Vaughan v. Wilson
Vaughan v. Wilson
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiffs sued defendants to obtain a decree of cancellation of a logging contract, and in addition sought damages for injury to their fences and livestock alleged to have been caused by the defendants’ logging operations. The court entered a decree denying the relief of cancellation, ordering the clerk to deliver to the plaintiffs the sum of $54,928.49, theretofore deposited in court by defendants for the benefit of the plaintiffs, and granting plaintiffs a judgment for $200.00 for injury to their fences and livestock. The sum of $54,928.49 was due the plaintiffs for logs purchased from them by the defendants. On the day after entry of the decree plaintiffs accepted payment from the clerk of the two sums mentioned.
Thereafter plaintiffs appealed from the decree and “from each and every part thereof”. Defendants move to dismiss the appeal on the ground that plaintiffs have waived their right to appeal by accepting the benefits of the decree.
It is the settled rule that an election to proceed on the judgment and enjoy its fruits is a renunciation of the right to appeal from the judgment. Pacific General Contractors v. Slate Construction Co., 196 Or 608, 611, 251 P2d 454, and cases cited. But this rule has no application to a judgment to which the plaintiff is entitled in any event. Thus, where the defendant admits that the plaintiff is entitled to a judgment for a certain sum of money and judgment is entered for that amount the plaintiff may accept it without prejudicing his right to appeal and obtaining an ad
This is not true, however, of the judgment for $200.00 damages. Enforcement of tMs part of the decree precludes the plaintiffs from appealing from it. The question remains whether the waiver extends to the entire decree. We think that it does not for the reason that the provisions of the decree are severable. Plaintiffs’ right to recover damages for injury to their fences and livestock was in no way dependent upon their right to have the contract canceled, or their right to the money owing them for logs purchased by the defendants. The decree, in so far as it denied the remedy of cancellation, could be reversed without reversing the entire decree. In these circumstances we are of the opinion that the acceptance of the benefits of that part of the decree which was favorable to them did not operate as a waiver of the right to appeal from the remainder.
A similar question was decided in Goepel v. Kurtz Action Co., 216 NY 343, 110 NE 769. There the plaintiff in a first cause of action sued for $1,043.05 and interest due and owing for goods sold and delivered and unpaid for under an agreement between the parties, and also for loss of profits alleged to have been caused by breach of the agreement; and, in a second cause of action, for the balance due on other goods sold amounting to $1,344.46 and interest. On the trial
“The right to proceed on the money judgment and enjoy its fruits is entirely consistent with the right of appeal from the dismissal of the complaint as to what is in substance a separate cause of action. The notice of appeal included, not only the judgment as a whole, but each and every part thereof. As the money judgment was collected after appeal, the plaintiff’s appeal as to that part of the judgment should have been dismissed, but as to that part only.”
The distinction between a decree containing severable provisions and a decree in which a reversal of a particular portion would necessitate reversal of the whole was recognized by this court in Inverarity v. Stowell, 10 Or 261. The case, however, is not precisely in point because the notice of appeal was directed only
We think that the decision in Goepel v. Kurtz Action Co. correctly determines the rule applicable to this case, and, therefore, hold that the plaintiffs’ appeal should be dismissed only as to that part of the decree which awards them judgment for $200.00. As to the remainder of the decree the motion to dismiss is denied.
Opinion on the Merits
On the Merits
This is a suit to rescind a contract for the sale and purchase of ponderosa pine timber in Grant County and for other relief. The court entered a decree denying all relief to the plaintiffs except a judgment in the sum of $200. Plaintiffs have appealed from the whole of the decree, but we are not concerned with the judgment for $200 as the appeal from that judgment has been dismissed.
The contract in question was entered into under date of May 20, 1946, by the plaintiffs, Jack Vaughan and Minnie Vaughan, his wife, as vendors, and the defendants, L. D. Wilson, Howard Southwick and Lee Evans, doing business as Valley Lumber Company, as purchasers. By its terms the defendants agreed to buy
As grounds of rescission the plaintiffs alleged in their complaint (filed on August 11, 1948) that they were induced to enter into the contract by the fraudulent representations of the defendants, and that numerous breaches of the contract were committed by the defendants. The false representations, alleged to have been made in the spring of 1946 by Claude Waterbury, an employee of the defendants, are to the following effect: That said defendants were the owners of a certain mill situated on the Long Creek Mountain between Long Creek and Fox, Oregon, and known as the Waterbury Mill; and that if plaintiffs would sell their timber to the defendants it would be milled and processed exclusively at the Waterbury Mill, either at its then location or at Long Creek, Oregon, where the defendants intended to move it. The materiality of these representations, as alleged, was that if the timber was milled at the Waterbury Mill plaintiffs would be able to check upon defendants’ performance of the contract and be able to give effect to the provisions of the contract relating to the scale of logs, the employment of a scaler, and reserving title to the logs and the lumber manufactured therefrom in the plaintiffs until they were paid for. It is alleged that, contrary to the representation, the defendants hauled the major portion of the logs manufactured from timber cut upon the plaintiffs’ premises to a mill at Fox, Oregon, another portion to a mill at John Day, Oregon, and the remainder to the Waterbury Mill.
