Landrum & Co. v. Wright

66 So. 892, 11 Ala. App. 406, 1914 Ala. App. LEXIS 84
CourtAlabama Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 24, 1914
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 66 So. 892 (Landrum & Co. v. Wright) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Alabama Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Landrum & Co. v. Wright, 66 So. 892, 11 Ala. App. 406, 1914 Ala. App. LEXIS 84 (Ala. Ct. App. 1914).

Opinion

THOMAS, J.

The appellees, T. L., J. E., and O. M. Wright, sued out an attachment against one Mooney, for the purpose of enforcing an alleged landlord’s lien claimed by them for advances — all rents having been previously paid — and caused the writ to be levied upon the crops grown by said Mooney during the year 1912 on the rented premises. The appellants, Landrum & Co., interposed a claim to the property, which claim was predicated upon a mortgage shown without dispute to be unsatisfied and to have been duly executed to the claimants by Mooney on January 15, 1912, long before the issuance and levy of the attachment. The right of the plaintiffs to subject the property levied upon to the satisfaction of the attachment writ depended, therefore, [408]*408upon whether or not they had, as alleged, a landlord’s lien on the property for advances; otherwise it is conceded that the claimants were entitled to recover under the mortgage, as, in such event, the mortgage was 'the superior lien. — Code, § 4734.

The material facts relied on as constituting such landlord’s lien in the plaintiffs were without dispute, and, at the conclusion of the evidence, the court, at the request of plaintiffs, gave the general affirmative charge in their favor. The correctness of its action in doing this is the principal point before us for decision. Summarizing these facts, they may be stated, in substance, to be as follows: The defendant in attachment, said Mooney, during-the year 1910 lived on and cultivated as a tenant the lands of one W. A. Langley, and the latter as landlord, in order to enable Mooney to procure supplies with which to make a crop that year, applied, with Mooney’s consent, to the Camp Hill Supply Company to furnish them, which they did, directly to Mooney, entering .the charge therefor upon their books against Mooney and Langley jointly, and looking to both, as was undisputed, for payment — Langley having' at the time verbally agreed “to see it [the account for such supplies] paid.” At the end of the year Mooney paid up all rent due Langley, but failed to pay either him or the Camp Hill Supply Company for the advances mentioned, and desired to move himself and his farm produce (consisting of corn, fodder, cotton seed, etc., raised that year on Langley’s place and of the aggregate value of about $200) to the plantation of one J. T. Wright, from whom he, Mooney, had rented land for the following year, 1911. Langley, as landlord, interposed an objection and forbade Mooney to move any of the produce mentioned, until he, Mooney, first paid him for the said supplies furnished by the Camp Hill Supply Company (amount-[409]*409tag to several hundred dollars), for which Langley was responsible in the way stated. Mooney, being without funds, after informing Wright of the fact and that he could not get his produce from Langley’s premises until he paid Langley for the advances mentioned, applied to Wright, as his new landlord, to advance him the necessary funds to that end. Thereupon Wright, on December 19, 1910, wrote, signed, and sent to Langley by Mooney a note saying, in substance and effect, that he, Wright, would be responsible for the amount due by Mooney, and to let him move. Langley accepted this as entirely sufficient, and then and there consented for Mooney to remove the produce, which he did, to Wright’s premises, which he cultivated during the years 1911 and 1912. In December, 1911, before Wright ever paid the debt of Mooney for which he so became responsible, Wright died intestate, leaving no debts except the. obligation stated, and leaving as the only heirs and distributees of his estate his three sons, who are the present plaintiffs, and who, after their father’s death, paid said debt of Mooney, for which Wright had so become responsible; and, upon the refusal of Mooney, Avho remained on the same lands as tenant, to repay them, they sued out the present attachment on, to wit, October 17, 1912, to enforce an alleged landlord’s lien therefor — Mooney having before the attachment paid up all rent and other advances. It was also proved without dispute that there never was any administration upon Wright’s estate or any necessity therefor.. We are of opinion that under these undisputed facts the court committed no error in giving the general affirmative charge for the plaintiffs. They, as the heirs of their father, Avere his successors in interest and as such admittedly stood and stand in his shoes, and the case may, for all practical purposes, [410]*410be treated as if he were the plaintiff and had himself paid the said debt which he assumed for Mooney.

Our statute gives to the landlord a lien, which continues and attaches to the crop of the succeeding year — “for advances made in money, or other thing of value, either by him directly, or by another at his instance and request for which he became legally bound or liable at or before the time such advances were made, for the sustenance or well-being of the tenant or his family, or for preparing the ground for cultivation, or for cultivating, gathering, saving, handling, or preparing the crop for market.” — Code, §§ 4734-6.

The produce (corn, cotton seed, fodder, etc.) which, by the assumption on the part of Wright of the debt mentioned, Mooney was enabled to get released from Langley’s landlord’s lien and to remove and consume in the making of the crop on Wright’s premises, were such in kind and character as clearly to fall within the class of articles which, within the meaning of the statute quoted, would constitute “advances for the well-being and sustenance of the tenant and his family,” etc. If Wright had bought them outright and furnished them directly to Mooney, or with Mooney’s consent had procured another to do so by becoming, at or before the time that that other did so, legally responsible for them, undoubtedly Wright would have had the landlord’s lien here contended for. — Code, § 4734; Clanton v. Eaton, 92 Ala. 612, 8 South. 823; Ragsdale v. Kinney, 119 Ala. 461, 24 South. 443.

We can see no difference, and hold that there is no' difference, in principle between such a case as the latter and the case here, where Wright by assuming with Mooney’s consent the latter’s debt to Langley, who as an incident of such debt had a landlord’s lien upon the property, induced Langley to release his lien and there[411]*411by enabled Mooney to get and use the property, which Mooney was without right to remove until- he paid off Langley’s lien, except with Langley’s consent, and which if, without such consent, he had attempted to remove would have authorized Langley to attach the property for the enforcement of his lien. — Code, § 4739; Bell v. Hurst, 75 Ala. 44; Clanton v. Eaton, 92 Ala. 615, 8 South. 823; Gerson & Sons v. Norman, 111 Ala. 433, 20 South. 453; Donaldson v. Wilkerson, 170 Ala. 507, 54 South. 234; Johnson v. Thompson, 185 Ala. 215, 64 South. 555.

It is needless to consider whether, on account of the statute of frauds (Code, § 4289, subd. 3), it was necessary for Wright’s said promise to Langley to be in writing (as bearing on which see Westmoreland v. Porter, 75 Ala. 452; Thornton v. Williams, 71 Ala.

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Bluebook (online)
66 So. 892, 11 Ala. App. 406, 1914 Ala. App. LEXIS 84, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/landrum-co-v-wright-alactapp-1914.