163 Iowa 343 | Iowa | 1913
In February, 1907, the plaintiff leased a building one year at a rental of $15 per month and installed an engine, boiler with accessories, and other machinery. The business engaged in did not prosper, and about the middle of October of that year, through mutual agreement, the lease was surrendered. As this affected the insurance hazard on defendant’s other property, it remitted past-due rent, and plaintiff was allowed to leave the engine, boiler, and accessories in the building, as he contends, until convenient to remove them, or, as claimed by defendant, until the lease would have expired in February following. About-March, 1910, plaintiff proposed to remove the property, but defendant required as a condition precedent the payment of a rental or storage charge of $50, though this was later reduced to $25. Payment thereof was refused, and this action for conversion was begun.
I. The evidence was in conflict as to whether the understanding was that the property might be left in the building until February, 1908, when the lease would have expired, or until it should be convenient for plaintiff to take it away. The plaintiff testified that the latter was the arrangement with defendant’s superintendent under which he yielded possession of the premises, and though he addressed a letter to defendant dated October 16, 1907, proposing to surrender his lease “except for the purpose of storing my machinery, etc., until the expiration of the lease, unless such stuff be sooner disposed of,” he explained that the arrangement with the superintendent was had prior to writing the letter, and farther that he was never notified of the acceptance of his written proposition. The superintendent testified that the conversation between him and plaintiff was that the property might remain until February, 1908, and that, at his suggestion, the
If, then, the defendant had no claim to or lien on the engine, boiler, and accessories for rent or storage, and upon demand refused to allow plaintiff to remove these from its premises, this amounted to a wrongful detention of his property and, in the language of the books, the exercise of a dominion over it to the exclusion or in defiance of plaintiff’s right, and constituted conversion.
We discover no error, and the judgment is Affirmed.