Gila Land & Water Co. v. Brown

181 P. 457, 20 Ariz. 400, 1919 Ariz. LEXIS 186
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedMay 21, 1919
DocketCivil No. 1658
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 181 P. 457 (Gila Land & Water Co. v. Brown) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gila Land & Water Co. v. Brown, 181 P. 457, 20 Ariz. 400, 1919 Ariz. LEXIS 186 (Ark. 1919).

Opinion

CUNNINGHAM, C. J.

(After Stating the Facts as Above). The appellant bases its right to recover the possession of the premises described in the complaint upon the failure of the defendants to pay rent for five days after the same became due and payable, as provided in a written lease theretofore existing between the plaintiff and the defendants. The plaintiff evidently relied upon paragraph 1552, Revised Statutes of Arizona of 1913, giving its right of action, and upon a violation of the terms of the lease as its right to reenter the leased premises for the nonpayment of said.rent or violation of said lease.

Under the evidence and the conceded facts, the lease involved in this case is evidenced by two separate papers, one [404]*404in form of a lease from Gila Land & Water Company to Brown & Page, signed only by L. A. Brown as president, and by W. G. Hubbard, as secretary of said corporation. The other paper is in form a partnership agreement between L. A. Brown and C. E. Page, by the terms of which Brown contributed the lease and Page agreed to contribute his time and skill as a farmer, etc. The terms of the lease which Brown agreed to contribute to the partnership stock are the same, with slight exceptions, as the terms set out in the lease unsigned by the lessees. The evidence is without conflict tending to show that the Gila Land & Water Company required Page to take L. A. Brown into a special partnership as a condition precedent to leasing this land. Brown was accepted as Page’s partner, so that the plaintiff would be assured of its rent. It looked to Brown for its rent, and he was looked upon as the responsible party.

Of course, this is an unlawful detainer action, arising from defendants’ alleged failure to pay rent as stipulated. The right to re-enter is denied, and hence the right of 'action occurs. Before the plaintiff can recover, in this kind of summary proceeding, he must allege and prove that the defendant is unlawfully holding the premises after all his rights under the lease have terminated. The exact amount of rent and the exact date the rent is payable must be determinable from,the evidence. Until the date upon which the rent becomes due is determined, either from the face of the lease or from evidence otherwise, and remains unpaid for five days, the statute (paragraph 1552, supra) gives no right of action for the possession.

The appellant assigns error in eleven separate paragraphs, and states as follows:

“The entire matter hinges upon the construction of the lease, and whether the appellant could be charged with the result of a shortage of water occasioned by acts, occurrences, and conditions beyond its control, and which it could not possibly have avoided.”

The “lease” — the paper signed by the Gila Land & Water Company — purports to lease 440 acres of land in Maricopa county, “together with all water from the Buckeye canal necessary to properly irrigate all crops to be grown on tho said premises,” to Brown & Page, copartners, “for the term of two years from the 1st day of February, 1917, for the [405]*405annual rental of eleven dollars per aere, to be paid on or before the 1st day of January, 1918, and the further payment of the sum of two thousand, seven hundred and eighteen dollars, to be paid as follows: One thousand dollars to be paid on or before the 1st day of July, 1917, and the balance, to wit, seventeen hundred and eighteen dollars, to be paid ón or before the 1st day of December, 1917.

“And it is further agreed that if any rent shall be. due and unpaid, or if default shall be made in any of the covenants herein contained, that it shall be lawful for the said party of the first part to re-enter said premises and remove all persons therefrom. And the said party of the second part does hereby covenant, promise, and agree to' pay the' said party of the first part the said rent in the manner hereinbefore specified. ...”

The articles of partnership between L. A. Brown and C. E. Page, of the terms of which the Gila Land & Water Company are chargeable with full knowledge, because, under the evidence, no lease would have been granted in the absence of a partnership satisfactory to the Gila Land & Water Company, are dated the twenty-sixth da.y of January, 1917, and recite that:

“Whereas, the said C. E. Page has heretofore entered into negotiations with L. A. Brown and W. C. Hubbard and James Ovens, joint owners of the real property hereinafter described, for the lease of said property; and whereas, by reason of the inability of the said C. E. Page to comply with the requirements of the said Brown, Hubbard and Ovens, said negotiations failed of success; and whereas, the said C. E. Page is desirous of securing a lease on said premises for the purpose of growing, among other things, a crop of cotton thereon; and whereas, the said L. A. Brown, by reason of his relations with the said Hubbard and Ovens, is able to secure advantageous terms of lease of said premises, and whereas, the said L. A. Brown, by reason of his business connections, is in a position to finance, and will finance when necessary, the partnership hereinafter formed:
“Now, therefore, the said parties above named have agreed, and do by these presents agree, to become partners together under the firm name of Brown & Page in the business of general farming, and their copartnership to commence on the date of the execution of this agreement and [406]*406to continue until the 1st day of February, 1919. And in consideration thereof the said L. A. Brown covenants and agrees with the said C. E. Page to procure in behalf of Brown & Page a lease from the owner or owners thereof, for a period of two years ending the 1st day of February, 1919, of the following described premises situated in Maricopa county, to wit. ...”

There follows a description in exact words and figures as contained in the said lease, supra. Following the description of the property is the following:

"At and for the annual rental of eleven dollars an acre on the following terms and conditions: The said rental to be paid on or before the 1st day of January of each year of said lease, beginning with the 1st day of January, 1918, and the further payment of the sum of two thousand seven hundred and eighteen dollars, to be paid as follows: one thousand dollars to be paid on or before the 1st day of July, 1917, and the balance, to wit, seventeen hundred- and eighteen dollars, to be paid on or before the 1st day of December, 1917.”

Thereafter follow stipulations pertaining to the partnership matters among themselves, but which are immaterial to the present inquiry. The parties to.be charged, L. A. Brown and C. E. Page, did not sign the formal lease, but they did sign the partnership agreement. The Gila Land & Water Company signed the lease, and, while it did not sign the partnership agreement, it required the identical partnership to be formed. Hence the Gila Land & Water Company is estopped in justice from requiring terms ! of lease other than such terms as are set forth in the partnership agreement. The plaintiff corporation had-a, right to re-enter and take possession of the leased premises for nonpayment of the rent for five days, under authority of paragraph 1552, supra, whether a clause to that effect was absent from the lease or not. The plaintiff, in its complaint, bases its right to re-enter upon defendants’ failure to pay rent, and their refusal to deliver possession.

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Bluebook (online)
181 P. 457, 20 Ariz. 400, 1919 Ariz. LEXIS 186, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gila-land-water-co-v-brown-ariz-1919.