Arizona Public Service Company v. Lamb

327 P.2d 998, 84 Ariz. 314, 1958 Ariz. LEXIS 227
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 15, 1958
Docket6333
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 327 P.2d 998 (Arizona Public Service Company v. Lamb) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Arizona Public Service Company v. Lamb, 327 P.2d 998, 84 Ariz. 314, 1958 Ariz. LEXIS 227 (Ark. 1958).

Opinion

WINDES, Justice.

One Joe Lamb was the owner of a section of farming land. He leased 160 acres to his brother Ed Lamb, the appellee herein. The water supply for irrigating this latter acreage consisted of wells located on Joe’s property not covered by the lease and the lease provided that Joe should put the pumping facilities in first class condition and that Ed should pay for all electricity which he used on his leased premises. The lessor and lessee, desiring to raise 400 acres of cotton, jointly applied to and secured from Best Cotton Company a crop loan to finance the growing. When the crop was grown and sold through Best Cotton Co., it had on hand after paying the loan the sum of $10,249.71 belonging to Ed and Joe. Ed filed suit against Best Cotton Co. for his share. The company answered and filed counterclaim setting forth that Joe had assigned $2,109.06 of his funds with Best Cotton Co. to Hanson Pump & Machine Works; that Arizona Public Service Company, one of the appellants herein, had served a writ of garnishment for a claimed indebtedness from Joe in the sum of $3,918.93; that it claimed no interest in the fund and asked that the respective claimants be required to inter-plead.

All claimants except Joe Lamb answered setting forth their respective claims to the fund. Joe had taken bankruptcy, had been served with the interpleader action by publication and defaulted. By stipulation Ed was .paid $5,000 from the fund. There *316 after Hanson Pump & Machine Co. assigned its claim to the appellant John Hay and he was substituted as a party. Best Cotton Co. paid $5,249.71 into court and at pretrial hearing the trial court ordered the clerk to pay it from the fund deposited the sum of $509.65 for its attorney fees and costs. The lower court after trial rendered final judgment distributing the fund as follows: To Best Cotton Co., $509.65 for attorney fees and costs; to Ed Lamb, $3,239.64 plus $83.30 for his costs; to appellant John Hay $1,417.12; and adjudged Arizona Public Service Company take nothing. By minute order the court thereafter amended the judgment vacating the item of $83.30 to Ed and changing the amount due Hay to $1,500.42. Arizona Public Service Company and Hay separately appeal.

Concerning the appeal of Public Service the evidence is that Joe Lamb ordered the power which was used by him and Ed in connection with their respective farming operations for the season. The pump which furnished Ed’s water was located on land being farmed by Joe. In the lease it was agreed between Joe and Ed that the latter pay for whatever electricity Ed used in his farming operations. It is clear that Joe contracted for the power which was to be used on both operations, and prior to this interpleader action Public Service sued Joe for the balance of the unpaid portion of its bill and ran a writ of garnishment against Best Cotton Co. for what it owed Joe. We think it is clean that it was understood that Joe was obligated to Public Service for the entire’ electrical bill and Ed was to reimburse Joe for whatever he (Ed) used in his farming operations under the lease.

In order to secure financing from Best Cotton Company the brothers were required to give a joint note and crop mortgage covering the crops grown by each of them. So far as they and Best Cotton Company were concerned as to Ed and Joe’s production expenses, it was a joint account. The total power bill was $11,-841.93. Of this amount there was paid from the joint account during the farming operations $7,923, leaving a balance due the power company of $3,918.93. The evidence showed that Ed used in raising his crop $3,107.83 worth of electricity and Joe used the balance of the total, being $8,734-10. The brothers settled their account between themselves and in this settlement Ed was charged and Joe given credit for $3,107.83. Ed thereby paid Joe for the electricity he used in accordance with the agreement in the lease.

The position of the power com7 pany is that either Ed owes it the entire balance of the electrical bill in the sum of $3,918.93 as a personal obligation or he owes the sum of $3,107.83 for the electricity he used. The basis of the contention that Ed is personally liable for the' entire bill is that by entering into a joint *317 financing deal with Best Cotton Co. the brothers became joint adventurers and each is liable for all debts incurred in their respective farming operations. We cannot agree with this contention. We have said a joint adventure is a special combination of two or more persons where in some special venture a profit is jointly sought, Ruby v. United Sugar Companies, S.A., 56 Ariz. 535, 109 P.2d 845, and that under all the authorities a share in the profits is necessary to create such a venture, Estrella v. Suarez, 60 Ariz. 187, 134 P.2d 167. There was no joint operation of their respective farms. Each was farming independently. There was no agreement whereby they were to share jointly either in profits or losses. There was no joint right of control in the farming operations. For the power company to hold Ed personally for any portion of the electrical bill, it must be on the theory that because they jointly secured a loan from Best Cotton Co. and jointly drew thereon for their respective separate expenses of operation they thereby rendered each other jointly and severally liable for ail debts incurred by either. To accomplish this result Arizona Public Service would label their separate operations as a joint adventure when it bears none of the recognized earmarks of a joint enterprise as defined by the authorities. 48 C.J.S. Joint Adventures § 1, page 801; 30 Am.Jur., Joint Adventures, section 2, page 939. Ed agreed in his lease to pay Joe for the power he (Ed) used in his separate operation. This he did when he settled with Joe by charging himself with $3,107.83, the amount of electricity he used. He owes the power company nothing and the trial court correctly so ruled.

In rendering its judgment allowing Ed Lamb $3,239.64 of the fund, he was charged with having withdrawn for picking $6,856.75. The correctness of this figure is questioned by appellant Hay, his contention being that the records and legitimate evidence show Ed received unquestionably more than this amount and consequently the amount Ed is entitled to from the fund should be reduced. Prior to this litigation the two brothers had a settlement between themselves. In this settlement they agreed that this was a proper figure. Witness Dennis prepared an account adopting this figure. When this account was offered in evidence, objection was made on the ground of inadequate foundation. Dennis then testified he had examined the exhibits in evidence including the gin weight receipts which represented the amount of cotton Ed had delivered to the gin. These total 231,245 pounds of seed cotton. Ed verified this total figure and testified that 159,870 pounds were hand picked at $3.35 per hundred and 71,375 pounds machine picked at $2.75 per hundred. There was also introduced in evidence the gin tickets which purport to represent the cotton ginned for Ed. The best we can glean from these tickets is that *318 they show total seed cotton of 232,235 ■pounds. There was also introduced into ■evidence what purports to be a copy from the gin records showing that Ed had drawn for picking $9,598.48 and Joe had drawn •‘$4,625.51.

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Bluebook (online)
327 P.2d 998, 84 Ariz. 314, 1958 Ariz. LEXIS 227, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/arizona-public-service-company-v-lamb-ariz-1958.