Henry v. Shields

19 Haw. 302
CourtHawaii Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 11, 1909
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 19 Haw. 302 (Henry v. Shields) 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
Henry v. Shields, 19 Haw. 302 (haw 1909).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT BY

HARTWELL, C. J.

Writs of execution in favor of the defendants Theo. H. Davies & Co. and Walter C. Shields upon judgments for $1236.-99 and $1966.75, obtained by them respectively against the defendant Ah Ping, having been issued to. the high sheriff, and his deputy having levied upon 900 bags of sugar in the plantation warehouse at Kipahulu, Maui, and removed the sugar to Honolulu, the sugar company gave notice to the officers that the sugar was its sole property and demanded its immediate surrender and delivery to its agent H. TTackfeld & Co. Thereupon the officers applied for interpleader and upon an order to file their claims or relinquishment of them the sugar company filed its claim, the judgment creditors filed their denial of it and Ah Ping his disclaimer. The judge heard the case without a jury and decided in favor of the judgment creditors, the sugar company excepting to his ruling excluding evidence and to the judgment entered upon the decision. By agreement the sugar was sold for $62 a ton and the proceeds' held by the high sheriff on deposit with Bishop & Co. to await final determination of the claimants’ right thereto or to any part thereof.

The claim filed by the Kipahulu Sugar Co. was that it is and for many years has been owner and lessee of certain lands at Kipahulu, Maui, with buildings, machinery, tools and livestock comprising the Kipahulu sugar plantation and mill and has operated the plantation and mill for cultivation of sugar cane and manufacture of the same into sugar; that in Decern[304]*304ber 1906 a preliminary agreement was entered into with Ah P’ing that he should be given the opportunity to engage in the enterprise of raising sugar eane and manufacturing it into sugar upon the company’s lands, and that March 12, 1901, the agreement was reduced to writing and signed by the company, Ah Ping and H. Hackfeld & Co.; that since December 15, 1906, All Ping has been engaged in that enterprise using the buildings, tools, machinery and livestock before used and operated by the company ás its sugar plantation and miíl; that the cane from which the sugar levied upon was grown upon those lands; that the company never conveyed or transferred to Ah Ping the cane or sugar and is and was its sole owner, Ah Ping having no interest in it save only in accordance with the terms of the written contract by which he is entitled to be paid $30 for each 2000 pounds of sugar of the crop of 1908 delivered f. o. b. at the company’s wharf at Kipahulu; that he is not entitled to the $30 a ton but is to be given credit on account of advances made to him on the contract, the final settlement to be at its termination or when the crop of 1909 shall have been fully manufactured; that the company has guaranteed payment of all advances by IT. ITackfeld & Co. for cultivation and manufacture of sugar under the written agneement.

It is contended by the judgment creditors, Shields and Theo. H. Davies & Co., that since by the terms of the written agreement all growing crops upon the lands of the sugar company were to become the property of Ah Ping he became owner of the sugar made therefrom and that if the agreement required by implication its delivery by him to the company for $30 a ton this was merely a contractual obligation not enforceable otherwise than by an action for damages, the company having relied solely upon its confidence in his observance of the possibly implied agreement to deliver the sugar to it.

The sugar company denies that the legal effect of the agreement, taken as a whole, was to give Ah Ping the ownership of [305]*305the crops or the sugar and claims that if there were ambiguity or uncertainty in its terms it ought to have been allowed to show the preliminary oral agreement and the understanding of the parties as to the written agreement. The company offered evidence, which was not admitted, that the oral agreement was that Ah Ping should be given an opportunity to cultivate sugar cane on the company’s lands and make sugar from it for the sole compensation of a percentage by a tonnage rate and have no interest in the sugar or in the land and that he was not a tenant of the company in any sense.

Freeman v. Bartlett, 47 N. J. L. 33; Gill Mfg. Co. v. Hurd. 18 Fed. 673; Jennings v. Whitehead & Atherton Machine Co.. 138 Mass. 594, are cited in support of the exception to the refusal to admit this evidence.

The first case was an action on an agreement under which the defendant occupied the plaintiff’s hotel, which the plaintiff contended was completely expressed in a certain writing, while the defendant insisted that part of it was verbal and that the writing did not express the whole agreement. The court held that a certain writing, not signed by the parties, which was drawn by the plaintiff and handed to the defendant who interlined and returned it to the plaintiff, was admissible in evidence as “a transaction constituting part of the negotiation out of which the contract emerged. It was part of the res gestae.” It appeared, however, that all that the interlined paper contained “was not questioned at the trial” and was stated to the jury by the plaintiff with the paper before him as a memorandum, so that “there was no room for mistake.” The court said “upon the point decided, namely, whether this writing contained the entire agreement between the parties, it is obvious that the writing itself could have thrown no additional light. The rule is well settled that when the plaintiff in error has sustained no injury he cannot rely upon a technical mistake on the part of the court as a ground for reversing the judgment.” The case is not [306]*306authority for the admissibility of evidence of preliminary negotiations.

The second case was an action for damages for non-acceptance of 100 box cars made for the defendant under contract to pay for each $580 on delivery. The defendant in his answer denied making the contract; averred that while there were, negotiations looking towards a possible contract if they could agree upon its terms they did not ripen into an agreement; that in the negotiations the defendant informed the plaintiff that if a contract were made he should require a warranty of the cars; that the warranty was never given, and that shortly after the negotiations and before the plaintiff had done 'any work the defendant gave him notice not to build any for him. The plaintiff denied that the defendant in the negotiations required the warranty. The court instructed the jury: “In determining what the contract was the rule is to consider the negotiations passing between the parties. Their conversation in relation to it before completed, if the same is understood by the parties, shall be incorporated in the contract even though such negotiations are not repeated at the time of its completion, and such previous understanding would constitute a part of it unless changed or executed at the time it may be so completed.” The case shows no contract other than resulted from the negotiations, hence it has no bearing upon the question now presented.

In Jennings v. Whitehead & Atherton Machine Co. the plaintiff had made a written contract with the firm of Whitehead & Atherton to give his undivided influence in favor of machinery made by the defendant who promised to pay him five per cent, on sales of machinery in Fall River. The plaintiff declared upon the contract and also upon an account annexed but relied upon an oral contract adopting the written agreement.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
19 Haw. 302, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/henry-v-shields-haw-1909.