Allen v. Rushfort
Allen v. Rushfort
Opinion of the Court
This is the third appeal in this case. While the facts are very fully stated in the opinion written by Judge Letton on the first appeal (72 Neb. 907), a brief summary of these facts will tend to convenience in discussing the legal questions involved. The plaintiff was the owner of 40 acres of land upon which there was a crop of timothy hay. This crop she sold to the defendant; the parties executing the following agreement: “This agreement, made this 30th day of June, 1902, between Cora Allen and A. H. Rushfort, of Omaha, witnesseth, that the first party has sold to the second party the crop of timothy hay now‘growing on the northwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section 17, town 16, range 10, for .$4.50 per ton net to the first party; the hay to be paid for before taken from the farm. The first party has paid $50 cash to bind the bargain. .(Signed.) Cora Allen, Arthur H. Rushfort. Witness, J. W. Kennedy.” It was verbally agreed that the hay was to be weighed upon scales standing upon the premises of the plaintiff’s mother. The defendant entered upon the land, cut and stacked the hay, and at a subsequent date took a hay press to the land and pressed and baled three of the stacks. Five loads of the baled hay were weighed upon the scales agreed on and
That the defendant had reason to believe the scales on which the hay was being weighed were out of order or being manipulated is shown by scale tickets received from the owner of scales in Valley, where, as he claims, two or more of the same loads were weighed, with results differing materially from that given by the scale of plaintiff’s mother. If the scales agreed upon by the parties were out of order or so manipulated by the plaintiff as to work to the injury of the defendant, and the plaintiff refused to have the hay weighed elsewhere, or to have the scales on her mother’s premises inspected and corrected so as to give the true weight, the law is clear that the defendant might then refuse to proceed with his contract, and the plaintiff could have no cause of action against him, except for the hay actually taken away. The material question is, therefore: Did the scales upon which the hay was being weighed give incorrect weights, and, if so, did the plaintiff refuse to have them inspected and corrected, or to have the hay weighed on other scales where correct weights might be obtained? The jury found these ques
Eelating to the controversy which arose between the parties at the time of weighing the sixth load, the plaintiff testified as follows: “I insisted on getting legal weights. I insisted on having legal weights, either Whitmore’s Aveights or railroad weights or getting the scales fixed. I said any Avay we could do to have it right. All I asked for was to have it right. Then he became angry and swore, and took his machinery right away.” Eelating to Avliat took place betAveen them about fixing the scales at the farm, she testified as folloAvs: “I said I would have the scales fixed. I asked him if he knew any one that would fix the scales. He said, No.’ But when he got doAvn to Valley I saw him at the drug store. He said such a man at Omaha. He said Engleman. He wrote a message, and I had the telephone man send the message to Omaha. He wrote the Avords I could send to get the man to fix the scales.” Again she testified: “I asked him to take the hay, and told him I would do anything so that it was legal. I insisted upon him putting money in the bank covering balance of the hay he had taken. I did not know how much it was at the time. He said he did not know. I said he could easily find out by getting railroad weights. Q. Well, what did you say about taking railroad weights? A. I said I would.” Plaintiff’s evidence above quoted, and the fact that she sent to Omaha for a scales inspector named by the defendant himself, is ample eAddence upon Avhich to base a finding that plaintiff did not refuse to alloAV the hay to be fairly weighed.
The defendant insists that it was the duty of the plaintiff, when he refused to take away the hay left in the field, to take possession of it and dispose of it to the best advantage and save the defendant from damage to the extent of her ability. In the first opinion filed we held that title to the hay vested in the defendant upon the making of the contract, and this holding was folloAved in Baker v. McDonald, 74 Neb. 595, where we said: “The general
In Douglas v. Shumway, 13 Gray (Mass.), 498, the court held that the OAvner of land who sells wood standing (hereon, with authority to the vendee to cut it within a certain time, has no lien on the wood for the price in case of the vendee’s insolvency after the wood is cut and before its removal. In the opinion it is said: “The contract of sale contemplated that the vendee should expend labor and money in felling the trees and preparing the wood for market; and the case finds that the wood had been cut by the vendee, and a portion thereof sold by him and hauled off the land. We think these facts are inconsistent with an existing right of lien in the A’endor for the purchase money. We know of no case where such a right has been recognized, after the vendee has, at his own expense, in pursuance of the contract of sale, changed the character of the property, and by his own labor and money added to its value. By these acts the vendor must be deemed to have parted with his possession and control of the property. The vendee, by himself and his agents, had taken it into his actual possession, and incorporated with it the labor bestowed by him in preparing it for sale. There was therefore such a change of possession from the
Complaint is further made that the verdict is excessive. The jury returned a verdict for $351.21. This included interest from January 3, 1903, to October 7, 1907, nearly five years. There was evidence from which the jury might have found that the hay would yield from two to three tons an acre. At the lowest estimate — two tons an acre —r-there would be 80 tons, which at the contract price
The case has been tried four or five times, and that number of juries have found for the plaintiff in some amount. This is the third appeal to this court, and the case should be ended. After a careful examination of the record we are unable to discover any reversible error. We recommend an affirmance of the judgment.
By the Court: For the reasons stated in the foregoing opinion, the judgment of the district court is
Affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Cora Allen v. Arthur H. Rushfort
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published