Stevens v. Wadleigh

57 P. 622, 6 Ariz. 351, 1899 Ariz. LEXIS 100
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedJune 2, 1899
DocketCivil No. 658
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 57 P. 622 (Stevens v. Wadleigh) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stevens v. Wadleigh, 57 P. 622, 6 Ariz. 351, 1899 Ariz. LEXIS 100 (Ark. 1899).

Opinion

DOAN, J.

On the eighteenth day of April, 1890, one G. H. Wadleigh, in Tucson, Pima County, Arizona, by a written agreement duly executed, leased certain real and personal property to C. A. Stevens, a defendant and one of the appellants in this case, for the term of five years, at an agreed rental of three thousand dollars, to he paid in installments at the rate of fifty dollars per month during the continuance of the lease, and agreed and hound himself, his executors and assigns, to warrant and defend the said lessee in the peaceable and quiet possession of the said premises and property, and every part thereof, during the term of said lease, and in [353]*353default thereof bound himself and assigns to the said lessee or assigns in all damages that the said lessee should sustain by said failure to defend and warrant the said lessee, not exceeding the sum of fifteen hundred dollars. At the same time and place the said defendant C. A. Stevens, as principal, and A. Y. 'Grosetta and W. S. Read, co-defendants, and appellants herein, as sureties, executed and delivered to the said G. H. Wadleigh a joint and several bond in the sum of fifteen hundred dollars, conditioned, among other matters, that “if the said Stevens shall well and truly pay, or cause to be paid, said rent, and perform all the other conditions of said lease therein agreed to be performed by him, then this obligation shall be null and void; otherwise, to remain in full force and effect to the full extent of the damage sustained by said G. H. Wadleigh, not to exceed fifteen hundred dollars.” Stevens entered upon the premises, toot possession of the real and personal property, occupied and paid rent for the same up to and until the first day of March, 1893, since which date the defendant Stevens, and his- sureties, Grosetta and Read, failed and refused to pay the rent due upon the said leased property, or any part thereof. After the execution and delivery of the lease and bond above mentioned, the said G. H. Wadleigh, on the twenty-fifth day of February, 1893, sold and transferred the real and personal property in question, and the said agreement of lease, and bond as security for the same, to Abbie E. Wadleigh, this plaintiff, • for a valuable consideration. On the twenty-fourth day of April, 1895, Abbie E. Wadleigh (the appellant herein) recovered a judgment against the defendants, and each of them, for the sum of six hundred and fifty dollars for rent upon the said property from the said'first day of March, 1893, to the first day of April, 1894. The rent accruing and remaining unpaid from that date, the plaintiff herein, on May 27, 1895, brought suit in the district court for the sum of six hundred and fifty dollars for rent upon the said property from the said first day of April, 1894, to the first day of May, 1895, the complaint alleging that at the time of bringing this action the plaintiff was the owner, by purchase for a valuable consideration, of said real and personal property, the agreement of lease, bond, and claim for rent; notice of which was duly given the defendant; setting up the former default, refusal [354]*354to pay, suit and recovery of the aforesaid six hundred and fifty dollars, alleging the further default and refusal to pay, and setting up the lease and bond. To the complaint the defendants answered, and set up two defenses. The first defense alleges that the lessee, at the time the lease and bond were executed, was in the dairy business; was the owner of a large number of milch cows; that his business was large and profitable, which the lessor then knew; that the land leased is arid, and, without irrigation, is valueless for any purpose; that, if irrigated, large and profitable crops can be grown on it; that the only value of the land was the crops it could be made to produce by irrigation; that the land was under an irrigating ditch that diverted water from the Santa Cruz River; that said ditch was owned by the owners of the land lying under it, each of which owners owned a share therein; that at the time the lease was made the lessor was such an owner; that a right to the use of a share of said water, amply sufficient to irrigate the land, was appurtenant to said land, and a material part thereof, and a consideration, in part, of said lease; that for a long time before the lease was made, and for some time thereafter, said water was used on said land, whereby the same was made valuable as aforesaid; that the lease was made in order that the lessee might provide himself with feed for the cows aforesaid; that the lease contemplated that the lessee should have a right to the use of the said water upon the said land for the purposes aforesaid, and that the guaranty of the lessor, contained in the .lease, extended to the uninterrupted use and enjoyment of the right to said water during the time the lease should run; that during a part of the term the lessor delivered to the land the water to which it was entitled, and that during all that time the lessee paid the rent in full; that afterwards, while the lease was in force, the lessor failed and refused to deliver said water wherewith to irrigate the said land; that because of said failure the land was worthless, and the lessee was unable to raise feed for his cows thereon, and did abandon the leased premises. The second defense alleged that in pursuance of the lease, and in order to effectuate the same, the defendant executed to the lessor the bond conditioned in the following words, to wit: “Now, therefore, if the above bounden C. A. Stevens shall well and truly pay, or cause to be paid, the said [355]*355rent, and perform all the other conditions of said lease therein agreed to be performed by him, then this obligation to be null and void; otherwise, to remain in full force and effect to the full extent of the damage sustained by G. H. Wadleigh, not to exceed fifteen hundred dollars.” They further alleged that at the time of making the bond and lease it was agreed by and between the lessor and the defendants Grosetta and Read that they, the said Grosetta and Read, should in due and proper form guaranty to the lessor and his assigns that the said Stevens should pay to the said lessor or his assigns fifteen hundred dollars of the three thousand dollars therein covenanted to be paid, but that their said guaranty should only bind them, the said defendants, to said guaranty that Stevens would pay rent under the covenant, as in the lease contained, to the extent of fifteen hundred dollars, and no more, and that, as soon as Stevens had paid of said rental the sum of fifteen hundred dollars, then and henceforth the said Grosetta and Read were to be released, and thereafter discharged from any liability to said lessor and his assigns on account of said guaranty; that in pursuance of said agreement so made between them as aforesaid, and relying thereon, the sureties executed the bond; that thereafter, and since the inception of this suit, said defendants have been advised by the court that, said above-quoted words from the said bond did not correctly state the verbal agreement as above given, but, on the contrary, that the legal force of said words was to make said Grosetta and Read liable for any balance that said Stevens might owe on said rental to the extent of fifteen hundred dollars, regardless of the amount said Stevens might have paid thereon. Wherefore said defendants pray that said bond be reformed, and in such a way that it will correctly state and show the agreement that was made by and between the said parties as aforesaid. Defendants allege that said Stevens has paid out of said rental more than fifteen hundred dollars,—viz., the amount of twenty-six hundred dollars,—the sum so paid being the rent for the full period of four years.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
57 P. 622, 6 Ariz. 351, 1899 Ariz. LEXIS 100, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stevens-v-wadleigh-ariz-1899.