Gay v. Haiku Fruit & Packing Co.

29 Haw. 702, 1927 Haw. LEXIS 67
CourtHawaii Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 31, 1927
DocketNo. 1733.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 29 Haw. 702 (Gay v. Haiku Fruit & Packing Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Hawaii Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gay v. Haiku Fruit & Packing Co., 29 Haw. 702, 1927 Haw. LEXIS 67 (haw 1927).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT BY

BANKS, J.

The complainant brought a bill in equity against the respondent. The bill was amended and to the amended bill the respondent interposed a demurrer. The circuit judge being in doubt as to what his action on the de *703 nrurrer should be reserved the following question to this court: “Should the demurrer of the respondent to the amended bill of complaint be sustained upon any ground stated in said demurrer?”

According to the allegations of the amended bill the complainant is the owner of certain lands on the Island of Lanai upon which he grows pineapples and the respondent is engaged in the business of canning pineapples on the Island of Maui. On the 12th day of February, 1921, the complainant and the respondent entered into a contract, in writing, for the sale and purchase of pineapples to be delivered by the former to the latter at certain prices. Later, on or about the month of June, 1923, the contract was modified by mutual consent, the modification being that the complainant, instead of delivering the pineapples on the Island of Maui as had been originally agreed, would deliver them at Manele, on the Island of Lanai, and from there they would be transported on respondent’s boats to Kahului, on the Island of Maui. At the time the agreement of February 12, 1921, was made the respondent also agreed that, in order to enable the complainant to properly plant and cultivate his pineapples, it (the respondent) would advance sums of money to the complainant. In pursuance of this agreement the respondent did advance such sums of money until they aggregated the total sum of $12,000. The respondent then requested the complainant to give security for this amount. In compliance with this request the complainant executed and delivered to the respondent a mortgage upon the crops of pineapples. After this mortgage was given the respondent continued to make advances to the complainant and for each amount advanced the complainant gave to the respondent his promissory note to cover the same. Although these *704 notes Avere in form absolute it Aims understood between the complainant and the respondent that they were to be paid on a general accounting between the parties settling their dealings under the agreement of February 12, 1921. The complainant continued to deliver pineapples to the respondent under this agreement until the month of July, 1925. On the 3d day of July, 1925, it was agreed by the complainant that the respondent should take over the fields of pineapples and care for and harvest the crops growing and maturing thereon during the 1925 season, the complainant agreeing that he would transport the pineapples so harvested to the landing at Manele. In pursuance of this agreement the respondent took over complainant’s fields and harvested and took all the pineapples Avhich matured thereon and the complainant transported them to Manele until the latter part of February, 1926, after which time the respondent refused to carry on.

The respondent, after taking over the cultivation and harvesting of the pineapples, neglected and failed to properly care for the fields or the crops growing and maturing thereon and neglected to cultivate or spray the fields. As a result of this failure the fields Avere overgrown with Aveeds, thereby greatly injuring the crops maturing in the 1925 season and the ratoon crops of the next succeeding season, to the complainant’s damage in the sum of $53,000. The records and accounts of the quantity and kind and value of the pineapples delivered by the complainant to the respondent and those harvested by the respondent under the agreement of July 3, 1925, were kept by the respondent and are matters particularly within the knowledge of the respondent. The complainant has received from the respondent no statement of account of the respective debits and credits relative to the pineapples sold to the respondent since *705 March 31, 1925, nor any statement of the cost of transporting said pineapples. On the 17th day of March, 1926, the respondent brought suit in the second judicial circuit against the complainant on the promissory notes given by the complainant for the advances made to him by the respondent. The amount claimed in this suit less certain credits is $36,304.58, together with interest, attorney’s commissions and costs of court. This suit is still pending and undetermined. The complainant alleges that he is unable to set off his claim for damages, growing out of the respondent’s neglect to properly cultivate the crops of pineapples, against said respondent in said action at law nor is he able to recoup his said damages in said action for the reason that his claim is for unliquidated damages and is in excess of respondent’s claim in said action at law. Prior to the institution of the present suit the complainant demanded of the respondent that it make and state an account with the complainant and that it pay the balance due thereon. The respondent refused to accede to this demand. It is alleged in the bill “that the giving of the aforesaid mortgage and promissory notes, the planting contract Exhibit ‘A’, the modification thereof, the taking over of the complainant’s pineapple fields by the respondent’s mortgagee, were all intended to be settled in a general accounting between the parties, and a court of equity, to avoid circuity of action, alone can do complete justice in the premises.” The complainant agrees and offers to pay in an accounting between himself and the respondent whatever amount may be due from him to it. The prayer of the bill is for an injunction restraining the respondent from prosecuting his action at law, for an accounting and for general relief.

The respondent demurred to the bill on several *706 grounds. We think all of the questions presented in the briefs and in the argument of counsel may be considered under the first ground of the demurrer. This ground is that “said amended bill of complaint does not state facts sufficient to entitle complainant in a court of equity to the relief prayed for, or any relief against this respondent.” The equity of the amended bill being thus challenged we must, determine whether it contains any allegation of facts which would authorize a court of equity to enjoin the action at law that was pending at the time the instant suit was brought and thus remove the controversy from a court of law to a court of equity. A court of equity will ordinarily not do this unless the party seeking the removal presents some reason sufficient in law or fact why his rights cannot be completely and adequately adjudicated in the law action. The mere existence of mutual demands between the parties is not alone sufficient. Courts of law are often called upon to adjudicate rights arising from such circumstances and are not at all inadequate for such purpose. Under well settled principles of equity jurisdiction to justify the substitution of a court of equity for a court of law on the ground of an accounting there must exist mutual accounts between the parties, or if the accounts are not mutual but only an account on one side, it must be so intricate and complicated that it cannot be adequately disentangled and clearly presented in an action at law or the party seeking an accounting in equity must be so ignorant of the items composing the account as to entitle him to a detailed disclosure in an answer to a bill in equity.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
29 Haw. 702, 1927 Haw. LEXIS 67, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gay-v-haiku-fruit-packing-co-haw-1927.