Groome v. Almstead
Synopsis
Claim and Delivery—Crops Raised by Possessor Without Title—Void Contract.—Crops raised by a surviving partner in possession of land patented to a deceased partner as a homestead claim, under a void contract to the effect that the patent was to be procured for the use and benefit of the copartnership, are not the subject of claim and delivery at the suit of the heirs of the patentee.
Id.—Tenancy at Will—Rights op Possessor in Good Faith.—The contract to obtain the patent for the partnership being absolutely void, the partner in possession is not a tenant at will, and cannot claim the crops upon the ground that such tenancy was not terminated by thirty days’notice; but the plaintiffs out of possession cannot sue for the crops severed from the freehold by the defendant in possession of the premises, holding possession in good faith under adverse claim of right.
Id.—Remedy op Plaintiffs.—The only remedy of plaintiffs as holders of the legal title is to recover damages for the withholding of the land, measured by the rental value, or the value of the use and occupation of the land during the period it was occupied by defendant.
Appeal—Reversal op Judgment—Wrong Reason for Rendition.—A judgment which is right upon the merits should not be reversed by reason of the fact that the court gave a wrong reason for its rendition.
The Court.— Action for the recovery of certain personal property consisting of wheat and hay, of the alleged value of fourteen hundred and ninety-six dollars, or for the value thereof, in case delivery cannot be had, and for two hundred dollars damages for detention thereof.
Judgment for defendant, from which, and from an order denying their motion for a new trial, plaintiffs have appealed.
The plaintiff, Julia Groome, is the, widow of Thomas B. Groome, who died intestate May 30, 1890, seised of one hundred and sixty acres of land situate in the county of San Luis Obispo, on which he resided at the time of his death. Nellie E. Groome is the daughter of Thomas B. and Julia Groome, and was sixteen years of age when her father died; and the plaintiffs are the only heirs of Thomas B. Groome.
Thomas B. Groome obtained a patent for said land in December, 1890, under the circumstances stated in the case entitled “In re Groome," 94 Cal. 69, wherein it was decided that by virtue of the patent he acquired and held the absolute title to the land free from any trust in favor of the defendant herein (Almstead) and one Min-[427]tern, who claimed to be the equitable owners of an undivided eleventh-sixteenth parts thereof.
On August 16, 1890, letters of administration on the estate of Thomas B. Groome were issued to plaintiff, Julia.
In the winter of 1890-91 the defendant entered upon the land and commenced to plow the same for the purpose of planting a crop of wheat and hay to be harvested in 1891. Thereupon the plaintiff, Julia, verbally notified him not to plow the land nor plant any crop, and that the land was the property of the estate of Thomas B. Groome, but he disregarded her notice and protest, and proceeded to plow the land and plant the crop. Again, in May, 1891, when the crop was ripened, she forbade him to harvest the same. This he also disregarded, and harvested and removed the crop. Again, in the winter of 1891-92, defendant plowed and planted the land, and in May and June, 1892, harvested the crops against like protests of plaintiff, Julia.
In the mean time, on May 29,1891, the plaintiff, Julia, had petitioned the superior court to set apart the whole of the land to the plaintiffs as a homestead. This petition was opposed by the defendant herein, and denied by the court. On appeal to this court the order was reversed, and the cause remanded. (In re Groome, 94 Cal. 69.)
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