84 Iowa 50 | Iowa | 1891
The petition was filed on the thirtieth day of March, 1882, and demands judgment against the defendant for the sum of one hundred and ten dollars, with interest and attorney’s fees, on a promissory note made to him, dated February 20, 1878, for seventy-one dollars, with interest thereon at ten per cent, per annum, payable annually. The answer denies that the note is unpaid, and alleges that
When the evidence had been fully submitted, the court charged the jury to return a verdict in favor of the plaintiff for the amount of the note, and refused to
I. The appellant seems to have abandoned all claims made in his answer excepting that set up in the
It is the theory of the plaintiff that he was entitled to the wheat by virtue of his mortgage, while the defendant insists that the mortgage gave to the plaintiff no right to the wheat, for the reason that the description of property contained in the mortgage was void for uncertainty. It will be noticed that the mortgage does not attempt to create a lien upon a separate part of a quantity of grain described; and, therefore, cases like that of Meredith v. Kunze, 78 Iowa, 111, are not in point. The description is of all the mortgagor’s “undivided two-thirds interest” in the crops described. The property mortgaged was a specified and undivided part of an entirety, which was accurately and fully described. Until the property was divided, the interest mortgaged was a part of the whole; but, when the division was effected, the interest conveyed by the mortgage was separated and definitely fixed. The description given was as specific as it was practicable to make it when the mortgage was given, and was so certain that there could have been no doubt as to the precise interest which the mortgage was intended to create. There was uncertainty, necessarily, as to the grains of wheat which might eventually be set apart as- the property of the mortgagor, but no more than there would have been had the mortgaged property been described as his entire interest in the crops specified. We conclude that the description in the mortgage was sufficient. See Jones on Chattel Mortgages, sec. 59; Potts v. Newell, 22 Minn. 562; Zehner v. Aultman, 74 Ind. 24.
ÍI. It is contended that the court erred in requiring the jury, by verbal direction, to retire a
III. The charge of the court requiring the jury to return a verdict for the amount due on the note was
IV. Some question is made as to the amount of the judgment, and it is said it is greater than that demanded in the petition. • The relief granted was consistent with the case made by the petition, was embraced within the issues presented by the pleadings, and was shown by the evidence to be due the plaintiff. Wé do not think the judgment should be disturbed on the ground that it is excessive. AeeirMed.