Scully v. Porter
Scully v. Porter
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
In 1887, A¥illiam Scully, plaintiff in error, was the owner of a certain farm, containing-about 200 acres, situated in Towanda township, Butler county, Kansas. He leased this land .by written lease to one J. N. Bledsoe for a period,of five years, rents payable in cash annually, as specified in the written lease. Bledsoe was in the occupancy of this farm from the time he leased it up to and including March 1, 1890. In 1889 Bledsoe raised á crop of corn on the leased premises, and when it was gathered he placed the corn in two cribs on the farm where it was raised, being about 2,500 bushels. About the 20th of Janu
Under the order of delivery issued on the commencement of this action, the coroner of Butler county took the corn out of the possession of the sheriff and delivered the same to J. H. Porter, plaintiff below. Plaintiff claimed to be the owner of the corn by virtue of a purchase from Bledsoe on or about the 20th day of January, 1890, and payment for which was made January 30, and without any notice that the corn was raised on leased lands, or that Scully had any lien upon the same. This suit was commenced by J. H. Porter, as plaintiff, against Charles Schram, as sheriff'. After the commencement of the suit, William Scully, being the real party in interest, was, on motion, substituted as party defendant in this action, and said Scully appéared then and answered the petition of the plaintiff below, and all proceedings thereafter were had in the action Between Porter and Scully. After issues were fully joined the case was tried before the court with a jury, and verdict and judgment were rendered for plaintiff below. Defendant below excepted, and brings case here for review.
The first error complained of by plaintiff in error is the sustaining of a demurrer of plaintiff below to the second defense set up in the answer of the defendant
The second error complained of by the plaintiff in error is the overruling of the motion of defendant below to strike out the second count in the reply of plaintiff below and the overruling of the demurrer of defendant below to said second count of the reply of plaintiff below. The second paragraph of the reply of plaintiff below, to which these objections 'are taken, is as fellows : .
‘‘ Por a further reply to said cause of defense this plaintiff says, that he had no notice of any ownership or claim of ownership on the part of Scully to the lands described in said answer, and he had no notice or did not know that said Scully claimed any interest in or to the crops grown on said lands, or to the corn involved in this suit; he did not know that Bledsoe was a tenant of Scully’s, and that he purchased the corn in good faith and paid a valuable consideration therefor.”
“ Sec. 24. Any rent due for farming land shall be .a lien cm the crop growing or made on the premises.' Such lien may be enforced by action and attachment therein, as hereinafter provided.”
“Sec. 26. The person entitled to the rent may recover from the purchaser of the crop, or any part thereof, with notice of the lien, the value of the crop purchased, to the extent of the Tent due and damages.
“Sec. 27. When'any person who shall be .liable to .pay rent (whether the same be due or not, if it be due within one year thereafter, and whether the same be payable in money or other things) intends to remove, or is removing, or has, within .30 days, removed his property, or the crops, or any part thereof, from the leased premises, the person to whom the rent is owing may commence an action- in the court having jurisdiction; and upon making an affidavit, stating the amount of rent for which such person is liable, and one or more of the above facts, and executing an undertaking as in other cases, an attachment shall issue in the same manner axid with the like effect as is provided by law.in other actions.”
Under section 24, the landlord has a lien on the crops growing or .made on the leased premises for rents due or payable on farming lands, and this lien maybe enforced by attachment as provided in section 27. Section 26 makes the purchaser of the crop who purchased with notice liable to the landlord for the value of the crop purchased, not to exceed the amount of rent due.
The final contention of the plaintiff in error is, that the court erred in'the instructions given to the jury, and in refusing to instruct them as required by the defendant below. The argument in support of this assignment of error is based on the theory that the landlord is given; a lien on crops grown or made on leased premises by virtue of the statutes of this state, and that it is a paramount lien which every person must take notice of. It is true the landlord has alien created by statute on the crops grown on leased land,' and the mode of enforcing it is prescribed by the same statute, and the statute creating the lien makes the purchaser liable to the landlord for the value of the crops purchased, when the same are purchased with notice of a lien. The construction claimed by plaintiff in error would render all purchasers of crops from a tenant liable to the landlord for the value .of the crop purchased, whether they had notice of the lien or not.
We do not think that the landlord’s lien is any more sacred than any other lien on personal property, or that every person dealing with the tenant must take notice of the lien of the landlord. In order to arrive at the meaning and intention of this statute we must construe the act as a whole, and give to each section and sentence a reasonable interpretation so
On an examination of chapter 55, General Statutes of 1889, being “An act relating to landlords and tenants,” we find it contains what shall constitute a tenant at will; how tenancies are created and determined ; provisions for the occupancy of joint tenants and tenants in common ; for the maintenance of actions for waste ; the lien of landlords for crops grown or made on farming land; where rents are payable in a share or certain proportion of the crops, that the lessor shall be deemed to be the owner of such share ; the manner of obtaining possession of such share if the lessee should refuse to deliver it over; that the person entitled to the rent may recover from the purchaser of the crop or any part thereof, with notice of the lien, the value of „the crop purchased, to the extent of the rent due and damages ; and then it provides the manner of enforcing the lien against the tenant. Giving to this entire act a fair construction, it is evident that the tenant is the owner of the crop grown or made on the leased premises, subject only to the lien given the landlord by law, and that this lien is subject to no higher rights than other liens on personal property, and persons dealing with the crop are held to no other or dif ferent rule than persons dealing with other personal property subject to liens. The tenant being the owner of the crop and in possession thereof may sell the same as he might any other property covered by a lien, and the title of the property would pass by such sale to the purchaser, and if he had notice of the lien he would be liable to the landlord for the value of the crops purchasedbut if he is an innocent purchaser for value, without notice of any lien, he would take the
The laws of England and of the earlier period of this country were intended for the special protection of-the rights of the landlord, and the tenant’s rights in every respect were subordinated to those of the owner of the soil, and the tenant did not seem to acquire any property rights in the crops grown by him on leased premises until the landlord had been paid his rents in full, but under more recent and 'humane legislation the severity of the laws as to tenants have been greatly modified and the tenant is given more consideration, and his rights are treated as equal with those of his landlord. He acquires an ownership in the crop raised by him, and he may use the same or sell it, subject to the lien of the landlord. The laws of some of the cotton states make it a criminal offense for a tenant to remove or sell any portion of the crop grown by him on leased premises until all the rents
We think the court below instructed the jury on the correct theory of the law applicable to this case, and the instructions requested by the defendant below did not contain the correct theory of the law. The jury, after being instructed on the law, having found the facts in favor of the plaintiff below, we< cannot say that their verdict was not sustained by -sufficent evidence.
The judgment of the district court is affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.