Edwards v. Arp (1916) · DecisionDepot

Edwards v. Arp

Name: California Superior Court Tentative Rulings
Creator: DecisionDepot
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

California Supreme Court Oct 13, 1916 No. L. A. No. 3775.Published

Before: Lorigan

AI Brief

AI-generated · verify before citing

Holding. The court held that the appellant was liable for the value of the walnut crop destroyed by his hogs because he had a duty to protect the crop, but that the trial court erred in awarding pre-judgment interest on an unliquidated claim.

Issues

Whether the appellant is liable for the value of the walnut crop destroyed by his hogs while in his possession.
Whether the respondent was contributorily negligent for failing to protect the crop from the appellant's hogs.
Whether pre-judgment interest is allowable on an unliquidated claim where the amount due is not determinable by calculation.

Disposition. remanded

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“But it is fundamental that one cannot take advantage of his own wrong, and to sanction the conduct of appellant in the face of the purposes of their contract would be to violate that principle.”

“Here the demand sued on was uncertain and unliquidated. The fact of the contract furnished nothing whereby it could be determined by calculation what amount was due plaintiff.”

Synopsis

The facts are stated in the opinion of the court.

LORIGAN, J.

As part of the purchase price of a tract of land in Kern County appellant agreed, by written contract, to pay respondent for certain walnut trees growing thereon a sum to be determined as follows: From the gross proceeds received from the sale of the crop of walnuts for the year 1911 the cost of harvesting and marketing the same was to be deducted, and the appellant was to pay respondent a sum equal to ten times the net proceeds received from the sale of said walnut crop. The harvesting and marketing of the crop was to be done under the joint superintendence of the parties.

Respondent sued upon the contract to recover $2,333, the purchase price of the trees, and was awarded a judgment for $1,410.37 with interest on that amount from December 7, 1911, a date prior to the filing of his complaint. Appellant appeals from the judgment and order denying his motion for a new trial and seeks a reversal on two grounds.

He insists, first, that the court erred in including in the amount of the walnut crop of 1911 some five hundred pounds of nuts of the net value of sixty dollars which had been eaten or destroyed by hogs owned by appellant, and then awarding respondent ten times that sum—or six hundred dollars—in making up the judgment in his favor. He further claims that it was error for the court to allow interest at seven per cent from a date in December, 1911, after the nuts had been harvested and sold and up to the entry of the judgment. The action was commenced April 19, 1912.

As to the first point: The evidence shows that the walnut grove on which the crop was harvested consisted of about two acres of a larger tract embraced in the contract of sale; that appellant owned some hogs which, while he permitted them to roam over the entire tract he could readily have kept out of the walnut grove while the nut crop was ripening and being

[474]

harvested, and was requested by respondent to do so during that period; that appellant failed to take any precautions in that respect, but willfully permitted the hogs to range over the grove during all the time the nuts were ripening and falling, and also while the crop was being actually gathered and harvested, and a large quantity of the nuts had been shaken from the trees and lay on the ground; and that the hogs of appellant ate up or destroyed the quantity as found by the court.

Related research

save for the limited purpose of supervising jointly with appellant the harvesting and gathering of the nut crop and for that purpose only. Nothing in the contract authorized respondent to enter the premises and build fences to inclose the grove, and there was no contractual or legal duty imposed upon him to do so or to employ swine-herds to prevent the hogs of appellant from ranging over it. Under the contract the walnut crop was made the basis of the price to be paid for the trees, and appellant being in possession of the tract embracing it, it was his duty to conduct himself respecting it so as to neither do, or permit to be done, any act which would tend to diminish or destroy the crop of walnuts. Obviously it was to the interest of appellant that no crop should be harvested off the grove in 1911; and to the extent that any prospective crop might be diminished or destroyed by appellant permitting his hogs to roam through the grove during harvest time it would be of material advantage to him. But it is fundamental that one cannot take advantage of his own wrong, and to sanction the conduct of appellant in the face of the purposes of their contract would be to violate that principle. Whatever right the appellant had to range his hogs over the entire premises at other seasons of the year, he had no right, having a due regard to a fair and honest carrying out of the contract between himself and respondent, to range them over the grove at a time when the crop had ripened and was ready for gathering and harvesting, and when the inevitable result would be to have a large quantity of it destroyed. The duty of appellant under the contract was to permit nothing to be done which he might prevent that would diminish the nut crop to be harvested and gathered, and his disregard of that duty, by negligently allowing his hogs to range over the grove and- destroy a portion of the crop, made him liable to respondent to the extent of the net value of the portion of the crop destroyed which would have constituted a partial basis for determining the price to be paid for the walnut trees. The court found that five hundred pounds of walnuts of the market value of twelve cents per pound, amounting to sixty dollars, were so destroyed, and determined that defendant was liable to ten times the value thereof under the terms of the contract. While appellant contends that this is a departure from the method whereby under the contract the purchase price of

AI Brief

Synopsis

LORIGAN, J.

More from California Supreme Court

Related research

AI Brief