Estep v. Bailey

185 P. 227, 94 Or. 59, 1919 Ore. LEXIS 201
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 4, 1919
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 185 P. 227 (Estep v. Bailey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Estep v. Bailey, 185 P. 227, 94 Or. 59, 1919 Ore. LEXIS 201 (Or. 1919).

Opinion

BEAN, J. —

1. As plainly stated in appellants’ brief: All tbe questions to be determined on this appeal cluster about and will necessarily be disposed of by tbe determination of tbe last-named point. Tbe plaintiff in tbe case at bar in addition to tbe amount of the Corrieri judgment recovered $50 for attorneys ’ fees in tbe former action. Tbe reasonableness of this fee was not questioned in tbe former action, so there was no necessity for submitting that part of the case to tbe jury; the defendants’ contention being that they were not liable therefor.

2. It is urged by counsel for defendants that tbe crops on a portion of tbe land were personal property owned by Corrieri, and no title thereto passed by the deed, and that tbe defendants are not liable under their covenant for tbe damages for tbe conversion of such crops by plaintiff. It is also contended by defendants that in any event tbe true measure of damages in the present case is tbe fair rental value of tbe land for the unexpired term of tbe lease. It appears that tbe lease from tbe former owner to Corrieri was not in writing, and that Mr. Bailey did not know of its existence while be owned tbe land. There was no reservation of tbe [64]*64crop in the deed to plaintiff. It' is practically conceded in this case that the claim of Corrieri to the crop in the action therefor was based upon the outstanding lease from Cabella, the former owner of the premises.

“An ‘encumbrance’ is a burden on land which depreciates its value, as a lien, easement, or servitude, and includes ‘any right to or interest in the land which may subsist in third persons, to the diminution of the value of the land, but consistent with the conveyance' of the title’ 2 Words and Phrases, Second Series, p. 1018.

See, also, Friendly v. Ruff, 61 Or. 42 (120 Pac. 745); Rawle on Covenants for Title (5 ed.), p. 90, § 75. An outstanding lease upon premises at the time of conveyance constitutes an encumbrance: 7 R. C. L. 1164; Beutel v. American Machine Co., 144 Ky. 57 (137 S. W. 799, 35 L. R. A. (N. S.) 779).

The existence of a valid lease to Corrieri at the date of the deed from the defendants to the plaintiff was a breach of the covenant against encumbrances, quoted above, and entitled Mrs. Estep, the covenantee, to recover damages: 7 R. C. L., p. 1164, § 79.

3. According to the rule of the common law, growing crops pass with the title to the land on a conveyance thereof in fee, unless they are reserved by the vendor. This rule is based upon the principle that a deed is to be construed most strongly against the grantor, and if the crop is not reserved the grantor is presumed to have intended it to pass with the possession. If the rule were otherwise, a purchaser of land would be subject to the intrusion of the grantor to gather the crop, which, in the absence of a stipulation granting such privilege, would be a trespass, and there would be presented the situation of the ownership by one of personal property on the land of another without the [65]*65right to enter and take it: 8 R. C. L., p. 358, § 5; note to Beutel v. American Machine Co. (Ky.), 35 L. R. A. (N. S.) 779.

As between the Baileys, the vendors of the land and Mrs. Estep, the purchaser, a deed to the property upon which a crop was then growing would convey to the purchaser the growing crop as part of the real property, unless the same was reserved by the vendor in the deed: 8 R. C. L., p. 358, § 5; 12 Cyc. 977; Jones v. Adams, 37 Or. 473, 475 (59 Pac. 811, 62 Pac. 16, 82 Am. St. Rep. 766, 50 L. R. A. 388); 8 Am. & Eng. Ency. of Law (2 ed.), 303. This is true even if Mrs. Estep, the purchaser of the land knew that there was an outstanding lease upon a portion of the premises at the time she purchased: Corbett v. Wrenn, 25 Or. 305 (35 Pac. 658); Clark v. Fisher, 54 Kan. 403 (38 Pac. 493).

4-6. As between Corrieri and his landlord, Cabella, and his successors, Corrieri as a tenant was entitled to the annual crops raised on the leased land during the tenancy. As between them such crops are not part of the freehold, but are the property of the tenant in the absence of any stipulation affecting it: 8 R. C. L., p. 362, § 8; Opperman v. Littlejohn, 98 Miss. 636 (54 South. 77, 35 L. R. A. (N. S.) 707); Colville v. Miles, 127 N. Y. 159 (27 N. E. 809, 24 Am. St. Rep. 433, 12 L. R. A. 848); Olin v. Martell, 83 Vt. 130 (74 Atl. 1060, 138 Am. St. Rep. 1072). In the case of Clark v. Fisher, 54 Kan. 403 (38 Pac. 493), which is very much in point, as the facts were similar to the case at bar, the syllabus is as follows:

“When the premises conveyed by a deed from a grantee to a grantor with a covenant against encumbrances have a growing crop thereon at the delivery of the deed, belonging to a tenant of the grantor, and the grantee is deprived of the possession on account [66]*66of the unexpired term of the lease of the tenant, the value of the crop, less the cost and expense of the taking care of and the harvesting the same, may be considered in estimating the real injury to the grantee arising from being deprived of the possession of the premises until after the crop is harvested and taken away. ’ ’

In Newburn v. Lucas, 126 Iowa, 85 (101 N. W. 730), it was held that in an action for breach of covenants of warranty in a deed, the deed governs and the grantor cannot defeat the covenants by parol evidence of the grantee’s knowledge of an encumbrance; also that in an action on a covenant of warranty for damages sustained by reason of the grantor’s vendor in possession of the premises at the time of the conveyance claiming the growing crops, the measure of damages is the value of the growing crops at the time of the conveyance. It seems that the measure of damages in the Corrieri case was taken to be the value of the crop less the expense of harvesting the same. In the absence of special circumstances, the general rule is that the measure of damages for the breach of a covenant by reason of an outstanding lease is the value of the use of the premises during the remainder of the life of the lease. A grantee in a deed like the one from defendants to plaintiff is entitled to expenses incurred in defending title against the claim of the third party: Note to Beutel v. American Machine Co. (Ky.), 35 L. R. A. (N. S.) 779; 15 C. J. 1332; Balte v. Bedemiller, 37 Or. 27, 33 (60 Pac. 601, 82 Am. St. Rep. 737); Ellis v. Abbott, 69 Or. 234, 240 (138 Pac. 488).

7. The crop of wheat and vetch was a part of the real estate sold and conveyed by defendants to plaintiff and the title to the grain should have passed by the deed to the plaintiff. The defendants covenanted [67]*67that they were the owners of the property including the crop. On account of the outstanding lease at the time of the conveyance, and in order for plaintiff to obtain the benefit of the fruit of the land which she had purchased, and to which she was entitled, and to remove the effect of the encumbrance, she was compelled to pay $208.15. Therefore the plaintiff was actually damaged by reason of the breach of the covenant in that sum.

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Bluebook (online)
185 P. 227, 94 Or. 59, 1919 Ore. LEXIS 201, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/estep-v-bailey-or-1919.