Edwards v. Willson

219 P. 233, 30 Wyo. 275, 1923 Wyo. LEXIS 42
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 29, 1923
DocketNo. 1089
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 219 P. 233 (Edwards v. Willson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Edwards v. Willson, 219 P. 233, 30 Wyo. 275, 1923 Wyo. LEXIS 42 (Wyo. 1923).

Opinion

Blume, Justice.

James Edwards, the plaintiff below, commenced" to work for Wilson Brothers, a co-partnership, one of the defendants below, in caring for the latter’s sheep, in the spring of 1909, at the agreed wages of $45.00 per month, and he continued in such employment until about January 1st, 1917. Said partnership had, in 1909, approximately 9000 sheep, and out of said number plaintiff, during that year, bought 200 ewes, 100 thereof in the spring and 100 in the fall of 1909, which ewes were to be run by plaintiff in connection with the bands of sheep of said partnership. Plaintiff’s ewes remained with said bands of sheep until the sale by said partnership of all of the sheep, including those of plaintiff, in July, 1917, at $12.00 per head. In the meantime losses were sustained, gains accrued by the addition of lambs, sheep pelts and wool were sold and all of the re[280]*280ceipts went into the hands of said partnership, by which the books were kept. Plaintiff brought this action against said partnership and it's individual members for an accounting. The case was referred to a referee, who reported. His report was set aside and the case tried anew to the court, without the intervention of a jury, the court made findings of facts, and judgment was entered for plaintiff for $2045.08 as a balance due him, plus $654.40 interest, a total of $2699.48. Motions for a new trial were filed by both the plaintiff and the defendants, which were overruled, and the parties on both sides have brought proceedings in error here from the judgment entered.

1. Defendants contend that the amount awarded to plaintiff is excessive and that in addition to the wages earned, plaintiff, after deduction of amounts paid to or for him, should have been allowed recovery only for the amount originally paid by him for the sheep bought by him, plus lawful interest from date of purchase, for the reason (1) that no delivery was ever made at least of the second 100 sheep purchased and no sale thereof was ever completed, and (2) because plaintiff’s sheep were confused with those of defendants. The first 100 sheep bought by plaintiff were in the beginning marked and branded separately, but this method was-soon abandoned and thereafter all of plaintiff’s sheep bore the brand of defendants and were not distinguishable from the sheep of the latter. This was to be so either pursuant to express agreement or common consent, carried out for a number of years. The second 100 ewes bought by plaintiff were never separated at all. But they were never intended to be separated or marked separately. No particular act or ceremony is necessary to make a delivery. Any act done with intent to transfer possession is sufficient. What constitutes delivery must to a large extent depend on the nature of the property or interest sold, the particular! business to which the transaction is incident, and the circumstances attending the transaction. 35 Cyc. 187, 188. Had the intention been that the [281]*281sheep bought by plaintiff should, in order to complete the sale, be separated from the sheep of defendants, and identified, the question of delivery as to the second 100 sheep would be important herein. But that was not the intention, at least as to the last mentioned sheep. The whole transaction, in fact, was substantially one by which an undivided portion of the. whole was transferred to plaintiff who had direct charge thereof, who paid the purchase price thereof and whose title was evidenced in writing upon the books of the defendants. We think that, .under the facts, there was a sufficient delivery and that the sale made must be considered as a completed sale. In any event defendants recognized the title of plaintiff for a number of years, credited him upon their books with all the income and increment derived from plaintiff’s property, year after year,, and they are clearly now too late to claim that the sale to plaintiff was never completed. Nor can defendants’ claim as to the confusion of property be sustained. In the case of Ayre v. Hixon, 53 Or. 19, 98 Pac. 515, 133 Am. St. Rep. 819, Ann. Cas. 1913-E 659 the rule was stated as follows:

“It is a question of confusion of goods.. The remedies of the parties owning portions of the property so commingled depend upon the circumstances of commingling; namely, whether by consent of the owner, by mistake or accident, or whether it was the result of willful, careless or fraudulent conduct. In the first two cases, as between the owners, neither of them will lose his property, but each will be treated as a tenant in common in proportion to his interest, but where willful or wrongful, the eommingler or wrongdoer forfeits his interest unless he can identify his goods. ’ ’

And in 12 C. J. 494, the rule is stated that where a confusion takes place by the consent of the owners, they become tenants in common in the mixture. The confusion in the case at bar took place pursuant to agreement or consent, the total number of sheep and the number of sheep of plaintiff is known, and a reasonable method exists whereby [282]*282the interests of the respective parties maybe determined. In truth, by the fact that defendants did, from time to time, determine, and enter on their books, the respective interests of the parties, is a complete refutation of the contention that no method existed by which the rights of the parties could be determined. We think that the parties must be' treated; as tenants in common and that plaintiff lost no rights by reason of the confusion of goods herein.

2. We shall now proceed to consider the appeal of the plaintiff. His counsel claim that the evidence shows, that the lamb crop from 1910 to 1916 inclusive was 70%, 69%, 73%, 48%, 71%, 67% and 65% respectively, that the losses during the winters from the fall of 1909 to the spring of 1917 were 25%, 5%, 50%, 10%, 10%, 10%, 10%, 10% respectively, and upon this basis, and figuring that plaintiff’s sheep should all be at all times considered as ewes, they compute that plaintiff had, in July, 1917, a total of 701 head of sheep instead of 135 as found by the court. Under this method of computation, too, the wool money, each year, should, after 1910, have been much larger than that allowed by the trial court, and in short it is claimed that there is due $15,299.57 instead of the amount allowed. Counsel for plaintiff argues that this is an equity case and that this court should try the case do novo upon the record before us. But that has never been done in this state since the adoption of the Code of 1886 abolishing distinctions between actions at law and suits in equity. The rule followed by this court in actions at law where there is conflicting testimony is well known and it is not necessary to cite the eases. And the same rule has been applied in equity cases. Conway v. Smith Mercantile Co., 6 Wyo. 468; 46 Pac. 1084; Patterson v. Hardware Co., 7 Wyo. 401; 52 Pac. 1085; Columbia Min. Co. v. Duchess Min. Co., 13 Wyo. 244; 79 Pac. 385; Phelan v. Cheyenne Brick Co., 26 Wyo. 495; 188 Pac. 354; 189 Pac. 1103; McFadden v. French, (Wyo.) 213 Pac. 760. The rule, with its reasons, is stated in Conway v. Smith Merc. Co., supra, as follows:

[283]*283“The question is whether there is sufficient evidence to sustain these findings. It is not whether this court, from the written report of the evidence, would so find. The trial court had most of the principal witnesses before it, giving that court the better opportunity to judge of their character and credibility. ’ ’

The rule was also applied, and the same reason given, in Lellman v. Mills, 15 Wyo. 152, 180; 87 Pac.

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Bluebook (online)
219 P. 233, 30 Wyo. 275, 1923 Wyo. LEXIS 42, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/edwards-v-willson-wyo-1923.