Heavilon v. Heavilon

29 Ind. 509
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedMay 15, 1868
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 29 Ind. 509 (Heavilon v. Heavilon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Heavilon v. Heavilon, 29 Ind. 509 (Ind. 1868).

Opinion

Elliott, J.

This was a suit by Amos Heavilon against Taylor Heavilon, the appellant, for “money paid to the defendant’s use, work and labor performed, goods sold and delivered, and material furnished, in the sum of $1,208 19, and for the further sum of $988 06, for money paid to the defendant’s use, being one-half of the amount of a joint note executed by the plaintiff and defendant to one John W. Stewart, for which they were equally liable, the whole of which was paid by the plaintiff.” The defendant filed an answer of six paragraphs, the fourth and sixth of which only need to be noticed here. The fourth is a set-off’ for goods, wares, merchandise and other property sold and delivered to the plaintiff, money paid to the plaintiff’s use, &c. This paragraph was accompanied by a bill of particulars, an item of which is as follows: “ 1864, July 15. To 900 bushels wheat, at $2 per bushel, $1,800.” The sixth paragraph alleges that on the 16th of January; 1864, the plaintiff’ sold, and conveyed by deed of warranty, a farm therein described, in Clinton county, on which the plaintiff then resided, and on which there was then growing thirty-five acres of wheat, which was included in said deed; that afterwards, on the 1st of July, 1864, the plaintiff cut, threshed, carried away and converted the whole of said wheat to his own use, being 900 bushels, of the value of $1,800, which he offers to set off, &c. The plaintiff replied in ten paragraphs, demurrers to the ninth and tenth of which [511]*511were filed and overruled. The issues were tried by a jury. Verdict, for the plaintiff. A motion for a new trial was then made, which the court overruled, and rendered judgment on theverdict.

Overruling the demurrers to the ninth an d tenth paragraphs of the plaintiff’s reply is the first error assigned, and presents the principal question in controversy. The ninth paragraph is in reply to the fourth and sixth paragraphs of the answer before referred to, and alleges, in substance, that the plaintiff, being the owner of a valuable tract of farming land in Clinton county, on the 15th day of January, 1864, bargained and sold the same, by parol contract, to the defendant, in consideration of other lands sold by the defendant to the plaintiff; that as a part of said contract of sale, it was agreed between the parties that the plaintiff should and did reserve and hold, as his own property, the thirty-five acres of wheat then growing on said land, being the same wheat referred to in the fourth and sixth paragraphs of the defendant’s answer, with the right to cut and carry the same away; that on the day next succeeding the making of said contract, and in pursuance thereof, the plaintiff and defendant executed, each to the other, a deed of conveyance for the land sold by them respectively; that in the deed so executed by the plaintiff to the defendant, no reservation was made of said wheat, but that the plaintiff in the month of June next following, in pursuance of said contract, and in the execution thereof, and by the agreement and with the consent of the defendant thereto, did cut and remove said crop of wheat, and appropriate the same to his own use, the said defendant at the time well knowing that the same was being done under said original parol contract of sale, and acquiescing therein. The tenth paragraph of the reply alleges that on the 15th day of January, 1864, the plaintiff' and defendant, each being the owner of certain lands, made a verbal contract for the exchange thereof, by which it was agreed, as a part of the consideration which the plaintiff was to receive for his land, [512]*512that he should continue to occupy and use á certain part thereof, to-wit, the whole of the building and necessary surrounding yards on the premises, including garden, stable or barn lot, and two certain fields containing about thirty-five acres, on which there was a growing crop of wheat, which, by said agreement, the plaintiff' Was to' have the right to cut and carry away as his own property; that said user and occupancy of said premises were to, and did, continue until the first day of October, then next following; that in pursuance of said agreement, said parties exchanged deeds for said lands on the 16th day of January, 1864, without making any memorandum in writing of said stipulations, but the plaintiff continued to retain the possession of said fields, and cut and carried away said wheat, in pursuance of said contract, with the full knowledge and consent of the defendant that it was being so done, which is the same wheat mentioned in the fourth and sixth paragraphs of the defendant’s answer.

"We think the replies were good. It is a well settled principle of law that, as between vendor and purchaser, the growing crop goes with the land and belongs to the purchaser. Uor is it controverted that the deed from the plaintiff to the defendant, in its legal effect, prima facie, covered the wheat then growing on the land. This- is upon the technical legal principle that until the crop is severed, it forms a part of the realty., Upon these principles, and the additional one that parol evidence is inadmissible to alter, qualify or explain a deed or other written instrument, which, as a genéral rule, is equally well settled, the appellant insists upon the invalidity of the replies. But we maintain their validity on different grounds, which wé conceive are not in conflict with the principles stated.

It was held in Allen v. Lee, 1 Ind. 58, that a general covenant of warranty does not extend to such incumbrances as were kno\vn to the purchaser at the time of making the contract, and which he agreed to discharge, in addition to [513]*513the consideration stated in the deed, and that parol evidence was admissible to prove such agreement.

That case was again recognized as authority, and followed by this court, in the recent case of Pitman v. Conner, 27 Ind. 337, in which Pitman sued Conner for a breach of covenant against incumbrances in a deed executed by the latter to the former. At the time of the conveyance, there was an outstanding mortgage on the land conveyed, in favor of one Clarke, which Pitman subsequently paid off. Conner answered, that before and at the time of the conveyance,' Pitman agreed, as a part of the consideration for the sale and conveyance of the property, to discharge said mortgage. It was held that the answer was good, and might be proved by parol evidence.

The same 'principle applies in the case before us, or at least to the tenth paragraph of the reply, in which it is averred that at the time of the sale or exchange of lands it ' was agreed between the parties that the plaintiff' should have the right to cut and carry away the wheat as a part of the consideration to be paid him for the land. It is well settled that a vendor, in a suit for the purfthase money, may prove, by parol evidence, the amount thereof, the terms of payment and its non-payment, notwithstanding the receipt of the purchase money may be acknowledged in the deed.

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Bluebook (online)
29 Ind. 509, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/heavilon-v-heavilon-ind-1868.