72 Miss. 174 | Miss. | 1894
delivered the opinion of the court.
In April, 1893, one Donnell executed a deed of trust upon his crops to be grown that year to secure the payment of certain debts therein described to J. D. Fulmer, which deed was, on that day, recorded. When, and as, the cotton was gathered it was carried by Donnell to the gin of Irwin, and by him pre
The case is argued by counsel here, and we suppose it was so conducted in the court below, as though Irwin’s right of recovery depended upon the existence or nonexistence of a common law lien upon this cotton for his charges in ginning it and other cotton. The contention of counsel for the appellee is, that Irwin’s charges for ginning other cotton than the five bales of which the three in controversy was a part cannot be fixed upon the three bales, because all other cotton was delivered upon distinct and separate bailments, and, by parting with possession of such other cotton, the lien was lost, and could not be transferred to the cotton last ginned. It is probable
The right of the appellant, however, does not rest upon a common law lien, and the learning on that subject, and thepriority of right asserted by appellee by reason of his claim under the recorded deed, are not relevant in this controversy. By the code of 1892, § 2682, it is, inter alia, provided that ‘' every employe, laborer, cropper, part owner, or other person who may aid by his labor to make, gather or prepare for sale or market any crop, shall have a lien on the interest of the person who contracts with him for such labor for his wages, share or interest in such crop, whatever may be the kind of wages or the nature of the interest, which lien such employe, laborer, cropper, part owner or other person, may offset, recoup or otherwise assert and maintain. And such liens shall lie paramount to all liens and incumbrances or rights of any kind created by or against the person so contracting for such assistance, except the lien of the lessor of the land on which the crop is made for rent and supplies furnished, as provided in the chapter on landlord and tenant.” The primary and principal purpose of this section is to afford security to agricultural laborers — those engaged in planting, cultivating, gathering and preparing the crops for market. But neither in letter nor spirit is-it confined in its operation to laborers of that class. The lien is not given only to the laborer, employe, cropper or part owner, nor to those only who make, gather and prepare the crop for market. It is also given to any other person — i. <?., to persons other than employes, laborers, croppers or part owners — who may aid by their labor to make, gather or prepare for sale or market any crop. The crop most generally grown in this state, and the crop grown for market, consists almost wholly of cotton, and this is prepared
We are not to be understood as deciding that one who gins the cotton of a planter thereby acquires a lien on the other crops of a different 'character grown by him, nor that the lien extends to other cotton not prepared for market by the owner of the gin, nor that the lien exists after the ginner parts with possession of the property. We decide only that the lien of the ginner is given by law: that it is superior to all other liens or incumbrances, except that of the landlord, and that it is within the power of the owner of the cotton, though it be under mortgage, to so arrange with the ginner as to fix the lien upon any portion of the .crop as security for his charges for ginning the whole. We speak, of course, with reference to the facts involved in this case, in which no injury to' third persons results from the execution of the agreement between the parties. Fulmer, the beneficiary in the deed of trust, suffers no loss or injury by reason of the fact that the cotton first ginned was turned over to Donnell without payment of the charges against it and the cotton in controversy held for the whole amount. Read in their broadest sense, the words of the statute give a lien on the whole crop for work done on any part of it, and, in
The judgment is reversed.