Reeves v. St. Pierre
Reeves v. St. Pierre
Opinion of the Court
In August, 1909, the plaintiff executed a written lease of her certain farm to the defendant. The lease as written purported to be for ‘ ‘ one year with privilege of five years,” beginning March 1, 1910. The defendant went into possession of the farm on March 1, 1910, and con
I was satisfied with him as a tenant the first year. I have always said that defendant is a good farmer, but I don’t know that he has farmed my place as good or better than any one else. I haven’t been on the place since the house was finished. I promised him the place in July, and didn’t get dissatisfied until after he paid the first note, on the 28th of February, because I didn’t know he had sold so much corn. On the 3d of the next August, after he went on, I was on the place, and the crops looked good, and he bragged it up pretty high, and I told him he could have it another year.
I was entirely satisfied in August; the time for getting anything off the place not having yet arrived. He had tended the crop good, and it looked good, and no division of the crop had yet been made, and I didn’t know but what he was absolutely honest. Of course, I gave him the right to stay there the second year. I know the lease was for another year. He would stay for another year. When I said to him he could have it another year, he said he wanted it, after having asked whether he could have it. I did not say on August 3d how long he was to have the place, nor the next year, nor the year coming. This talk in August ivas about August 3, 1910. On that day nothing had been said that he was claiming to have a five-year term, or an option of four years at his own choice. I don’t know how that conversation came up. I forget-things very quickly, anyway. The first I had talked about defendant’s staying on the place another year was on that 3d of August.
This agreement of August 3d is avoided in plaintiff’s reply pleading by an averment as follows: “Prior to the
The testimony of plaintiff in support of this averment is as follows:
He paid his first year’s cash rent on February 28th. I suppose Exhibit 1 is the note, but I can’t read it. Exhibit 2 must be the note he left with Morris. I got it along in July. I saw him February 28th, a year ago last February. He was in and paid the note. He had some charges against me, as for hauling for the building cement blocks and things for the cellar, and his work and his wife’s work came to something like $118, and he took it out of the $200 note, and paid me the balance of the note on February 28th. After he paid this balance, I told him I wanted the paper made out so I could get my lease earlier, that I had not time if a tenant was dishonest, and he could get off the place without my knowing anything about it, and that I wanted my money earlier; and he said he wouldn’t make it any earlier, that, if he couldn’t have it to run until the 1st of February, he wouldn’t have the place at all; and I said, ‘All right;’ and he jumped up and declared he wouldn’t have the plae’e, said there was a man living near Bagley that wanted him as a renter the worst kind, that he would go on to that place, and would not keep mine. He returned that day after the balance of the note had been paid, and wanted to know if I was willing to take the note until the 1st of February, and I said, ‘No,’ and he said, ‘All right,’ and skipped out. . . . He told me this time, on February 28th, that he would not make any other or different contracts with reference to the times of the payment than was made in this lease, but did not say he wouldn’t do anything at that time that would break this contract; said nothing about breaking the contract. He jumped up as soon as I told him I was determined to have the notes earlier than the 1st of February, and declared that
In explanation of the foregoing testimony, it will be noted that the written lease provided for a money rent of $200, payable February 1st. So far as appears in this record, there was no requirement in the lease that a note be given therefor, but a note was, in fact, executed the first year, payable February 1, 1911, as provided in the lease. The insistence of the plaintiff, according to her own evidence, was that this provision should be changed, and that such rent should be paid on an earlier date. A part of her insistence was that there should be two notes of $100; the first payable about September 1st; and the other about January 1st. It is undisputed the defendant refused to accede to this change. He did offer his note payable according to the terms of the lease. On March 13th the plaintiff caused a written “notice to quit” to be served upon the defendant. This appears to have been abandoned later, and defendant’s note was accepted on March 23d. Certain timothy seed was also furnished him to sow upon the place in pursuance of the previous oral agreement, and a certain “rider” was added to the lease in the hands of Morris, providing that the plaintiff should receive a two-fifths share of the timothy hay to be raised from the seed sown. Notwithstanding all this, this action was brought in October, 1911, to reform the lease, and to terminate it as of March 1, 1911, and to treat the defendant as unlawfully holding over, and to charge him with double rent, and all on the ground that the plaintiff
It will be readily seen from the foregoing statement that the question whether there was a mistake in the original lease in omitting the reservation of the option to the plaintiff has become quite immaterial. Even if the fact were so found in favor of plaintiff, the fact still remains that the plaintiff expressly consented to the extension. If, therefore, the lease had been written as plaintiff contends it should have been written, the agreement of August 3, 1910, would have to be construed with reference thereto. We think the clear preponderance of the evidence shows that the agreement of August 3d contemplated the exercise of the privilege of five years, as provided in the lease. The plaintiff consented to it while believing that she had a right to refuse, and she accepted from the defendant his offered contribution of labor to the building of the house. The defendant also did twenty-five or thirty acres of fall plowing, which was presumably within the contemplation and observation of the plaintiff. The plaintiff has testified with much candor. She is an old lady more than eighty years of age. She is manifestly intelligent, but admittedly forgetful, as is natural for her years. The theory which seems to have obtained in her own mind is that, even though she consented to the extension while satisfied with the defendant as a tenant, her subsequent dissatisfaction entitled her to withdraw such consent. Of course, her counsel would not advance such a theory, but it runs through the testimony of the plaintiff herself.
The agreement to surrender the lease which is pleaded in plaintiff’s reply is not supported by the evidence. Not only is it denied by the defendant, but plaintiff’s own testimony, as above set forth, would not establish it if it stood alone.
The petition allegéd some facts in justification of plain
What we hold is that the plaintiff is not entitled to relief
The trial court dismissed her petition, and such order is accordingly — Affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- E. B. Reeves v. W. M. St. Pierre
- Status
- Published