 13, 1921, the plaintiff and the defendant Lehl entered into a written contract for pulling and topping beets, and about September 15, 1921, they requested her to guarantee payment to plaintiff for the work contemplated by the written contract, but she refused to comply with this request and, when demand was subsequently made upon her by the plaintiff for the payment for the work, she refused, and still refuses, to pay for it. Another and a similar defense was that the agreement, if any, between the plaintiff and the defendant Johnson was not reduced to writing, and no written note or memorandum thereof was made or subscribed by her, and that the agreement alleged by the plaintiff in his complaint, insofar as it affects her, is a collateral promise and agreement on her part, and void under Rev. Stat. 1908, section 2666 of our Statute of Frauds as being a prohibitive oral agreement to answer for the debt, default or miscarriage of her co-defendant Lehl.
By agreement the case was tried to the court without a jury, and, upon the issues joined, findings of fact generally were made for the plaintiff against both defendants and a judgment for 8340.00 was rendered against them, which Mrs. Johnson alone asks to have reviewed.
It will be observed that the contract sued upon, and,
From his place of residence in town the plaintiff, October 1st, telephoned to the defendant Lehl — who it seems was living with Mrs. Johnson, or near Mrs. Johnson upon this land — but was unable to get Lehl on the telephone, but Mrs. Johnson answered the telephone and requested the plaintiff to come to her premises on the following day as she wished to talk with him about the pulling and topping of the beets. In response to this request the next day the plaintiff went to Mrs. Johnson’s premises and first saw Lehl, and Lehl asked him to go with him to see Mrs. Johnson as the greater acreage of the premises belonged to her and she wanted to make arrangements with the plaintiff for doing the work. When these three parties met there was some conversation which, as testified to by the plaintiff, and corroborated as above stated by other witnesses, was that Mrs. Johnson and Lehl then and there requested the plaintiff to do this work, which he had declined to do under his May contract with Lehl, and that they both promised him orally that they would pay him for pulling and topping the beets at the rate which was specified in the earlier, abandoned written contract mentioned, which was $10.00 per acre. The defendant, Mrs. Johnson, denies the making of the contract in October as testified to by the plaintiff in which she is corroborated, to a certain extent by her Mother. The defendant Lehl was not called as a witness.
The defense of the statute of frauds has no application to the ascertained facts. The trial court heard the various witnesses testify and its findings, on the evidence, in plaintiff’s favor are based on competent legal evidence. Plaintiff distinctly testifies to the fact that the oral contract upon which he sues was made after he became satisfied that the defendant Lehl would not be able to pay for any work which plaintiff might perform under the May contract, and he abandoned his rights under the earlier contract and did the work in question under the joint contract made by him in October with the two defendants. The findings of the district court should not be set aside. The application for supersedeas is denied, and the judgment affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.