Jaco v. W. A. Nash & Co.

236 S.W. 235, 1921 Tex. App. LEXIS 1293
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 17, 1921
DocketNo. 8608.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 236 S.W. 235 (Jaco v. W. A. Nash & Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jaco v. W. A. Nash & Co., 236 S.W. 235, 1921 Tex. App. LEXIS 1293 (Tex. Ct. App. 1921).

Opinion

HAMILTON, J.

Appellee sued two parties named, respectively, Will Vinson and Thomas Bennett, jointly with appellant, and recovered the judgment from which this appeal is prosecuted.

It was alleged that on the 6th day of January Vinson and Bennett executed a mortgage to appellee upon one-half of all the cotton, cotton seed, and other products raised in the year 1920 on the farm of Jaco in Kaufman county by Vinson and Bennett, and that the mortgage was executed for the purpose of securing appellee by such chattel mortgage for the payment of an indebtedness on the same day agreed upon by appellee and Vinson and Bennett, which was to accrue during the year 1920 as a result of appellee supplying articles of merchandise to the said Vinson and Bennett while they were farming on appellant’s plantation. It appears from the chattel mortgage, which is made a part of the petition, that Vinson and Bennett were share croppers on Jaco’s farm, and it is alleged on behalf of appellee that after the agreement had been made between appellee and Vinson and Bennett, and after the mortgage had been executed as above stated, appellant agreed with appel-lee that if the latter would supply Vinson and Bennett during the year 1920 appellant would not supply them any dry goods or other supplies, nor supply them with any money, and that, acting under this agreement, appellee sold articles to Vinson and Bennett on credit amounting to the sum of $501.77. It was further alleged that the property alleged to have been mortgaged to appellee was converted by appellant, Jaco, as against appellee. There was a prayer for the amount of the debt, for foreclosure of the mortgage upon all the cotton and cotton seed .raised by Vinson and Bennett during the year 1920, and that such foreclosure of the mortgage lien be made against Bennett and Vinson and Jaco; and there was a prayer for general relief, both in law and in equity.

Appellant' answered the petition by general and special exceptions, and further answered, alleging that Vinson and Bennett were his tenants, and resided upon and cultivated his land during the year 1920; that the tenants were share croppers, and worked the land on the halves; that during the year he supplied them with money and other necessaries for the cultivation and harvesting of the crop. The amount of the indebtedness thus accruing to him against Vinson and Bennett was alleged, and the allegation was made that under the contract with these parties he was entitled to one-half of all cotton and other products raised by them over and above his accounts as alleged. He asserted a landlord’s lien on the crops for the rents and advances alleged to have .been made by him, and alleged that the landlord’s lien was superior to any mortgage held by appellee, and pleaded that he was entitled to a foreclosure of his landlord’s lien against appellee and Vinson and Bennett for the rents and advances due and unpaid. He specially denied that he at any time agreed with appellee that he would not advance supplies to Vinson and Bennett while they were tenants on his farm during the year 1920, and denied all other allegations of the petition. He prayed for judgment against Vinson and Bennett for the amount of rents and advances alleged by him to be due, and for a foreclosure of his landlord’s lien against Vinson and Bennett and W. A. Nash & Co.

The case was tried before the court without a jury, and is before us without any special findings of fact or conclusions of law.

The facts show without dispute that Bennett and Vinson, who seem to have been negro occupants of appellant’s farm in the year 1920, made an agreement with appel-lee on the 6th day of January of that year to the effect that appellee should supply them with merchandise, and that the mortgage was executed in pursuance of this agreement, for the purpose of securing the payment of the indebtedness resulting from *237 supplies being thus advanced to them by ap-pellee, which was a mercantile concern in Kaufman, Tex. The record conclusively reflects the further fact that appellant was not a party to the agreement at the time it was made. There was testimony on behalf of appellee to the effect that the understanding and agreement between appellee, on the one part, and Vinson and Bennett on the other, for the advancing of merchandise and supplies, was mentioned to appellant about the 1st day of February, 1920, and that he then agreed that he “would not let Thomas Bennett and Willie Vinson owe him anything” during the year 1920, and that he told a representative of W. A. Nash & Co. “to furnish them.” This was denied by appellant, who stated that the only conversation he ever had with the representative of appellee about the matter was after the 6th day of March, when he told W. A. Nash, a member of the firm of Nash & Co., that he “guessed” it would be all right for the firm to sell to Vinson and Bennett “if he did not let them have more than they could pay for.” He testified that this statement was made in response to a statement by Mr. Nash to the effect that Vinson and Bennett had made arrangements to trade with him, and inquired if it were all right.

[1] If the record were in such condition that we could say Vinson and Bennett were tenants on Jaco’s farm during the year 1920, rather than what is known as “share croppers,” then we are inclined to the opinion that the evidence is such that the trial court might have found that Jaco waived his preference landlord’s lien in favor of W. A. Nash & Co., so that the judgment in this respect could be upheld, but the record presented to us does not disclose any evidence reflecting the contractual relations between Vinson and Bennett and Jaco to be those which characterize in law the relation of landlord and tenant. While the contract might be such as to create the relation of landlord and tenant notwithstanding the fact that the land was to be cultivated on the halves, yet, a contract between a landowner and another person to cultivate land on the halves, the former supplying teams, tools, etc., and the latter merely doing the labor, ordinarily is not a contract from which arises the relation of landlord and tenant, and it has been held that, where there is no proof of some specific understanding to the contrary, an agreement between the parties to share the crops on such basis will be held to render the parties tenants in common as to the crop. That is, no proof of the actual contract appearing, and the record disclosing that the landowner is to supply teams, tools, etc., while the other party is to do the labor of planting and harvesting, the products to be equally divided when harvested, then it will be presumed that the contract did not create the relation of landlord and tenant, but that the parties are tenants in common in the crops. But in this case no proof appears to the effect that Jaco was to supply teams, tools, etc., and that the other parties were to do the labor. In the pleadings and proof, Bennett and Vinson are called tenants, and are also said to be working on the halves.

[2] We think it well settled in this state that a contract by the terms of which one of the parties supplies the land, teams, implements, etc., and the other supplies the labor, under an agreement to share the crops produced, equally, is not an ordinary rental contract creating the relation of landlord and tenant between the parties.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
236 S.W. 235, 1921 Tex. App. LEXIS 1293, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jaco-v-w-a-nash-co-texapp-1921.