83 Wash. 30 | Wash. | 1914
This is an action for damages growing out of the alleged conversion of a crop of wheat. Verdict and judgment for plaintiffs. The defendants have appealed.
The facts are these: On the 28th day of February, 1911, the appellants entered into a written contract with one Meyers by which they leased to him certain land in Grant county. A portion of the land was leased for one year and the remainder for two years. The lease was duly filed for record in March following. The lease provides that the lessee shall not assign the lease or sublet the leased premises without the written consent of the lessors. It further provides that the title to all the products of the land shall be and remain in the lessors until they have received their rent, viz., one-third of the crop at the machine in sacks furnished by them, and that the lessee shall not dispose of any part of the crop to the prejudice of the lessors. The lessee fallowed one hundred and fifty acres of the leased land which fell within the two-year clause, in 1911, sowed it to wheat in September, and on the 24th day of February, 1912, caused his interest in the growing crop to be sold at public sale to the respondents, who paid at the rate of $2.95 per acre. The attempted sale was made without the knowledge or consent of the lessors.
The appeal presents three principal questions: (1) a question of pleading and practice; (2) the effect of the sale of a growing crop under the provisions of the lease; and (3) the sufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict.
At the close of the respondents’ opening statement to the jury, the appellants’ counsel moved the court to require the respondents to elect whether they would predicate title upon the purchase at public sale or whether they would rely upon title by estoppel. This motion was denied. The case was tried by the respondents upon the theory of ratification and estoppel. It is now contended that the complaint is insufficient in that it does not. plead a title acquired in either of these ways. It is alleged in the complaint that respondents
It is next contended that, under the terms of the lease, the lessee had no authority to sell the crop without the consent of the appellants, which it is conceded was not given at the time of the sale. Inasmuch as the court so instructed the jury, this question need not be further considered.
The chief contention upon the merits is that the evidence does not support the verdict. It is admitted that, shortly after the pretended sale of the growing crop, Meyers left the leased premises and did not return. The appellants claim that they re-entered and re-possessed themselves of the premises on the 23d day of April, 1912. They harvested the crop in July following. Upon the other side of the case, the respondent Maxwell testified that the -respondents bought Meyers’ interest in the growing crop upon one hundred and fifty
At the close of the respondents’ testimony, the appellants’ challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence was denied. The appellant A. It. Dimond testified that the auctioneer told him the latter part of March that he had sold the wheat; that he told him “I guessed he was mistaken . . . that there was a lease; that the lease said that it could not be assigned nor disposed of without written consent.” The appellants in the main denied the conversations to which the respondents testified.
Upon these facts, we think the court was warranted in denying the appellants’ challenge and submitting the case to the jury. Rowe v. James, 71 Wash. 267, 128 Pac. 539; Carruthers v. Whitney, 56 Wash. 327, 105 Pac. 831, 134 Am. St.0 1114.
“The basis of all estoppel in pais is that there is one innocent party and one negligent or wrongdoing party, and the doctrine means that, when the innocent party has been induced to surrender a valuable right or to change his position to his prejudice relying upon the acts or representations of the negligent or wrongdoing party, then the latter will not be heard to assert the falsity of his acts or representations to the prejudice of the former.”
In Carruthers v. Whitney, Judge Dunbar, speaking for the court, said:
“The well-understood idea of equitable estoppel is that, where a person wrongfully or negligently by his acts or representations causes another who has a right to rely upon such acts or representations to change his condition for the worse, the party making such representations shall not be allowed to plead their falsity for his own advantage.”
The testimony as to the harrowing done in March was admissible upon two grounds, (a) to show that the respondents were acting in good faith, and (b) because of the testimony of the respondent Maxwell to the effect that he told the appellants in the first conversation he had with them that he had harrowed the wheat. The jury evidently believed this testimony. When silence becomes a fraud, it will operate as an estoppel. When the appellants found that the respondents had bought Meyers’ interest in the crop and had harrowed the wheat and were intending to again harrow it and do whatever was necessary to contribute to its proper growth and maturity, it became their bounden duty to speak, and their silence, in the face of the facts stated', was of such a character as to warrant the jury in inferring ratification or estoppel. It was upon this theory that the court submitted the case to the jury. He instructed the jury that, under the terms of the lease, Meyers had no right to sell his interest in the growing crop; that if he did sell it and left the leased land without any intention of returning, the attempted sale and departure from the land operated as an abandonment
No 'error is assigned to the instructions, and we think the evidence warranted the verdict. The judgment is affirmed.
Crow, C. J., Morris, Parker, and Chadwick, JJ., concur.