Sutton v. Graham
Sutton v. Graham
Opinion of the Court
'delivered the opinion of the court.
Graham, being the owner of the Jarnigan place, on the Mississippi river, proposed, through the Williamson Land Investment Company of Memphis, to sell the same. The nature and general terms of the contract, denominated “Kent Contract and Option to Purchase,” seem to have been commonly known in the neighborhood of the Jarnigan place, where appellant lived. In December, 1899, Harriett Sutton wrote to the Williamson Company that she wished to purchase forty or eighty acres of said Jarnigan plantation, which was quite a large one, pointing it out, in a general way, as being on the “Terrene side of the
We think the peremptory instruction was erroneously given. Sutton wished to lease a tract of land for five years, with an option to purchase it; the whole to be one entire contract. The contract involved the expectation of both parties that the woodland should be opened up and put into cultivation, to meet these large payments as rent. There were not many acres of open land upon the tract when Sutton took possession of it, and the $303.85 rent for the first year was largely in excess of any reasonable rent for the first year, unless it was expected to equalize it by the four succeeding years of the lease, with option to purchase. The scheme to lease the tract of land (largely woodland) for five years, with an option of purchase, involved the idea of opening the woodland to cultivation and of making it capable of supporting the large rents to be paid, which themselves were based upon the stipulation of its purchase contained in the same contract. There was no -renting of the place for a single year. The contract was a lease of five years, with option to purchase. The whole was a single contract. The five-year lease was a necessary part not only of the contract of lease, but of that portion of it relating to the purchase. If each year’s lease had formed a severable part of the contract, the peremptory instruction would have been correct; but there is no more ground here to say that a contract for the lease of said land for 1900 was entered into than there is to say that a lease for 1901, 1902, 1903, or 1904 was entered into; for, if good for 1900, it is good for subsequent years, and vice versa; and
Reversed and remanded.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Harriett Sutton v. Benjamin Graham
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Landlord and Tenant. Possession pending negotiations. Lease and purchase. Failure to contract. Effect as fixing rent. Where a party, pending negotiations looking to an entire contract with the owner for the yearly lease of lands for several years, and a subsequent purchase, enters into possession, and the negotiations failed to result in a contract, he is not liable for the rent stipulated for in the negotiations, but is liable for the reasonable rental value of the premises.