Blackwood v. Farmers Bank Trust Company

141 S.W.2d 1, 200 Ark. 738, 1940 Ark. LEXIS 123
Supreme Court of Arkansas·Decided May 27, 1940·No. 4-5930·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

Mehaeey, J.

The appellant, D. H. Blackwood, rented his farm in Mississippi county, Arkansas, to M. L. Hawkins for the year 1937 and executed a waiver of the rents in favor of the Farmers Bank & Trust Company in the sum of $1,350. It is not claimed that any other written waiver was made. Hawkins produced on the farm 81 bales of cotton. The first lot of cotton was 49 bales sold to Jake Ungar Grin Company. Out of the proceeds of this 49 bales, the gin company paid to the Farmers Bank & Trust Company, $1,350, which was the amount of the note due from Hawkins to the bank, for which the bank held a waiver from Blackwood. This left a balance .of $893 proceeds from the sale of the 49 bales. The other lot of cotton contained 32 bales, which were mortgaged to the Farmers Bank & Trust Company, which sold the mortgage to the Commodity Credit Corporation.

Blackwood first filed suit in the circuit court of Mississippi county for an attachment to enforce his landlord’s lien. Blackwood then filed suit in the chancery court against Jake Ungar Gin Company and its president, Matt Scruggs, and later filed suit against the Farmers Bank & Trust Company and Commodity Credit Corporation. Thereafter the Commodity Credit Corporation instituted an action in the chancery court against all of the parties, including Blackwood, and these causes Avere consolidated and tried in chancery court.

Blackwood, in his complaint, alleges that he rented certain lands to the defendant. HaAvkins, for $2,880 for the year 1937, $300 of AArhich had been paid. Certain property attached in the action in the circuit court Avas sold and brought approximately $900, leaving unpaid $1,732.50, AAdiich included interest from November 15, 1937. The Jake Ungar Gin Company -had purchased 49 bales of the cotton raised on the Blackwood land, and it was alleged that it had either secreted or sold the 49 bales; that Blackwood had a landlord’s lien on the cotton and prayed judgment fixing a lien upon the proceeds of the sale.

The defendant, Scruggs, answered denying the allegations of the complaint. The Jake Ungar Gin Company answered, making general denial, and alleged that Hawkins executed a note and mortgage to the Farmers Bank & Trust Company conveying the crops grown by Hawkins on the premises rented from Blackwood, and that Blackwood had executed a waiver of his lien on the 49 bales of cotton. $1,484.12 was paid to the bank in satisfaction of its note and mortgage. Thirty-two more bales of cotton were ginned by the gin company, and it is alleged that they were sold or mortgaged to the Commodity Credit Corporation; that 24 bales had been ginned for ’which Blackwood had receipts, and that all these transactions were with the consent and knowledge of D. H. Blackwood.

M. L. Hawkins filed an answer and counter claim, alleging that Blackwood had wrongfully taken personal property of the value of $3,166.

In the case of Blackwood versus Farmers Bank & Trust Company and Commodity Credit Corporation, Blackwood filed a complaint alleging’ practically the same facts contained in his complaint ag’ainst the gin company. He set out and described the 32 bales of cotton, and alleged that the Farmers Bank & Trust Company and the Commodity Credit Corporation purchased this cotton with knowledge of the fact that Blackwood held a landlord’s lien thereon, and prayed judgment for the proceeds.

In this last mentioned case, the Farmers Bank & Trust Company filed answer alleging that it had a loan note from Hawkins and waiver from Blackwood, and that the proceeds of the cotton received by the bank was in payment of this loan. It also alleged that the transactions were carried on and conducted with the knowledge and consent of Blackwood, and that he was estopped to make any claim against the hank; that the loan was made by the Commodity Credit Corporation through the bank with the consent and knowledge of Blackwood, and that the bank did not know of any lien that Blackwood had.

In the case of Commodity Credit Corporation and others against Hawkins and others, the Commodity Credit Corporation filed a complaint against all the parties interested in these transactions, including Black-wood. It alleged that on November 11, 1937, Hawkins gave the bank a note and loan agreement and mortgage for the sum of $1,458.45, pledging the 32 bales of cotton in which Hawkins represented himself as the landlord, and listed no liens, and alleged that Hawkins pledged the 32 bales of cotton to secure a note to the Farmers Bank & Trust Company, and that it had a first lien to secure the payment of the $1,350 note executed by Hawkins to the bank; that a portion of the proceeds or cash raised from the cotton producer’s note was paid to the Farmers Bank & Trust Company to satisfy a mortgage lien which it held to secure the note of M. L. Hawkins, and alleged that Blackwood received $300 as the proceeds of the loan. It also alleged that the note had been pledged to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation; that by reason of pledging the note, the lien of the Commodity Credit Corporation was superior to that of Blackwood, and prayed judgment and for foreclosure of the 32 bales of cotton, and in the alternative, if the lien of Blackwood be found prior and paramount, that it should be subrogated to the rights of the defendant, Farmers Bank & Trust Company, and Blackwood; and that Blackwood and the Federal Compress Company and Jake Ungar Grin Company be enjoined from proceeding further in the action pending in the circuit court.

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Blackwood v. Farmers Bank Trust Company, 141 S.W.2d 1, 200 Ark. 738, 1940 Ark. LEXIS 123 (Ark. 1940).

141 S.W.2d 1 (Blackwood v. Farmers Bank Trust Company) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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