95 Me. 538 | Me. | 1901
As we construe tbe contract, tbe plaintiff, on November 7, 1899, leased bis farm to one Rogers for one year, and for rental, Rogers agreed to pay one hundred and twenty-five dol
Ordinarily, the tenant of a farm becomes the owner of the crops grown, and may sell or mortgage them. Bailey v. Fillebrown, 9 Maine, 12; Dockham v. Parker, 9 Maine, 137 ; Sherburne v. Jones, 20 Maine, 70 ; Richards v. Wardwell, 82 Maine, 343. A sale by mortgagor to mortgagee vests complete title in the latter. Hence it follows that the sale of the potatoes by Rogers to Hopkins Brothers, and by them to the defendants, gave the latter a perfect title, unless the plaintiff had a superior title, because an earlier one.
He claims that he had. He claims that Rogers had no title in the potatoes which he could sell or mortgage; that by the terms of the lease, the title to all crops was reserved to the plaintiff himself; hence that no title passed to Hopkins Brothers, either by Rogers’ mortgage or by his subsequent sale. The defendants answer that if the reservation were intended to be an absolute one, it was null and void as repugnant to the grant, Turner v. Bachelder, 17 Maine, 257, citing Co. Lit. 142, a; and that if it were intended to be conditional, as security for the rent, it constituted a mortgage, either legal or equitable, and must have been recorded in order to prevent subsequent liens from attaching, or subsequent sales by the mortgagor from conveying title to innocent purchasers.
We think we may disregard the former horn of the dilemma, for it is clear, from the language of the lease itself, that the lessor attempted to reserve title as security for rent. The contract,
So it was in the power of the tenant Rogers to sell or mortgage the crops, so far as the rights of innocent parties were concerned, in disregard of his contract with his lessor, unless the latter either took possession or recorded his mortgage. Beeman v. Lawton, 37 Maine, 543. For to shut out or postpone claims of subsequent purchasers, or mortgagees, an equitable mortgage must be recorded, the same as a legal one. Putnam v. White, 76 Maine, 551. Or possession must be taken.
Such, in effect, was the instruction of the presiding justice to which exceptions were taken.
Exceptions overruled.