La Grande Nat. Bank v. Oliver

175 P. 434, 90 Or. 115, 1918 Ore. LEXIS 182
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 15, 1918
StatusPublished

This text of 175 P. 434 (La Grande Nat. Bank v. Oliver) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
La Grande Nat. Bank v. Oliver, 175 P. 434, 90 Or. 115, 1918 Ore. LEXIS 182 (Or. 1918).

Opinion

JOHNS, J.

On a former appeal, in an opinion by Mr. Justice Burnett, this court held that the facts alleged in the answer constituted a valid defense and counterclaim to plaintiff’s cause of action: La Grande Nat. Bank v. Oliver, 84 Or. 582 (165 Pac. 682), and the question is now presented as to whether the proof sustains such allegations. It is undisputed that the defendant was the owner of, and held the record title to, 760 acres of agricultural land in Union County, Oregon, known as the E. W. Oliver farm; that on October 1, 1909, he leased the farm to Frank Cullen for a period of seven years from that date, at an agreed annual cash rental and that the lease provided that the rental should be “payable on the first day of October of each year respectively, out of the first [119]*119moneys received for said year’s crops, the said E. "W. Oliver to hold a lien upon said crop until such rent is paid, said yearly rentals being evidenced by seven promissory notes of even date herewith. ’ ’

The lease was executed by both parties and duly witnessed, but was never acknowledged and was not filed or indexed as a lease or chattel mortgage, although it was filed and recorded in the office of the county clerk of Union County on October 4, 1909, at page 588 of Book C of what are known as “Miscellaneous Records.” It is also undisputed that on March 24, 1911, Frank Cullen, the lessee, executed to the plaintiff his certain chattel mortgage upon the “growing crop of wheat now sown and growing and to be sown and grown in the spring of 1911, on the farm of Lige Oliver, Turner Oliver and John Smith, situate in the county of Union,” to secure one note of $1,500 and five notes of $200 each, all payable six months after date: that said mortgage was duly executed, witnessed and acknowledged, and was duly filed and recorded as such; that on and between August 4 and September 13.1911, Grande Ronde Grain Company issued to Cullen its certain warehouse receipts, and that on October 6.1911, in exchange therefor that company gave to the plaintiff its certain check for $5,328.25, which was paid.

The real controversy is over the legal force and effect to be given the clause in the lease by which Oliver was “to hold a lien upon said crop until such rent” should be paid, and whether the plaintiff received the lease and the Cullen notes from Oliver for collection and had knowledge of the terms of the lease at the time it took its chattel mortgage from Cullen.

The court gave the following instructions:

“1. I instruct you, gentlemen of the jury, that if you find from the evidence that the defendant Oliver had [120]*120entered into a lease of his land to Cullen, by the terms of which lease he was given a first lien upon the crops to be raised upon the land — and the meaning of the term lien, as used herein, I will hereinafter explain to you — for the payment of the rent thereof, and Oliver placed the lease, together with the notes provided for therein for the rent, with the plaintiff for collection, and informed the bank of the fact that he had and held a first lien upon all of the grain that should be raised upon the leased premises for the years 1910 and 1911 by virtue of the lease to secure the payment of the two promissory notes described in the answer, and informed the bank that the notes were given for the rent of the leased premises; and if you further find from the evidence that the bank accepted promissory notes and the lease with the full knowledge at that time that the defendant Oliver by the terms of the lease had and held a first lien upon all grain that should be raised upon said real property to secure the payment of the notes, and that the bank then and there promised and agreed to and with Oliver that it would use reasonable diligence to collect the promissory notes from Cullen in pursuance of said lease; and if you find from the evidence that the bank so received the notes and the lease for the purpose of collecting the same from said Cullen out of the grain that was raised on the premises during the crop year of 1911, with full knowledge and notice that Oliver by the terms of the lease had a first lien upon the grain so to be raised upon the premises but thereafter took a chattel mortgage on the grain in its favor to secure the payment of a large sum of money which Cullen owed and would owe it, as is alleged in the answer of the defendant, then, in that event, gentlemen of the jury, I charge you as a matter of law that the lien of the defendant Oliver as set forth in said lease would be prior and superior to the lien and claim of the plaintiff bank arising out of its said chattel mortgage or its lien for furnishing funds.
‘ ‘ 2. The lien of defendant Oliver is what is known in law as an equitable lien. It is a right of a special nature, over the thing, which epnstitutes a charge or [121]*121incumbrance upon the thing, so that the very thing itself may be proceeded against in an equitable suit and may be sold under a judicial decree and its proceeds applied hpon the demand of the person in whose favor the lien exists. This lien is created by the contract of the parties, in this case E. W. Oliver and Frank Cullen, whereby in this contract an intention is sufficiently indicated to make some particular property a security for a debt or other obligation, thereby creating an equitable lien upon the property so indicated; and if the transaction resolves itself into such security, whatever may be its form, it is in law designated and constitutes in equity a lien.
“3. If you find from the evidence that the plaintiff bank was fully aware of Oliver’s lien upon the grain, and which grain was afterwards included in its own chattel mortgage, and you further find that the plaintiff bank with this knowledge had and received the money from the sale of the grain, the defendant would be entitled to follow it as far as he could trace it,- and has a right to recover for such substituted property, if such you find from the evidence to be, it having been converted into money, and to „ apply, to the extent of his lien on the crop, on the grain, the cash so derived from the sale of said grain, if so traced, for the reason that in such cases the law implies a promise, or, in other words, a contract on the part of the recipient of money under such circumstances as indicated to you, to pay it to the one to whom it justly belongs; in other words, the money derived from the crop which was impressed by defendant Oliver’s lien to the extent of his incumbrance created by the lease.
“á. Só that, if you find from the evidence that the bank, as is alleged in defendant’s answer, received from Cullen and from the Grande Ronde Grain Company as the proceeds of the sales of the grain grown on said leased premises the sum as set forth by defendant’s answer, and that when the plaintiff bank so received that amount it well knew it was the proceeds of the grain so raised, and that the bank further knew that Oliver had a lien for the payment of the two notes, then, in that event, the defendant, would be entitled [122]*122to realize upon his counterclaim and would be entitled to a verdict at your hands.
“5.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
175 P. 434, 90 Or. 115, 1918 Ore. LEXIS 182, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/la-grande-nat-bank-v-oliver-or-1918.