Movsesian v. Chernabaeff

GRIFFIN, J. This action for damages arose out of a lease covering 160 acres of property in Kern County. Defendants, as owners, leased the property to plaintiffs on November 12, 1942, which lease contained an option to renew it for the calendar year 1944, upon the same terms. It provided that “A written notice handed to or mailed to the lessors ... on or before November 1, 1943, shall be sufficient expression on the part of the lessees that they have elected to exercise said option. ’ ’

Although the evidence is conflicting on the point, defendants testified and the court found that on two occasions, one in July and the other in August, 1943, plaintiffs informed defendants that they did not intend to exercise their optional right to the acreage for the year 1944, and that thereafter, and prior to November 1, 1943, defendants, relying upon such information, made a lease of that property to another. That lease was dated September 22, 1943, acknowledged and recorded October 2,1943. Plaintiffs, on seeing the notice of such recordation, prepared a notice of exercise of their optional rights and dated it September 30, 1943. Upon the evidence produced, the court, in addition to other findings, found that plaintiffs were estopped to claim the optional rights. Judgment was entered for defendants. The question presented on this appeal is the sufficiency of the evidence to support the findings.

Plaintiffs went into possession of the property on January 1, 1943, added gypsum to the soil, and planted it to potatoes. The crop was taken off in July. Thereafter, according to plaintiffs, the land was scraped, plowed and disked in preparation for the 1944 planting. The defendants, under the obligations of the new lease, went on the 160 acres in September, 1943, and cultivated the land for tenancy by the new lessee. It was testified that about September 22d plaintiffs asked defendants if they had already leased the property because “they read it [319]in the legal news” and that defendant William Chernabaeff said he had leased the property and if plaintiffs had any complaints they should “register them with Sam.” Plaintiffs had acquired, just before that time, 297 acres adjoining these premises on which they planted potatoes and alfalfa. They testified that after Sam asked them for $500 advance payment on next year’s rent, which they refused, they told him in August, 1943, they were spending considerable money on the land and would pay him on January 1, 1944. Plaintiffs admitted trying to sublease the 160-aere tract for 1944, at $25 per acre, by running an advertisement in the paper on September 16, 1943, and testified that they moved off of the property and onto the adjoining property by November, 1943.