98 Pa. Super. 483 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1929
Argued November 20, 1929.
Plaintiff was tenant of defendant's farm for the year beginning March 1, 1927. The evidence on both sides establishes this. If he entered into possession before the terms of the lease had been finally settled, he may have been, at the outset, a trespasser, but he did not become a cropper, as contended by defendant's counsel at the argument. She subsequently recognized his tenancy by issuing a distress warrant for rent against him. A cropper is one hired to work land, to be compensated by a share of the produce. He has no interest in the land but receives his share, after division by the owner, as the price of his labor. The possession remains in the owner of the land, and hence the remedy by distress is not applicable against a cropper: Steel v. Frick,
None of the assignments of error gives us any concern except the court's instructions as to the measure of damages. The plaintiff himself testified in chief that he had been committed to the penitentiary, after the expiration of his year's lease, for certain crimes committed off the premises. It made no difference in this issue whether he had pleaded guilty or had been convicted after trial. The conversation between plaintiff's attorney and defendant's attorney as to the harvesting of the wheat was relevant and admissible, whether defendant was present or not. Her attorney *486 was acting for her in the matter. The testimony of the plaintiff was in strict accord with the lease prepared by defendant's attorney and signed by her, although not signed by the plaintiff. As before pointed out, so far as the plaintiff's title and right of possession to the wheat crop was concerned it made no difference whether he was to harvest the crop and sell it and pay defendant half the proceeds, or was to harvest the crop and divide it, giving her half. She did not permit him to do either. What the crop of wheat, harvested a month or more late, sold for at constable's sale on the distress warrant the day before the trial, was not relevant. The inquiry was as to its value at the time of its conversion by the defendant, when ready to harvest.
The learned court below charged the jury that if the terms of the lease were as claimed by the plaintiff he was entitled to a verdict for the value of the entire crop of wheat growing in the ground, ready to be harvested, at the time when she denied him the right to harvest it, took possession of it herself and converted it to her use. That is unquestionably the measure of damages for an unlawful conversion by a third party, for in such case the verdict includes the landlord's interest in the crop and out of it the tenant must account to the landlord for half the crop. All of the cases cited by the court below, except one, (Rank v. Rank,
The first and eighth assignments of error are sustained. The judgment is reversed and a new trial awarded. *488