Wyoming Timber Products Co. v. Crow

500 P.2d 683
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 18, 1972
DocketNo. 4056
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 500 P.2d 683 (Wyoming Timber Products Co. v. Crow) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wyoming Timber Products Co. v. Crow, 500 P.2d 683 (Wyo. 1972).

Opinion

Mr. Justice PARKER

delivered the opinion of the court.

Plaintiff filed his complaint on May 22, 1967, claiming ownership of approximately 1,181,000 board feet of logs (valued at $35,000) detained by defendants, asking for the recovery of his property together with $25,000 damages. The following day a writ of replevin issued. Since Wyoming Timber Products Company (hereinafter referred to as Wyoming Timber) had already caused 128.15 cords of the logs to be loaded upon railroad cars, the parties agreed that the price therefor would be paid by the purchaser to the plaintiff and the Carbon County Sheriff to await outcome of the replevin action (subsequently the proceeds from the sale, $2,306.70 were delivered to Wyoming Timber, which on March 11, 1967, had been issued a certificate of sale from the Internal Revenue Service for the timber in question).1 The remainder of th? logs were delivered to plaintiff shortly after May 22, 1967. Upon trial of the cause to the district court without a jury, the court found that plaintiff had suffered no loss or injury by reason of the interruption of his possession from February 7, 1967, to May 22, 1967, except as he was deprived of the sales price of the 128.15 cords, and judgment was entered confirming plaintiff’s title to the logs replevined by him and for recovery from Wyoming Timber of the amount of $2,182.40. The court dismissed the counterclaim in interpleader of Wyoming Timber against the United States.

[685]*685Wyoming Timber and the other defendants, employed by it to load the logs, have appealed; but before any enumeration of asserted errors, some background information is essential, and excerpts from the trial court’s findings will supply this:

"2. By Timber Sale Contract dated January 7, 1959, the United States * * * through the Forest Service * * * authorized R. R. Crow & Co. * * * to cut, remove and purchase a quantity of timber located on lands in the Medicine Bow National Forest, Carbon County, * * * such timber to be paid for at an agreed price * * * with the * * * payment to be determined after the cutting, removal and scaling of the logs * * • *.
“3. [R. R.] Crow [& Co.] was further required by said agreement to maintain deposits with the Forest Service, including a minimum advance payment. On or about November 10, 1966, there was on deposit with the Forest Service ample funds to pay the Forest Service for stumpage charges on timber * * * involved in this action.
“4. By order made and entered June 4, 1962 in the District Court * * * County of Carbon, R. R. Crow was appointed receiver of the property and assets of R. R. Crow & Co. * * * [He] entered upon the performance of his duties and on November 10, 1966, was acting as such receiver.
“5. Shortly before November 10, 1966, the receiver was without funds necessary to carry on the business of the company, either in the cutting and removal of logs or in the milling thereof and was also indebted to a considerable extent to contract loggers who had rendered services in the cutting and removal of timber as authorized in the Timber Sale Contract, including a substantial indebtedness to the plaintiff * * *. At that time said receiver orally offered to plaintiff and the other loggers an opportunity to cut and remove logs for their own account and at their own expense * * *. Plaintiff was the only one who accepted this proposition which is embodied in a letter dated November 10, 1966.
“6. By said letter * * * the receiver advised plaintiff that he was unable to continue milling and shipping operations and offered to him the opportunity to cut and remove logs upon his own account, applying the advance stumpage payments on deposit with the Forest Service as payment for logs so removed, with credit for this amount to be given the receiver by plaintiff against the amount then owed by the receiver to plaintiff. The receiver specifically advised that the logs so removed would belong to plaintiff to be sold by him to whomsoever he chose, crediting the receiver only with a set-off for the stump-age used. Permission was granted in said offer to use a portion of the yard facilities of the company for storage of logs so cut and removed.
“7. * * * During the period between November 10, 1966 and February 7, 1967, plaintiff, at his own expense in excess of $39,000 and with no expectation of or agreement for reimbursement or payment by the receiver, cut and removed from said forest 1,180,000 board feet of logs, as determined by scale measurement of the Forest Service, and the agreed stump-age cost * * * was * * * charged by the Forest Service against the deposit of the receiver. Said receiver received credit for such costs upon his then existing obligation to plaintiff.
⅝ ‡ * * * *
“10. Under date of August 12, 1960, R. R. Crow & Co. executed and delivered to one Huddlestun Lumber Co., in consideration for the advance by that company of the sum of $275,000, its separate mortgages covering real and personal property of the company. * * *
“11. On or about November 26, 1966, * * * chattel mortgage, together with the indebtedness secured thereby was for [686]*686valuable consideration transferred to plaintiff * * * and his brother, John Crow. * * *
“12. Following- the transfer to them * * * plaintiff and John Crow took physical possession of all tangible personal property of R. R. Crow & Co. and have remained in possession thereof, without assertion of adverse right or claim, either by Huddlestun, the United States Internal Revenue Service or the defendants herein, except as * * * to [1,180,000 board feet of] the logs * *.
“13. In March, 1967, plaintiff and his brother, at their own expense and through their attorney, caused to be instituted in this Court an action in the name of Huddlestun Lumber Co. as plaintiff, the object and purpose of which was to recover judgment upon the unpaid notes and foreclose the real estate mortgage which had been given by R. R. Crow & Co. to Huddlestun and assigned by it to plaintiff and John Crow at the same time that the assignment of the chattel mortgage was executed and delivered. Said action resulted in judgment in favor of Huddlestun in the amount of $492,745 * * * and an order for the sale of the real estate covered by that mortgage. Sale was duly had and at the sale thereof certificate of sale was issued to Hud-dlestun upon a bid of $300,000. Following such sale the same was confirmed by this Court and deficiency declared of $207,755. The certificate of sale was assigned to plaintiff and his brother and deed covering the real property * * * delivered to them * * *.
⅜ ⅜ ‡ sfi ⅜ ⅝
“16. * * * R. R. Crow & Co. was indebted to the United States for internal revenue taxes in an amount in excess of $100,000; * * * during the period from January 13, 1961 through March 2, 1967, the Internal Revenue Service filed in the office of the County Clerk of Carbon County * * * various notices of federal tax liens based on said claims. During said period no action was taken by said Internal Revenue Service to levy upon or otherwise subject any rights of R. R. Crow & Co.

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

Related

Amrein v. Wyoming Livestock Board
851 P.2d 769 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1993)
Newcom v. Keever
513 P.2d 1021 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1973)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
500 P.2d 683, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wyoming-timber-products-co-v-crow-wyo-1972.