Plaintiffs also charged the defendants with the following breaches of the contract: (1) They failed to install cattle guards as required by the contract; (2) they damaged plaintiffs’ fences and refused to repair
It is alleged that on July 19,1948, after some of the above facts had come to plaintiffs’ knowledge, plaintiffs elected to and did rescind the contract and gave the defendants written notice of rescission, and that the plaintiffs took possession of the premises and locked the gates, and that the defendants accepted said rescission and agreed to remain off the premises. Plain
In a second cause of suit the plaintiffs allege, on information and belief, that the defendants have cut one million feet of timber, board measure, log scale, since the 29th day of July, 1948, and that the defendants should be compelled to account for the timber so cut.
The prayer of the complaint is for a decree declaring the contract rescinded, enjoining the defendants from going upon plaintiffs’ property and cutting and removing timber therefrom, compelling the defendants to account to plaintiffs for all logs cut and removed from plaintiffs’ property before the 19th day of July, 1948, at the price set out in the contract, and for a decree compelling the defendants to account to plaintiffs for all of the timber cut upon plaintiffs’ property since July 19, 1948, at the price of $20 per thousand feet, and awarding plaintiffs damages in three times the amount found to be due.
Substantially, the answer consists of denials of the charge of fraudulent misrepresentations and of the allegations of breaches of the terms of the contract. The answer contains, however, an affirmative allegation to the effect that prior to the scaling of the logs the plaintiffs requested that they be scaled at the land or in the woods instead of at the mill, as provided in the contract, and that defendants agreed to this request, and the logs were scaled in accordance with it. This allegation is denied in the reply.
The trial judge wrote an opinion which discloses a complete understanding of the issues and the evi
LUSK, J.
On some of the issues the evidence is highly conflicting. Whether or not Claude Waterbury made the representations attributed to him by the plaintiff, Jack Vaughan, respecting the ownership of the Waterbury Mill and the use of that mill for manufacturing into lumber all the timber that was the subject of the contract, is a question which must be decided by determining who was telling the truth. The circuit judge was in a much better position to make that evaluation than we are. We should defer to his finding unless there is some good reason for not doing so. We can
We approve the findings of the circuit judge that there were no violations of the provisions of the contract requiring the defendants to “take all the merchantable timber clean as it goes” and to comply with
‘ ‘ * * * It would readily appear that it would have been to the advantage of the defendants to have scaled and delivered to the sawmill any of the timber that was merchantable, for the court is convinced that the principal reason that this suit was instituted was due to the fact of the rapid increase of the value of timber between 1946 and 1948, and it would have been to the advantage of the defendants to have converted all of the merchantable timber into logs and get them to the sawmill, for the reason that there was as much of a profit to them from the logs as to the plaintiffs.”
The evidence of rapid increase in value referred to is that between the time of the execution of the contract and the giving of notice of rescission the value of the timber had at least doubled.
A court of equity will not rescind an executory contract for an occasional and immaterial breach not going to the very substance of the contract. Krebs Hop Co. v. Livesley, 51 Or 527, 533, 92 P 1084. Whether this principle will be applied where the contract, as here, provides that the rights of the purchasers shall cease and terminate if they should fail to keep all the terms of the agreement, it is unnecessary to decide. The only breaches of the contract which the Circuit
Only one other manner need be mentioned. It is contended that defendants assigned the contract to a corporation called Valley Pine Inc., and that this was a breach warranting a decree of rescission. Valley Pine Inc. was organized by the defendants Wilson and Evans and the wife of Evans. They owned the stock of the corporation. The defendants entered into a contract to sell stumpage to Valley Pine Inc. at $20 a thousand for pine and $12 a thousand for fir and larch. The lands on which the timber so sold was standing were not described. Whether this transaction amounted to an assignment of this contract is highly questionable. This apart, defendants had the right to assign it. The contract provides “that this agreement shall be binding upon the heirs, executors, administrators and assigns of the parties hereto.” The use of the word “assigns” constitutes an express consent to the assignment or subletting of the contract. West v. Backus, 97 Or 116, 120, 189 P 645. See, also, Harlow v. Oregonian Pub. Co., 53 Or 272, 275, 100 P 7. While this rule is not inflexible and may be inapplicable in the case of a contract where a relation of per
There is no substantial evidence that defendants acquiesced in the attempted rescission or surrendered possession of the property.
Save in the minor particulars above referred to, the evidence shows that the defendants faithfully performed the terms of their contract, and strongly tends to support the opinion of the trial judge that it was the sharp advance in the value of pine timber, and not any delinquency of the defendants, which precipitated the plaintiffs’ notice of rescission and the filing of this lawsuit. The defendants kept meticulous records of the log scaling. The truck drivers who hauled the logs were paid on the log scale. They understood scaling themselves, and it was to their interest to see to it that the logs were not underscaled. There is no satisfactory evidence in the record that they were. The plaintiff, Jack Vaughan, testified that he estimated the quantity of timber on the land described in the contract as about 9,000,000 or 10,000,000 board feet. The plaintiffs were paid for a quantity of logs in excess of 13,400,000 board feet. In our opinion the defendants dealt honestly with the plaintiffs, and this suit is without any basis.
The decree is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- VAUGHAN Et Ux. v. WILSON Et Al.
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- Published