Pierce v. Langdon

28 P. 401, 3 Idaho 141, 1891 Ida. LEXIS 30
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 5, 1891
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 28 P. 401 (Pierce v. Langdon) 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
Pierce v. Langdon, 28 P. 401, 3 Idaho 141, 1891 Ida. LEXIS 30 (Idaho 1891).

Opinion

HUSTON, J.

This is an action of claim and delivery, brought by the plaintiff against the defendant for the possession of five hundred and ninety sacks of wheat. The facts as they appear in the record are as follows: On the first day of October, 1889, one James F. Davidson leased of C. A. H.. Glogaw a certain ranch situated in Latah county, Idaho, for-the term of three years from the first day of November, 1889, at a rental of one-third of the crop or yield therefrom. That on the twenty-eighth day of January, 1890, said James F-Davidson, to secure payment of the sum of $513, evidenced by three promissory notes made by said Davidson, executed and delivered to M. J. Shields & Co. a chattel mortgage upon “the crop of wheat that may be sown and grown for the year 1890-upon that certain piece or parcel of land lying and being in the county of Latah, territory of Idaho,” etc., describing the same land described in and covered by the lease from Glogaw to. Davidson, which chattel mortgage was duly acknowledged and recorded in the recorder’s office of said Latah county on the fourth day of February, 1890. Default haying been made in the conditions of said chattel mortgage, the mortgagee proceeded to foreclose the same, by delivering to the defendant herein — at that time sheriff of Latah county — an affidavit and notice as required by statute, and directing him to take into his possession the property described in said chattel mortgage, and sell the same in the manner prescribed by law. The defend[144]*144ant, by virtue of said notice and affidavit, took the property described in the mortgage into his possession, advertised and sold the same. On the twenty-third day of October, 1890, the plaintiff instituted his action of claim and delivery by filing a complaint and issuance of summons, to which complaint defendant filed a general demurrer, which demurrer was overruled by the court, and the action of the court therein is assigned as error. The case was tried to a jury, and a verdict was rendered in favor of plaintiff. Defendant moved for new trial, which motion was overruled by the district judge, and judgment was entered in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendant, from which judgment and order defendant appeals.

The appellant specifies twenty-four, errors in his assignment. We shall consider and pass upon such only as we deem material to the settlement of the law of the case. The plaintiff predicates his right to recover in this case upon a certain writing executed by James F. Davidson to plaintiff on the first day of March, 1890, and which appears in the record, as follows:

“March the first, eighteen hundred and ninety.
“This is to certify that James F. Davidspn has subleased the Glogaw ranch to Joseph H. Pierce, and he agrees to fulfill the agreement stated on the other side, with Glogaw, for the year 1890 to December, 1890.
“[Signed] JAMES F. DAVIDSON.
“In witness: J. H. HENLEY.
“Witness: G. W. KIRK”

This writing, it appears, was indorsed on the lease from Glogaw to Davidson, and purports to have been executed on March 1, 1890. Plaintiff testifies: “I bargained for the place at the mill on the second day of October, 1889. I made a contract to take the land off his [Davidson’s] hands just as he had taken it from Glogaw — a verbal agreement between him and Glogaw. I moved on the place the third day of October, 1889.” G. W. Kirk, a witness called by plaintiff, and who was the attesting witness to the execution of the sublease from Davidson to plaintiff, and who was a brother in law of the plaintiff, testi[145]*145fies that the sublease was executed in June, 1890. It is true that the plaintiff attempts to impair the weight of this witness’ testimony subsequently by showing his ignorance; but, having selected him as the attesting witness to the instrument, and placed him on the stand as a witness, we think that the plaintiff is estopped from disputing or impeaching his testimony. Mrs. J. F. Davidson, wife of James F. Davidson, the original lessee from Glogaw, testifies, referring to the lease and the sublease: ■“I have seen this paper before. I thought some of it was not here. It seems to me that there was more. I saw it on the Glogaw ranch, when we lived on the Glogaw ranch. Mr. Davidson had it, and he gave it to me. I had it up to June 28, 1890. Mr. Pierce came over there, and Mr. Davidson and he called lor it, and of course I had to give it up to them. I gave it up to them. Mr. Pierce made some alteration in it, and he had me sign Mr. Davidson’s name to it. It is my handwriting. I did it at Mr. Davidson’s and Mr. Pierce’s request. They were both at my house.....Mr. Pierce came to our house. Mr. Davidson was out in the barn, and he [Pierce] went out there, and they came to the house together, and called for the lease, and then they called for pen and ink, and done the writing, except signing Mr. Davidson’s name. Then they had me sign Mr. Davidson’s name on the lease [evidently the sublease]. They said to me, this: Tf I did not sign it they would settle my coffin for me.’ They said that they had done it to defraud Mr. Shields — to beat Mr. Shields; that was their intention. I hesitated. I told them I did not think it was right. I told them 1 thought it was a bad piece of business.” It is impossible, it seems to us, to resist the force of this testimony. Pierce swears that he made the contract, as he calls it, on the second day of October, 1889, and went into possession on the 4th of that month. On the 28th of January, 1890, the mortgage is given by Davidson to Shields; and Shields testifies that he furnished Davidson with wheat to seed said ranch, and during all the time from October 1, 1889, to June 28, 1890, the lease had remained in the possession of Davidson. Nothing is said about the subletting until the 28th of June, 1890. The conclusion, it seems to us, is inevitable, the whole matter of the. subletting or subleasing was an after-thought, and was done, as [146]*146testified by Mrs. Davidson, “to beat Mr. Shields.” Whatever interest plaintiff took in the crop he took with full notice of the rights of Shields under the chattel mortgage, and any rights-he acquired thereto or therein were subject to the chattel mortgage. The plaintiff, introducing the sublease, himself establishes the time when it was made, to wit, March 1, 1890 — long subsequent to the execution of the chattel mortgage — by his own testimony p and the testimony of Mrs. Davidson and George Kirk fix it at a still later period, to wit, the 38th of June, 1890. The plaintiff testifies: “I made a contract to take the land off his hands just as he had taken it from Glogaw”; but the lease from Glogaw to Davidson was for the term of three years, while the' sublease from Davidson to plaintiff was for a term from March 1, 1890, to December, 1890.

The first error urged by appellant is raised 'by the demurrer to the complaint, and is to the effect that it does not appear from the complaint that the plaintiff was in possession of or entitled to the possession of the property in dispute on the twentieth day of October, 1890 — the date of the alleged unlawful taking. 'We think this objection is too technical.

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

Related

Chief Industries, Inc. v. Schwendiman
587 P.2d 823 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1978)
Gordon v. Loer
65 P.2d 148 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1937)
Thomas v. Prairie Home Cooperative Co.
237 N.W. 673 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1931)
Twin Falls Bank & Trust Co. v. Weinberg
257 P. 31 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1927)
Adams v. Caldwell Milling & Elevator Co.
197 P. 723 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1921)
Bush v. Bush
184 P. 823 (Utah Supreme Court, 1919)
Isbell v. Slette
155 P. 503 (Montana Supreme Court, 1916)
Indiana Union Traction Co. v. Bick
81 N.E. 617 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1907)
Shields v. Ruddy
28 P. 405 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1891)
McConnell v. Langdon
28 P. 403 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1891)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
28 P. 401, 3 Idaho 141, 1891 Ida. LEXIS 30, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pierce-v-langdon-idaho-1891.