Green v. Lanier

52 Tenn. 662
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedJune 27, 1871
StatusPublished

This text of 52 Tenn. 662 (Green v. Lanier) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Green v. Lanier, 52 Tenn. 662 (Tenn. 1871).

Opinion

NelsON, J.,

delivered the opinion of the Court.

This case is here stated by its original title, although K. 13. Lanier is not before this Court. It arose upon the following facts: On the 15th of December, 1857, an agreement in writing was entered into between the complainant and K. B. Lanier, by which the latter stipulated to put up and run a steam saw-mill at his own expense on the land of the former near Hatchie River. The complainant agreed to furnish logs at the mill, to suppply the wood for running the same, the slabs from saw-mill logs to be used for wood as far as they would go, and it was agreed that, after the logs were sawed into plank and removed out of the mill by said Lanier, the said parties were to be equal owners, and to bear, jointly and equally, the expense of piling the same and removing it to market, and, when sold, each was to have one-lialf of the net proceeds. The contract was* to continue five years,' and contains other stipulations not material [664]*664to be here stated. Tbe mill was put up and operated under tbis contract, and a parol agreement as to its modification made in December, 1859, until tbe 12tb January, 1861, when an agreement in writing was entered into between J. L. Green, K. B. Lanier, and W. B. Lanier, by which said Green sold to said Lanier six yoke of oxen and certain other property connected with or necessary to the prosecution of the business, and the right to cut any timber on said Green’s land, with the exception of oak timber; in consideration whereof, the parties of the second part agreed to pay and deliver to said Green 280,000 feet of sound, merchantable poplar lumber, in the city of Memphis, at different times — the 94,000 feet last mentioned in the contract to be delivered within twenty-four months. Said agreement also contains certain provisions as to running Green’s grist-mill and as to not assigning the contract. The recent civil war having commenced, the complainant executed an instrument of writing, as follows:

As the Messrs. Lanier think it best, under existing circumstances, to suspend operating the sawmill,v I hereby consent and agree to extend the time specified in the foregoing contract for the same length of time their mill operations may remain so suspended; and I am not bound to furnish the balance of the four hundred barrels of corn until they commence operating the mill. The time above referred to included their two notes for the two last payments of lumber. April 29, 1861. Jas. L. GkeeN.”

On the 19th August, 1861, the complainant executed [665]*665another instrument of writing, referring to his said contract with Iv. B. and W. B. Lanier, and agreed therein that they might take and saw np, for the use of the army at Fort Pillow, all the oak timber which had been blown down by storms, they paying him ten per cent, of the amount for which they might sell the lumber made out of the same. It is stated in said last named agreement that it was not to affect in any way the agreement theretofore entered into in regard to the temporary suspension of operating the saw-mill.

Numerous dealings and transactions arose out of these agreements; and the parties failing to make a settlement, this bill was filed 25th March, 1862, in the Chancery Court of Lauderdale county, against K. B. Lanier, L. B. Lanier, and W. B. Lanier, charging that defendants were partners in said contracts, and that a large balance was due to complainant, and praying for an account. An attachment was sued out and levied, as alleged, partly by I. G. Barfield, Sheriff, and in part by J. T. Green, a special Deputy Sheriff, on seven slaves, valued at six thousand dollars, and other personal property of 'K. B. Lanier; and on the 1st April, 1862, K. B. Lanier and J. C. Farrar executed what is styled in the record “a replevy bond,” in the penal sum of twelve thousand dollars, for the delivery of said property to the Clerk and Master, or any other person the Court might order. The attachment and bond do not appear to have been regularly returned; but, on the 22d November, 1866, a statement in writing was made upon each by F. Barfield, administrator of Ira G. Barfield, deceased, to the effect [666]*666that said papers were found by him on the preceding day among the papers of the deceased Sheriff, and returned by the administrator to T. B. Carson, Clerk and Master.

In the progress of the cause, the Clerk and Master was appointed a receiver to collect the debts due complainant and defendant; and at the November Term, 1867, -a decree was pronounced, by consent, directing him to “sell the mill, engine, boiler, machinery, etc., and also to take and state an account between complainant and defendant, K. B. Lanier, and also between the other defendants and complainant, if there is any evidence of an account between them.” No principles or facts were adjudicated in the decree, and no instructions given to the Master as to the mode of taking the account; but it was agreed that he should report “as to what contracts had been broken by either of the parties, or any of them, and what- damage, if any, the opposite party has suffered from said breaches; that the defendants were not to be precluded, by the order, from making any. defense at the hearing which they could have made at the date of the order, and that all questions were reserved until after the coming’ in of the report.”

The Master made a sale of the personal property, which was duly confirmed, and on the 1st June, 1868, filed his report of the account, to which numerous exceptions were filed, under leave from the Court, in behalf of defendants.

In the progress of the cause and upon proper applications, the defendants, Kenneth B. and Lovick B. [667]*667Lanier, were permitted to file amended answers, in which they pleaded, and afterward established by proof, that they had each received a final discharge in bankruptcy, from the District Court of the United States for the District of West Tennessee — the certificate of the former, showing that he was discharged from all debts and claims provable under the Bankrupt Act, that existed on the 30th May, 1868'; and that of the latter, showing that he was, in like manner, discharged from all debts and claims against him that existed on the 27th November, 1867. The complainant filed an amended and supplemental bill, and W. Y. Cerode, the assignee in bankruptcy, was regularly brought before the Court as an additional defendant.

At the November Term, 1870, the cause was finally heard. Some of the exceptions wfere sustained; others were disallowed; the account recommitted; an instanter report made, and a decree pronounced in favor of the complainant, declaring that K. B. Lanier is indebted to him in the sum of $2,670.48; that K. B. and W. B. Lanier are indebted to him in the sum of $4,177.44; that no decree can be pronounced against K. B. Lanier because of his discharge in bankruptcy, but that the Master should pay over to complainant the funds in Court, amounting to $605; that complainant recover of J. C. Farrar, the security of K. B. Lanier in the replevy bond, the residue of $2,065.48, and of W. B. Lanier and said Farrar, the security of K. B. Lanier in the replevy bond, the sum of $3,934.52, part of said sum of $4,177.44, and of K. B. and W [668]*668B. Lanier the sum of $203.22, the balance of said debt.

From said decree the defendants, W. B. Lanier, K. B. Lanier and J. C. Farrar, prayed an appeal to this Court, but as no decree was pronounced against K. B. Lanier, his appeal will be dismissed. It does not appear that W.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
52 Tenn. 662, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/green-v-lanier-tenn-1871.