Toney v. Goodley

57 Mo. App. 235, 1894 Mo. App. LEXIS 179
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 26, 1894
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 57 Mo. App. 235 (Toney v. Goodley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Toney v. Goodley, 57 Mo. App. 235, 1894 Mo. App. LEXIS 179 (Mo. Ct. App. 1894).

Opinions

Ellison, J.

— This is an attachment suit by a landlord against his tenant, brought under the statute concerning landlord and tenant, for the purpose of enforcing the landlord’s lien for rent. The action was instituted within the eight months limited for the [239]*239duration of a landlord’s lien.

Interpleader filed his interplea, claiming the property, a large lot of hay, as his own, under a purchase from the defendant, the tenant. The interpleader prevailed in the trial court, and plaintiff has appealed.

The first question to dispose of is, whether inter-pleader was the owner of the property at'the time of the levy of plaintiff’s attachment writ. Eor inter-pleader to recover, it must do so on the strength of its own case, without reference to the weakness of the plaintiff’s case. Boller v. Cohen, 42 Mo. App. 97. The facts, briefly stated, are that defendant rented lands of this plaintiff, as well as of other parties, and that.he likewise was engaged in the business of buying and selling hay. He was, at the time of the transaction with interpleader, the owner .of a lot of baled hay, a part of which was produced on the lands he rented of plaintiff, and a part of which was produced upon lands rented of other parties. Whether any part of it was what he purchased from outside parties does not appear. Interpleader entered into the following writing with defendant:

“Mr. Joseph Goodley, of Kenoma, Barton county, Missouri, agrees to sell and deliver to Harper-Fricke Grain Co., of Iantha, Barton county, Missouri, six hundred tons of number 1 prairie hay, now in barns at ■ Kenoma, Barton' county, Missouri. Said hay to be weighed and put in cars at Kenoma, Barton county, Missouri, on or before the following date: From the south barn by February 1, 1892, on or before. From the red barn (McKnight’s land), March 1, 1892, on or before. From the north barn or Major’s barn, by June 1, 3892. The said Harper-Fricke Grain Co. to pay for said hay at the rate of $5 per ton. And said Harper-Fricke Grain Co. have this third day of December, 1891, paid to said [240]*240Mr. Joseph Goodley the sum of two thousand dollars ($2,000) cash on said hay, the balance to be paid when delivered on cars at Kenoma, Barton county, Missouri, Mr. Joseph Goodley has $1,700 insurance on said hay. Said policy expires on April 1, 1892. Said policy to be transferred to the Harper-Ericke Grain Co. The said Harper-Ericke Grain Co. to furnish a man to help car hay. Said amount of hay stated above may be two or three cars more or less than the amount above stated.
“Jos. Goodley.
“Harper-Fricke Grain Co.
“Springfield, Greene County, Missouri, Dec. 3, 1891.”

Upon payment to defendant of the $2,000 mentioned in this writing he left the country. The barns in which the hay was, as mentioned in the writing, were in or near- the village of Kenoma, the nearest being about two hundred yards, and the furthest about eight hundred yards, from the place where it was to be loaded, on the cars. The evidence disclosed, without dispute, that the hay was inspected by the interpleader and defendant and that it was all supposed to be of the quality called for by the writing. It further appeared that the interpleader was taking all the hay in the three barns, it being supposed that there was not more than six hundred tons of it. It turned out, in point of fact that there was over five hundred tons, and that, with the exception of a quite trivial amount, it was of the quality supposed by the parties. Under these circumstances the trial court properly instructed the jury that there was a transfer of title to the hay from defendant to interpleader.

The contract in regard to the sale being reduced to writing took the transaction out of the statute of frauds, and thus left it only necessary that there should be a valid transfer of the title at common law. There [241]*241was here a sale of a specific and ascertained lot of hay at a fixed price. The ascertained or specific article was appropriated by the seller to the buyer, and, indeed, the larger part.of the purchase price paid. It is not a case of an unascertained lot as a part of a general whole. This, undoubtedly, was sufficient to transfer the title to the property to the interpleader. Hamilton v. Clark, 25 Mo. App. 436, and cases cited. The circumstance that defendant was to weigh and deliver the hay on board the cars, with the help of interpleader, does not affect the operative force of the sale as to the transfer of the title. For delivery, as between the parties, it is not essential, since the contract was in writing; and the price was fixed, the weighing being merely for the purpose of getting the total amount thereof. When the terms of the price “are so fixed that the sum to be paid can be ascertained without further reference to. the.parties themselves,” it is sufficient. Cunningham v. Ashbrook, 20 Mo. 559. So then, as between interpleader and defendant, the title and ownership of the latter vested in the former.

II. It became necessary to determine the foregoing question in order that another branch of the case may be properly decided. Plaintiff is a creditor of defendant, and as to plaintiff, more is requisite to a valid sale than as to interpleader. As to plaintiff, there must have been an open, actual and continuous change of possession before the levy of his writ of attachment. Having already determined that interpleader was the owner of the property, he necessarily had the right, if he so elected, to take possession by paying the price as it was ascertained, ,if .any. ye;b ^remained to be paid, •above the cash payment. The circumstance that the hay was to be put onto the cars by defendant was for interpleader’s benefit, and did not prevent him from [242]*242waiving the performance of that duty by defendant. The court submitted to the jury the question whether interpleader did take actual, visible and exclusive possession prior to the levy of plaintiff’s writ. The jury could not well have found that such possession was not taken. Interpleader sent two men to the barns. They bought locks and put on two of them. The third, not having a door, they nailed up the opening. The locks were purchased in the village for the avowed purpose of locking the barns and taking possession, and it was fully known that they had taken possession. But more than this, interpleader had loaded some of the hay on cars before the levy. It has now become well recognized law, in this state since the case of McIntosh v. Smiley, 32 Mo. App. 125; s. o., 107 Mo. 377, that, though possession does not follow the sale of chattels in a reasonable time, nevertheless, if possession be had prior to the creditor’s levy, it will make a good sale as against the creditor.

From the foregoing it is apparent that interpleader was the owner of the property and had title thereto, not only against defendant, but against this plaintiff as a creditor.

III. The remaining question is, has the inter-pleader the title thereto as against plaintiff as a landlord, or, in other words, has he the title to the property free from the landlord’s lien in so far as the present proceeding is concerned. In discussing this matter we will concede (merely as a concession) that the testimony shows enough knowledge on part of interpleader, under our decision in Dawson v. Coffey, 48 Mo. App.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
57 Mo. App. 235, 1894 Mo. App. LEXIS 179, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/toney-v-goodley-moctapp-1894.