Coleman v. Fletcher

188 S.W.2d 959, 238 Mo. App. 813, 1945 Mo. App. LEXIS 338
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 19, 1945
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 188 S.W.2d 959 (Coleman v. Fletcher) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Coleman v. Fletcher, 188 S.W.2d 959, 238 Mo. App. 813, 1945 Mo. App. LEXIS 338 (Mo. Ct. App. 1945).

Opinion

VANDEVENTER, J.

— This action was begun by the filing of a petition in the circuit court of New Madrid County, Missouri, on the *817 21st day of November, 1941.' The plaintiff (respondent here) alleged that in January, 1940, he entered into a contract with the defendant (appellant here) under the conditions of which he was to farm a certain twenty-five acres of land for the years 1940 and 1941. That under the terms and conditions of said contract, plaintiff was to receive three-fourths of the cotton raised upon the land and three-fourths of the government payments or benefits thereon and the defendant was to receive one-fourth of said cotton and one-fourth of said benefits; The petition further asserts that plaintiff entered upon said real estate and farmed the same during the year 1940 and that although he rented said real estate for the year 1941 also, the defendant wrongfully and without any lawful right took away from plaintiff the said twenty-five acres of land upon which plaintiff was to have grown cotton in the year 1941 and by reason of such wrong doing on the part of defendant, plaintiff was precluded from growing additional cotton on the twenty-five acres during 1941. That the wrongful taking of the land by the defendant was on or about the 18th day of February, 1941, after the plaintiff had already begun his farming operations for that year. That plaintiff was damaged by reason thereof in the sum of $1675, which would have represented his profit on the cotton, and the additional sum of $260 which would have been his three-fourths of the government benefits. He prayed judgment for $1935 with interest.

Defendant filed an answer and counterclaim, in the first count of which was a general denial as to. all matters not thereinafter expressly admitted.

Count II alleged that he verbally rented to plaintiff the land for 1940 only and that he orally notified plaintiff in July, 1940, that he had rented the farm, a portion of which was the twenty-five acres in controversy, to one Roy Berry, and that Berry entered upon said farm in 1940 and sowed some wheat and barley thereon and that in addition to one-fourth of the cotton, the plaintiff had agreed to pay $200 in cash for the 1940 rent; that he had failed to pay the $200 and defendant prayed judgment for $200.

Count III alleged that plaintiff had executed and delivered to defendant a promissory note for $1000, secured by a chattel mortgage, that certain payments and credits had been made and entered upon said note but there remained due and unpaid $270.71 for which, defendant prayed judgment.

Count IV alleged that the plaintiff had agreed to pay additional rent, on another farm, to the defendant in the sum of $60, which was past due and unpaid and for which, judgment was prayed.

Count- V alleged that the oral agreement was in violation of the Statute of Frauds, Section 3354, Revised Statutes of Missouri, 1939, was void and no action could be maintained thereon. Plaintiff filed *818 a reply denying all the new matter set up in Counts II, III and IV of defendant’s answer and renewed his prayer for judgment as in the original petition.

The case was tried to a jury which found for the plaintiff in the sum of $1860.71; found for defendant on Count II of his counterclaim in the sum of $200, on Count III thereof for the sum of $270.71 and on Count IV for the sum of $60.

Defendant filed a motion for new trial which was overruled, and after proper steps the case is here.

Briefly, the evidence showed on the part of plaintiff that he entered into an oral agreement with defendant in January, 1940, to rent the twenty-five acres for the years 1940 and 1941 and agreed to pay the defendant as rent one-fourth of the cotton raised thereon, one-fourth of the government benefits, and $200 in cash, the latter amount being one-fourth of the amount that the defendant had to pay to obtain possession of the whole farm which contained the twenty-five acres — that plaintiff put in a cotton crop in 1940 and was preparing to do so in February, 1941, when the defendant informed him that he had rented the land to another person, took possession of the property and plaintiij: could not and did not cultivate it for the year 1941. That no notice to vacate was given him by the plaintiff, oral or written. Plaintiff admitted the execution and delivery of the $1000 note and that it had not all been paid. He denied owing the Sixty Dollars.

In testifying as to his preparation .for the farming of the twenty-five acres of cotton land in 1941, the plaintiff said:

“I was going to have to go in debt to farm that land — I had to go in debt to take that other twenty-five acres around seven or eight hundred dollars extra — it cost extra stock and tools.
“I had to get extra equipment to farm the additional land and for that reason told him I wouldn’t take it unless I could get it for two years. . . .
“The first I knowed I didn’t have the twenty-five acres, No. 1-C76, Mr. Berry came over and told me he had all the farm rented; he said he had all of it and was going to pool his Government money with Mr. Fletcher; that was between the first and 15th of February, 1941. I had carried off a load of cotton and Mr. Fletcher met me and told me I couldn’t have the twenty-five acres of cotton; this was about the middle óf February, 1941. I told him I didn’t see how I could ever, pay what I had to go in debt for if he took that twenty-five acres of cotton away from me.”

The plaintiff further testified that he farmed land similar to the twenty-five acres in 1941 but that it was not as good as the twenty-five acres; that the twenty-five acres would have made 750 pounds of lint cotton to the acre and that similar land would have produced that during the year 1941; that he raised a cotton crop in 1941 and in his *819 judgment tbe twenty-five acres would have produced about $3700 or $3800 worth of cotton; that cotton in 1941 sold for $100 a bale; that he had had thirty or thirty-one years experience in growing cotton. It would have cost him $200 to raise the cotton plus the one-fourth rent payable to the defendant and $700 or $800 for picking, that the total expense of raising the crop would have been in the neighborhood of $1100, which would leave about $2650 worth of cotton, one-fourth of which would have been the share of the defendant. That plaintiff’s part would have been $1700 or $1800.

Vester Brown testified that he lived in that vicinity, was acquainted with the twenty-five acres of land in controversy, that he had farmed all his life but had been in that vicinity only five years; that he was a cotton farmer, that he was acquainted with the nature of the soil in that community and that the land in that vicinity during the. year 1941 produced about one and one-half bales per acre.

J. B. Young testified that he lived a mile north of Gideon and knew where the twenty-five acres of land were located, that he had been a farmer all his life, that in 1941 he farmed adjoining lands to the twenty-five acres and that in the year 1941, the production was about one and one-fourth bales per acre; that he received about $70 per acre as his part and that the cotton raised would sell for about $100 per acre.

H. J.

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Bluebook (online)
188 S.W.2d 959, 238 Mo. App. 813, 1945 Mo. App. LEXIS 338, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/coleman-v-fletcher-moctapp-1945.