Brande v. Babcock Hardware Co.

88 P. 949, 35 Mont. 256, 1907 Mont. LEXIS 74
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 25, 1907
DocketNo. 2,379
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 88 P. 949 (Brande v. Babcock Hardware Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brande v. Babcock Hardware Co., 88 P. 949, 35 Mont. 256, 1907 Mont. LEXIS 74 (Mo. 1907).

Opinion

MR. JUSTICE SMITH

delivered the opinion of the court.

This action was begun to recover the sum of $504, the alleged value of certain wheat sold by one Farr to the defendant company, upon which plaintiff held a chattel mortgage, of which defendant is alleged to have had notice. At the close of the testimony, the court directed the jury to return a verdict for the [259]*259defendant, and upon such verdict judgment was entered. From that judgment the plaintiff has appealed to this court.

It appears that on the twenty-ninth day of December, 1903, Farr made, executed, and delivered to plaintiff his promissory note, and on the same day, to secure the note, made his chattel mortgage upon the crop to be raised by him in the following year, 1904. This note and mortgage were taken by Austin North, the agent of plaintiff. The plaintiff nowhere appears personally in the action. In the spring of 1901 Farr went to the respondent company to buy seed wheat on credit, which was refused him; but he finally obtained the same by giving a note therefor and signing a contract to sell the crop raised from said seed to the Babcock Company. The form of contract was as follows:

“This agreement, made and entered into this - A. D. -, by and between the A. L. Babcock Hardware Company of Billings, Montana, a corporation, the party of the first part herein, and-, party of the second part, witnesseth: That the parties of the first and second parts have this day mutually agreed and covenanted, and do by these presents bind themselves in the manner following; that is to say:
“First. For and in consideration of the covenants and agreements hereinafter contained to be kept and performed by the said party of the second part, the said party of the first part hereby agrees to sell and deliver-to the said party of the second part on demand - pounds of No. One hard seed wheat, or so much thereof as may be desired by the said party of the second part, at the rate of --per hundred weight.
“Second. Said party of the second part hereby agrees to sow, cultivate, irrigate, harvest and thresh in a good and farmer-like manner all and singular the hard wheat so to be furnished him as above; and after the said wheat shall have been harvested and threshed as aforesaid, to sell and deliver the same and all thereof so harvested and threshed to the said party of the first part, to be paid for by the said party of the first part at the rate of-per hundred weight, f. o. b. ears-—.
[260]*260“Third. The said party of the first part hereby agrees to pay to the said party of the second part the sum of-per hundred weight for all hard wheat, cultivated, irrigated, harvested and threshed on the premises of the said party of the second part, and which may be delivered f. o. b. cars to- the said party of the first part in good condition at any time during the months of-, A. D. 190—. '
“In witness whereof, the said party of the first part has hereunto caused its corporate name and seal to be affixed by its proper officers on this-, A. D. 190—, and the said party' of the second part has hereunto fixed his hand and seal at --, this-day of-, A. D. 190—.”

The contract was filled in with Farr’s name as party of the second part, the number of pounds of seed wheat delivered to him, and the price per hundred ($1.15) that was to be paid for the crop in the fall. One Connolly signed for the company, and North attached his signature after Farr’s, either as a party, or as a witness. North also indorsed the note for the seed wheat. He testified: “I was anxious to see the fellow get a crop, and I signed the note personally so that he could get the seed wheat at that time. In my presence, Mr. Connolly agreed to purchase the wheat, and agreed upon the price he would pay for the wheat; that is, the price to be allowed Mr. Farr, and to be paid to me after deducting the amount of the note. * * * If I signed the contract for the sale of the wheat, I did it as the agent of the mortgagee.” He says that in indorsing the note he did not intend to waive the lien of the mortgage.

At the time of this transaction Connolly was the secretary of the defendant company, acting in the course of his employment, and had knowledge of appellant’s mortgage. He says that to induce North to indorse the note, he told him that he (North) had a mortgage, and he took no chances in indorsing the note. Connolly ceased to represent the defendant company in August, 1904.

[261]*261On September 30, 1904, Farr removed tbe wheat from the land on which it was grown, sold it to defendant company, and received the balance of the money, after deducting the • amount of the seed wheat note. The respondent’s miller received the wheat for the company, and none of the then officers or employees of the Babcock Company had any knowledge of the chattel mortgage. Connolly left with the company no note or memorandum of his agreement with North. Mr. Foster, the secretary of the Babcock Company, testified as follows: “In the first place, when the wheat is received at the mill it is bought by the miller or some person, and duplicate tickets are made out, one of which is given to the man who hauls the wheat in, and the other one is put on file and turned in, taken in to the office; and when the party comes in to settle, the first thing to do is to look at the wheat book, and then we look to see whether he has contracts or not, and if he has, we settle according to that contract. If the contract calls for a specific price named in the contract, we pay that; otherwise we pay him the market price of that' day; and, of course, we examine our ledgers and books to see what, if anything, these parties owe us, and of course, that is deducted, and a statement is made out to him showing the amount of wheat received and the price of it, and everything that is deducted, and he is given a check for the balance.”

We think the district court was right in directing a verdict for the defendant.

Section 3876 of the Civil Code is as follows: “The lien of a mortgage on a growing crop continues on the crop after severance, whether remaining in it's original state or converted into another product, so long as the same remains on the land of mortgagor.”' This section is the same as section 2972 of the California Civil Code, as amended in 1878; and in the ease of Horgan v. Zanetta, 107 Cal. 27, 40 Pac. 22, the supreme court of California said: “The crop had been removed from the land of the mortgagor at the time the attachments and executions [262]*262were levied on it by the (defendant) ; therefore, the lien of the mortgage had prima facie been extinguished. It therefore devolved upon (plaintiff) to remove this prima facie case by showing that the case at bar is an exception to the general rule. «= * * true when Cole attached he knew that there had been a mortgage on the crop; but he also knew that the lien had been extinguished by the removal of the crop from the land of the mortgagor, and he was not bound to look after the former rights of the mortgagee who had lost them by his own carelessness.”

We think this decision is correct in principle, and there is nothing to be gained by the examination of other eases. Section 3876 was undoubtedly enacted to facilitate the business of dealing in grain.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
88 P. 949, 35 Mont. 256, 1907 Mont. LEXIS 74, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brande-v-babcock-hardware-co-mont-1907.