Wendt v. Smith

NOURSE, J.

This is an appeal by the defendant from a judgment for $3,990 upon a verdict of a jury. The action was brought for damages for the breach of a contract for a lease of land. The contract provided for the leasing to plaintiffs for one year of 220 acres of land in the county of Imperial. Plaintiffs agreed to pay, as rent therefor, an undivided one-half of all crops raised on the premises, it being understood that cotton, corn and alfalfa should be

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planted. The defendant agreed to furnish all seed, stock, tools, implements, wagons, water, and materials necessary for the planting, maintaining, and harvesting of all crops; also to furnish all feed for stock used on the premises out of his half of the alfalfa produced. The plaintiffs agreed to furnish all labor necessary to the planting, irrigating, and harvesting of all crops and the labor necessary to maintain all ditches, borders, gates, checks, and fences on the premises, and to farm the land in proper manner. The defendant agreed to furnish any new material necessary for the maintenance of the ditches, fences, etc. It was also provided that the defendant had the right at all times to enter and view the premises and the improvements thereon and, in the event the lessees failed to properly care for the crops, the lessor should have the right to take charge of the farming operations himself and care for the crops and deduct the expense thereby incurred out of the share of the crops belonging to the plaintiffs.

Plaintiffs alleged that they went into possession of the property during the month of December, 1917, under this lease and performed all the covenants and agreements by them to be performed and that on and after March 19, 1918, the defendant refused to allow them to work upon the premises and compelled them to leave the premises, threatening their lives if they remained. They then asked as damages the value of one-half of the crops grown on the premises during the year, which they alleged amounted to $8,000; and also that they be awarded the value of their labor performed during the four months of their occupancy of the premises, which consisted of plowing, irrigating, maintaining borders, gates, checks, fences, etc. This labor was alleged to be worth $500, making a total of $8,500 damages prayed for.

Defendant denied that he refused to permit plaintiffs to proceed with their work on the premises or that he ordered them to quit the same or threatened their lives, and alleged that by reason of the incompetence of plaintiffs and their inexperience in farming they were unable to carry out the terms of the contract; that by reason of the unskillful handling they endangered the alfalfa crop on the land and defendant was obliged to enter upon the premises and assist plaintiffs in saving said crop from being flooded while plaintiffs were irrigating the land; that upon his protest and remon