Corey v. Struve

MELVIN, J.

Plaintiff appeals from an adverse judgment.

The complaint contained allegations that plaintiff leased to defendants certain land in Monterey County for a term of years; that while defendants were in possession of the said land plaintiff was the owner of certain beet-tops which had

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been cut from beets grown upon said property under said lease; that defendants, without right, converted said beet-tops to their own use, sold said personal property, and received therefor the sum of $3,271.27, which was the value thereof at the time of conversion; that said amount of money with interest thereon had been demanded by plaintiff from defendants, but that the latter had refused to comply with plaintiff’s demands. Plaintiff also pleaded a prior judgment in which he was declared to be the owner of the beet-tops.

Defendants, by their answer, admitted plaintiff’s ownership of the beet-tops, but alleged that such ownership was limited and special, for the sole purpose of having the beet-tops remain upon the ground where they had been grown and cut, defendants being entitled to the possession of said beet-tops for the purpose of plowing them under as a fertilizer. They also admitted the existence of the judgment declaring plaintiff’s ownership of the personalty in question, but declared that such ownership was the sort of limited one which they had pleaded. They further alleged that with plaintiff’s permission they had sold the beet-tops to be fed to cattle on the premises and averred that the fertilizing effect of feeding the beet-tops upon the ground where they had been grown and cut was greater than that produced by plowing under, and they denied that plaintiff had been injured by their conduct, but asserted that he had been greatly benefited thereby.

The court found that plaintiff had a qualified, special, and limited ownership in the property, “in this, that neither the plaintiff nor the defendants had any right to remove any of said beet-tops from said leased lands, but it was the duty of the defendants as tenants of the plaintiff to plow said beet-tops under as a fertilizer of said leased lands.” There were further findings that defendants had sold the beet-tops for the aggregate sum alleged; that the beet-tops had been eaten by the cattle of the purchasers upon the leased property, and “that the fertilizing benefit to lands, derived from the ordure and urine of cattle while feeding beet-tops as said beet-tops were fed, is equivalent to the fertilizing benefit the lands receive. when the beet-tops are plowed under, and for this reason the plaintiff was not damaged and sustained no detriment by the conduct of the defendants in selling said beet-tops and feeding them to cattle upon said leased premises.” It was