Cole v. Utah Sugar Co.

99 P. 681, 35 Utah 148, 1909 Utah LEXIS 11
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 14, 1909
DocketNo. 1955
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 99 P. 681 (Cole v. Utah Sugar Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cole v. Utah Sugar Co., 99 P. 681, 35 Utah 148, 1909 Utah LEXIS 11 (Utah 1909).

Opinion

FPJCN, J.

Despondent commenced this action to recover the sum .of $385.74 with accrued interest, as a balance alleged to be due [151]*151him for sugar beets sold and delivered to the appellant the Utah Sugar Company, and which money, it is alleged, said company had wrongfully transferred to the appellant Sidney Stevens Implement Company. It is further alleged that said money is held by said appellant for the use and benefit of respondent. Both appellants are alleged to be Utah corporations. The appellants answered jointly. .After admitting their corporate capacity and denying the other allegations of the complaint generally, they set up an affirmative defense, in which the appellant the Utah Sugar Company, hereinafter designated “sugar company,” justified the payment of said money to the other appellant upon the ground that the sugar company paid the money into the municipal court of Odgen City pursuant to an execution issued upon a judgment in favor of the appellant Sidney Stevens Implement Company, which judgment was against one Erastus Ilansen, who was the person who contracted to sell, and did sell and deliver, the sugar beets to the appellant sugar company; that said judgment remained wholly unpaid and in full force and effect when said money was paid into said court by the sugar company; that said Sidney Stevens Implement Company received said money from said court in payment of the judgment aforesaid. The transaction will he more fully explained hereafter. The respondent recovered judgment in the trial court, from which both appellants prosecute this appeal.

At the trial the evidence tended to show the following facts: That the respondent owned some beet lands about five miles south of the village of Garland, at which place the sugar factory of the appellant sugar company is located, in-Box Elder county. That respondent in the year 1905 desired to raise some beets upon his land, and, with that end in view, enu ployed the Erastus Hansen aforesaid, also known as Bast. Hansen, at $60 per month to superintend or oversee the cultivation and harvesting of the beets. That said Hansen, at the request of respondent, entered into a written contract with the sugar company, whereby it was agreed that said [152]*152sugar company would furnish, the seed and plant twenty-five acres of sugar beets for said Hansen, and that he would cultivate and harvest said beets and deliver them to the sugar company at an agreed price, ranging from $4 to $4.50 per ton. That Hansen would pay the sugar company at the rate of $2.75 per acre for the seed and planting. The contract also provided that it was subject to any interest certain Japanese laborers might have in the beets for their labor in cultivating them. Respondent also testified that, when he and Hansen started out in the spring, they talked of allowing Hansen one-half of the proceeds of the beets in excess of ten tons per acre in addition to the $60 per- month. Hansen arranged with some Japanese laborers for the cultivation and harvesting of the beets, and agreed to pay them one-half of the proceeds of the crop as compensation. When Mr. Hansen was about to enter into the contract with the sugar company, he informed respondent and asked him about signing the contract and respondent told Hansen to sign it, which Hansen did. The sugar company did not know of the arrangement existing between Hansen and respondent, but assumed that the beets belonged to Hansen. Hansen testified that, in addition to the amount mentioned in the contract, consisting of about 24 1-2 acres of beets, he also planted 7 or 7 1-2 acres of beets in the orchard owned by respondent, so that the acreage amounted to more than was specified in the contract. After the beets had all been delivered to' the sugar company under’ the Hansen contract, the sugar company deducted from the amount due for beets the sum of $89.40 for seed and planting 32 1-2 acres, as appears from Exhibit 2, admitted in evidence as part of the cross-examination of respondent by appellants’ counsel. The respondent, however, testified that about thirty acres of beets were planted, and that, while he did not know the exact number of tons raised and delivered, the beets averaged a little less than ten tons per acre; that the beets sold and delivered to the sugar company amounted to between $1,200 and $1,300, of which the Japanese laborers received one-half as their [153]*153share; that be bad received in tbe neigbborbood of $200 upon tbe contract, and that tbe sugar company bad retained tbe sum of $385.74 out of tbe amount coming to bim, and bad refused to pay it. Mr. Hansen further testified that at tbe time of settlement for tbe beets in tbe fall of 1905, and when tbe Japanese laborers were paid, tbe sugar company offered to pay bim for bis share tbe sum of $172.23 as tbe balance due on tbe contract; that tbe manager of tbe sugar company said that be bad paid tbe $385.74 into court upon a judgment against Hansen; that Hansen then told tbe manager that tbe money for tbe beets did not belong to Hansen, but that it belonged to respondent, and Hansen refused to receive the money and left it with tbe sugar company. Tbe respondent testified that be afterwards, in May, 1906, did receive tbe check offered to Hansen for $172.23 as aforesaid, and obtained payment thereof by indorsing on tbe back thereof both bis own name and that of Hansen.

This substantially was tbe state of tbe .proof when respondent rested. Tbe appellants interposed a motion for nonsuit upon various grounds, but the ones now insisted upon are as follows: (1) That tbe respondent was not tbe sole owner of tbe beets; and (2) that tbe controversy arises 'by virtue of a written contract entered into between Hansen and tbe sugar company which.was a personal and nontransferable contract to which respondent was not a party, and hence was not tbe real party in interest, and cannot maintain tbe action.

As to tbe first ground, as the evidence stood when respondent rested, there certainly was nothing before tbe court which tended to show that any one else claimed any interest in tbe beets or tbe proceeds thereof except respondent Mr. Hansen, in whose name tbe contract was - made, was a witness in tbe case, and be disclaimed all interest in tbe beets or tbe proceeds thereof. Tbe fact that there bad been some talk between Hansen and respondent that respondent was-, to receive all tbe proceeds in case tbe beets did Hot exceed-ten tons per acre, and that Hansen should have half in [154]*154excess of ten tons as additional compensation, did not necessarily give Mr. Hansen an interest in tbe beets themselves. But, apart from this, there was no evidence at this stage of the proceedings which tended to show that the beets yielded more than ten tons to the acre. Indeed, all the evidence was to the effect that the.yield was a little below that amount. If in connection with this we consider Hansen’s disclaimer while on the witness stand of any interest in the beets, the court was not authorized to find from the evidence as it then stood that Hansen had any interest in the beets. But, if the appellants desired to interpose 1,2, 3 a plea of a defect of parties, they should have set it up in their answer. Nor did the fact that Hansen made the contract in his own name prevent respondent from bringing the action as the real party in interest. The rule is stated in 1 Bates on Bleading, Practice, Parties, and Norms, p.

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Bluebook (online)
99 P. 681, 35 Utah 148, 1909 Utah LEXIS 11, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cole-v-utah-sugar-co-utah-1909.