Lewis v. Hall

LENNON, P. J.

This was an action to foreclose a mortgage given hy defendants John H. Hall, Howard H. Hall, and Emmett H. Hall upon a volunteer crop of barley growing upon land belonging to the defendant San Joaquin Valley Farm Lands Company (a corporation), hereinafter referred to as the Land Company, and for which land they held a contract of purchase. The defendants Hall confessed judgment in the sum of $2,754.20, the amount of the obligation to secure which the crop mortgage was given, for which sum, with interest, judgment was duly awarded against them; but as to the Land Company the court decreed that the plaintiff take nothing, and that the rights of said company in said crop so mortgaged were.superior to those of the plaintiff, and denied to the plaintiff any relief by way of foreclosure. Pending the litigation a receiver was appointed upon the prayer of the plaintiff, and in its judgment the court ordered that the balance in his hands, amounting to the sum of $1,250.88, be paid to the Land Company. The court also, after final judgment, made an order that the compensation of said receiver, amounting to the sum of four hundred dollars, be paid by the plaintiff. The appeal is by plaintiff from that part of the judgment denying her any relief against the Land Company ■ and awarding to the latter the balance in the receiver’s hands, and is taken upon the judgment-roll. Plaintiff also appeals from the order charging her with the payment of the receiver’s fees, and this part of her appeal is based upon a hill of exceptions.

The facts, which are very fully found by the court and as to which there seems to be no dispute, are as follows: The San

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Joaquin Valley Farm Lands Company on January 15, 1915, was the owner of some seventy thousand acres of land situated in the county of Fresno. It had its principal place of business in the City of Los Angeles, and on said date entered into a contract with Stine & Kendrick (a corporation), doing business in the city of San Francisco, by which Stine & Kendrick was employed to sell some thirty thousand acres of said land in parcels of varying size and upon certain conditions, terms, and restrictions. On April 26, 1915, the Land Company executed to its said agent a power of attorney, authorizing said agent to make, execute, sign and deliver contracts for the sale of the lands authorized to be sold by said agreement. This power of attorney made specific reference to the said contract of January 15, 1915, and to the provisions therein contained by which it could be modified, altered, or terminated. The terms of this contract, and also of said power of attorney, were known to the defendants Hall. Included in said lands so authorized to be sold was a tract of some 640 acres described as follows: The east one-half of section 32 and the west one-half of section 33 in township 15 south, range 17 east, M. D. B. & M. On December 17, 1915, the Land Company leased to one V. P. Snow one-half of this tract, namely, that part described as the west half of section 33, for a term of nine months from said date, and said Snow immediately took possession of said lands, and remained in their actual, open, and exclusive possession and occupancy until the filing of this suit. On December 22, 1915, the Land Company notified Stine & Kendrick of the execution and delivery of this lease, and instructed it to withdraw the land so leased from sale during the term of said lease. On December 27, 1915, said agent assented in writing to said withdrawal and notified the Land Company to that effect. The Hall brothers were never notified of any change or limitation of the authority of Stine & Kendrick to make contracts for the sale of lands included in the authorization of January 15, 1915, and did not know of such change or limitation until after the making and delivery of their crop mortgage hereinafter referred to; nor did they nor the plaintiff ever inquire of the Land Company whether that company had made any change in the authority of their said agent. On January 12, 1916, without the knowledge or consent of the Land Company; Stine & Kendrick, in the name of and for the Land Company,