Sherwood v. Turner

FINCH, P. J.

The defendants appeal from the judgment herein in favor of plaintiff. Several causes of action are stated in the complaint, but appellants attack but one of them on this appeal.

Relative to such cause of action, the complaint alleges that the parties entered into a contract for the exchange of certain lands owned by them respectively; that at the time of the execution of the contract “the crops of fruit growing upon the real property agreed to be conveyed to the defendants by the plaintiff and his said wife was subject to a crop mortgage in favor of the Producers Fruit Company of California, and it was expressly understood and agreed by and between the parties to said contract and provided in said contract that said real property should be taken subject to a crop mortgage in favor of said Producers Fruit Company of California in the sum of twenty thousand dollars, and in computing and determining the payments to be made under said contract, and at the time said payments were actually made and the instruments of conveyance executed by the plaintiff and his said wife to the defendants, said crop mortgage was computed and estimated at twenty thousand dollars, and said defendants received credit on the purchase price of the real property conveyed to them by the plaintiff and his said wife in the sum of twenty thousand dollars, and did not amount to any sum in excess of nineteen thousand six hundred forty-four and 57/100 dollars, and that by reason of the discrepancy between the agreed amount of said crop mortgage . . . and the actual amount thereof . . . there is due, owing and unpaid from said defendants to said plaintiff the sum of three hundred fifty-five and 43/100 dollars. ’ ’ The answer expressly admits the execution of the contract, the existence of the alleged crop mortgage and that “it was expressly understood and agreed by and between the parties

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to said contract and provided in said contract that the said real property should be taken subject to a crop mortgage and in favor of said Producers Fruit Co. of Cal. in the sum of twenty thousand dollars; deny that in computing and determining payments to be made under said contract, said crop mortgage was computed and estimated at $20,000.00; deny that it was computed and estimated to be any greater sum than fourteen thousand dollars; deny that said defendants received credit on the purchase price of said real property conveyed to them by the plaintiff and his said wife in the sum of $20,000.” The answer further alleges that the lands were conveyed to defendants subject to a crop mortgage of $14,000 only. The case was tried before a jury. Both parties introduced evidence tending to support their respective contentions and the jury rendered a verdict in favor of the plaintiff as prayed for in the complaint.