Kelly v. Easton

207 P. 129, 35 Idaho 340, 26 A.L.R. 1042, 1922 Ida. LEXIS 62
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedApril 12, 1922
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 207 P. 129 (Kelly v. Easton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kelly v. Easton, 207 P. 129, 35 Idaho 340, 26 A.L.R. 1042, 1922 Ida. LEXIS 62 (Idaho 1922).

Opinion

BUDGE, J.

This action was brought by appellant for trespass to real property.

From the record it appears that appellant leased from the Ranch Company, in 1916, eighty acres of land, which was a portion of a tract owned by the company. The entire tract was inclosed with a legal fence, but there was no division fence between the premises leased to appellant and the balance of the tract. Appellant continued in the occupancy of the leased premises until the fall of 1919, holding over under his lease. About September 25, 1919, respondents Hortense A. Ford and E. D. Ford, over appellant’s protest, turned into the inclosed tract ten horses and eleven head of cattle owned by them and the Ranch Company, subject to a mort[343]*343gage held by respondent Easton. Respondents permitted this livestock to range over and upon the leased premises, grazing upon, destroying and trampling down grain growing thereon, until seized and impounded by appellant on November 2, 1919, and held by him for 103 days thereafter.

Appellant prayed for judgment against respondents in the sum of $600, together with costs and the expense of care and keeping of the livestock while impounded by him, that the stock be sold at public sale and the proceeds contributed towards the payment of the judgment and costs, accrued and accruing, and for a deficiency judgment. The cause was tried to the court and a jury. The jury found for appellant in the sum of $370 for his damages, and allowed him 20 cents per day per head for the care and feeding of the stock while in his possession. The court rendered judgment for $370 in favor of appellant, but refused to allow him any lien upon the stock or any compensation for the care and keeping thereof while in his custody.

This appeal is from that portion of the judgment refusing to allow appellant any lien upon or compensation for the care and keeping of the stock while impounded. In his assignments of error, appellant attacks the action of the court in denying him a lien upon the distrained stock for his damages, in denying him a lien for the expense of care and keeping said stock, and in refusing to give him judgment for any sum for the care and beeping of the stock while distrained.

The right of distress damage feasant existed under the common law, and is applicable to this state in so far as it is not repugnant to or inconsistent with our constitution and laws. C. S., sec. 9460, provides that: “The common law of England so far as it is not repugnant to or inconsistent with the constitution or laws of the United States, in all cases not provided for in these compiled laws, is the rule of action in all courts of this state.”

As was held in Rust v. Low, 6 Mass. 90, at 97: “Every person, then, may distrain cattle doing damage on his close, or maintain trespass against the owner of the cattle, unless [344]*344the owner can protect himself by the provisions of the statute, or by a written agreement, to which the parties to the suit are parties or privies, or by prescription.”

The commón-law rule that every man must confine his own cattle to his own land does not obtain in this state (Johnson v. Oregon Short Line Ry. Co., 7 Ida. 355, 63 Pac. 112, 53 L. R. A. 744), and in Strong v. Brown, 26 Ida. 1, Ann. Cas. 1916E, 482, 140 Pac. 773, 52 L. R. A., N. S., 140, it is held that under our statute (C. S., c. 82), if a land owner fails to fence out cattle lawfully at large, he may not recover for loss caused by such livestock straying upon his uninclosed land. The statute would seem, however, to have reference to land owners as between themselves and the public, and is not applicable to the relation existing between a landlord and tenant, in the absence of a specific agreement to the contrary.

The correct rule in this regard was, we think, announced in Henly v. Neal, 21 Tenn. (2 Humph.) 551, that: “When one man rents to another a given portion of a -field in one inelosure, .... he is prohibited from doing anything, or so using the remainder of the field, as to defeat the very object for -which the tenant had rented the land, and, if he put his stock into the inclosure so as to cause injury to the tenant, he is liable to the latter for the damages. ’ ’

If the landlord interrupt the enjoyment of the leased premises, by permitting his cattle to enter and destroy the tenant’s crop, he should be liable for all damages occasioned by such trespass, for which the tenant may distrain the cattle damage feasant or resort to an action at law.

The questions then arise as to what constitutes distress damage feasant, whether the distrainer has or is entitled to an enforceable lien upon the distrained beasts for the damage caused by the trespass and for the expense of their ca,re and keeping, if he is entitled to recover for such expense.

A person finding the animals of another trespassing on his • grounds damage feasant may, by the rules of the common law, distrain them until satisfaction for the damage doné shall be made by the owner of the animals. (2 Am. & Eng.. [345]*345Ency. of Law, 2d ed., p. 358; 1 Cooley on Torts, 3d ed., 77; 3 C. J., Animals, see. 407, p. 135.) As was said in Bonner v. DeLoach, 78 Ga. 50, 2 S. E. 546: “The provisions of the common law (Broom’s Commentaries, 781, 782) regulating this matter, render the defendant answerable ‘for not only his own trespass, but that of his cattle also; and if, by his negligent keeping, they stray upon the land of another (and much more if he prompts or drives them on), and they there tread down his neighbor’s herbage, and spoil his corn or his trees, this is a trespass for which the owner must answer in damages; and the law gives the party injured a double remedy in this case, by permitting him to distrain the cattle thus damage feasant .... till the owner shall make him satisfaction, or else by leaving him to the common remedy in foro contentioso by action, wherein, if any un, warrantable acts of the defendant or his beasts in coming upon the land be proved, it is an act of trespass for which the plaintiff must recover some damages; such, however, as the jury shall think proper to assess.’ ”

See, also, 3 Blackstone Com. 208, 211; 2 Jones’ Blackstone, see. 277, p. 1784; 2 Cooley’s Blackstone, 4th ed., 1009; San Francisco & W. Ry. Co. v. Geiger, 21 Fla. 669, at 681, 58 Am. Rep. 697.

The common law permitted a land owner to be his own avenger, or to minister redress to himself by distraining another’s cattle damage feasant. (3 Blackstone Com. 7; Mosher v. Jewett, 63 Me. 84, 88; Cook v. Gregg, 46 N. Y. 439.) By the common law, one citizen may distrain the cattle of another, damage feasant on the soil of the former. (Jarman v. Patterson, 23 Ky. (7 T. B. Mon.) 644, at 647.) This right existed at common law and was not introduced by statute (Hamlin v. Mack, 33 Mich. 102, at 105), but the matter is now regulated by statutory enactments in the several states, providing for the seizure and impounding of cattle taken damage feasant, and for their sale. (Note, 8 Am. St. 271.)

In Hamlin v. Mack, supra, it is said: “ .... the plaintiff personally took the beast when trespassing on his land, [346]*346and confined it in his bam there. Before this act the beast in contemplation of law was in the owner’s possession, but the .seizure of it damage feasant,

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Marty v. State
786 P.2d 524 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1989)
Easley v. Lee
721 P.2d 215 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1986)
Maguire v. Yanke
590 P.2d 85 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1978)
SCH. DIST. NO. 351 ONEIDA CTY v. Oneida Ed. Ass'n
567 P.2d 830 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1977)
West v. Brenner
396 P.2d 115 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1964)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
207 P. 129, 35 Idaho 340, 26 A.L.R. 1042, 1922 Ida. LEXIS 62, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kelly-v-easton-idaho-1922.