California Delta Farms, Inc. v. Chinese American Farms, Inc.

PRESTON, J.

This, the third appeal in the above-entitled cause, is from an order made on July 10, 1925, on motion of plaintiff, appointing a receiver

pendente lite.

The order confers power upon the receiver to collect what is termed “mesne profits,” which is therein interpreted to mean a conferring of power upon said receiver to substitute himself for the defendant and’ secure and keep, pending further order of the court, all of defendant’s portion, or its equivalent, of the

fructus industriales

after severance, produced on the real property in suit during the year 1926. Said property for said year was being cropped by various tenants of defendant under agreements providing for shares of the yield in lieu of rentals. The order is sweeping in its scope and, in short, divests defendant of all rights as a possessor of said lands and invests them in the receiver. The order indirectly imputes to defendant a purpose to circumvent the efforts of the receiver to gain possession of said crop and makes elaborate provisions to help him in such event.

The main action, begun on September 15, 1924, was one to declare forfeited all rights of defendant under a contract made in 1919 wherein plaintiff agreed to sell and defendant to buy some 3,460 acres of agricultural lands in San Joaquin County. The purchase price was approximately $900,000, payable in installments, some forty per cent of said purchase price having been paid prior to suit; 'the final installment thereof matured in 1928. Defendant entered into possession of the premises on January 1,1920, and so remained at the time of the order here appealed from. Defendant duly answered and also filed a cross-action and, after denial of de

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fault, set up, among other defenses, the enactment in 1920 of the second Alien Land Act (Stats. 1921, p. lxxxiii), effective December 9th of said year, contending that thereby the consideration for all unexecuted portions of said contract became illegal and in violation of the penal provisions of said statute. Basing its claims upon this contention, it tendered restoration of possession of said property upon the granting to it of an accounting in equity of all payments made, itself offering to account for the value of the use and occupation of the lands, but asserting a lien under section 3050 of the Civil Code, coupled with the right to remain in possession until the lien so claimed was satisfied.