56 So. 329 | Miss. | 1911
delivered the opinion of the court.
On the 17th day of April, 1902, appellant by deed granted to appellee “the right for a period of four years from this date to cut and remove all merchantable timber ’ ’ on certain land. Within the life of this contract a considerable portion of the timber was cut down by appellee and cut into sawlogs. Appellee also built a tramroad through the land for the purpose of removing-logs therefrom. These sawlogs were removed from the
The court fatally erred in instructing the jury that the burden of identifying the particular logs cut from his land was upon the appellant. Evans v. Morgan, 69 Miss. 329, 12 South. 370; Ouilette v. Davis, 69 Miss. 762, 12 South. 27. Appellee having intermingled these logs with logs cut from other lands, in such manner that it became impossible for appellant to identify them, she must bear the loss and inconvenience resulting therefrom. Should she desire to retain the logs cut from land other than that of appellant, it devolves upon her to furnish the proof necessary to separate them from those cut from appellant’s land.
Appellee contends, however, that the granting of this instruction is harmless error, for the reason that saw-logs are manufactured articles, within the rule applied in Butler v. McPherson Bros., 95 Miss. 635, 49 South. 257. In this appellee is mistaken, for sawlogs are not manufactured articles within this rule, as will appear from an examination of Clark v. Ingram-Day Lumber Company, 90 Miss. 479, 43 South. 813, and Butler v. McPherson Bros., supra. They are simply felled trees cut into appropriate lengths for manufacture. The fact