Walworth v. Harris

• Decision Date: 04 February 1889
• Parties: WALWORTH et al . v. HARRIS et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

9 S.Ct. 340

129 U.S. 355

32 L.Ed. 712

WALWORTH et al. v. HARRIS et al.

February 4, 1889.

Sarah Walworth, the appellant in the present case, and John B. Walworth, who died pending the suit, said Sarah being now his executrix, with many other persons, are complainants in a bill in chancery brought in the circuit court of the United States for the Eastern district of Arkansas, against Joseph L. Harris, John M. Parker, Z. T. Carlton, Sarah E. Bryan, and others. The object of the bill was to enjoin Carlton from proceeding to sell property conveyed to him by a deed of trust to secure certain debts due by the Bryans to J. L. Harris & Co. Lemuel c. Bryan and Joel E. Bryan were in business at Point Chicot, in Chicot county, Ark., under the partnership designation of L. C. Bryan & Bro. The main occupation was selling goods and buying cotton, but they also had several cotton plantations under their control. Among others they had leased from the heirs of Horace F. Walworth a farm at Point Chicot, for five years, at a rent of $5,500 a year, running from January 1, 1879, to January 1, 1884. Although the lease was executed in the name of Lemuel C. Bryan alone, it was for the benefit of the firm of Bryan & Bro., and it went into the general partnership business. Joseph L. Harris and John M. Parker, trading as partners under the firm name of J. L. Harris & Co., cotton brokers in the city of New Orleans, were the correspondents of Bryan & Bro., and to them the latter firm transmitted the cotton raised and purchased by them in Arkansas. During the pendency of this lease, to-wit, on December 9, 1881, Bryan & Bro., being indebted to Harris & Co., and desiring further accommodations and advancements from them, made a deed of trust to Z. T. Carlton, of the county of Chicot, in Arkansas, in which they conveyed to him as trustee substantially all their property in the state of Arkansas, and all the cotton or other products raised or gathered during the year 1881 on the plantations and tracts of land described, with about 250 bales of cotton, in seed, lint, and bales, on the Point Chicot plantation, leased from the heirs of Walworth. The purpose of this conveyance was declared to be to secure the payment of a debt of $35,000, evidenced by notes of Bryan & Bro., dated at New Orleans, La., December 9, 1881, drawn to the order of J. L. Harris & Co., and payable at their office in that city; also any advance in addition to said notes which Harris & Co. might make to Bryan & Bro., with various other agreements not material to be mentioned here. The bill of the complainants, except the heirs of Walworth, consists of allegations that Harris & Co. had undertaken that out of the proceeds of the property conveyed by this deed of trust to Carlton these creditors should be paid various sums due to them. The heirs of Walworth, in additon to this, set up that, by virtue of the lease made between them and Bryan & Bro. they had a lien on the cotton raised each year on the Point Chicot plantation for the amount of the rent, $5,500 per annum; and, further, that by virtue of the laws of Arkansas they had the landlord's lien for rent for the same sum on the cotton raised on the plantation. They also alleged that this cotton—the rent being unpaid—came to the hands of J. L. Harris & Co., who disposed of it, but that they were aware of the existence of such lien, and were bound by it. The circuit court, after a hearing on the bill, answer, replication, and evidence, dismissed it, and from that decree only the heirs of Walworth take this appeal, and they only as to the question of their right to recover the rent for one year by virtue of a lien on the cotton which came to the hands of Harris & Co. from the Bryans. All the other questions, therefore, which were raised in the case as it was originally heard and tried, are eliminated from its consideration in this court.

The lien here asserted seems to be founded upon expressions contained in the contract of lease, and upon the statute of Arkansas concerning the lien of a landlord. The only clause in the lease referring to a lien is the following: 'And it is further understood that the lessor shall have his lien on the crop for the security and payment of his rent, as set forth in this lease.' This reference to what is set forth in the lease, means the amount of the rent and the time of its payment, and the language that 'the lessor shall have his lien on the crop' evidently refers to the lien which the statute gives. So that, after all, it is the lien given by the statute of Arkansas which is the one sought to be enforced here.

J. S. Whitaker and D. H. Reynolds, for appellants.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 358-360 intentionally omitted] F. W. Compton and Thos. J. Semmes, for appellees.

MILLER, J.

There is no question that under the laws of Arkansas there existed a lien on some of the cotton transmitted by Bryan & Bro. to the defendants Harris & Co., while that property remained in the state of Arkansas; and it is attempted to aid the argument in this case, which holds Harris & Co. liable for that lien on the cotton received by them, by the allegation that they knew that it came from the Point Chicot plantation, and knew the rent was unpaid, and therefore had knowledge of the existence of the lien. This knowledge, however, or even notice, is not sustained by the evidence. The plaintiffs, in their bill, allege that Harris & Co. must have known of this lien, for two reasons. First, because they had paid the rent for two previous years to the heirs of Walworth; and, second, because the lease between the heirs of Walworth and Bryan & Bro. had been in their hands for a short time, so that they must be held to have known its contents. The bill is sworn to, and the answer is sworn to, with no waiver of an answer under oath; and, according to chancery practice, the answer of Joseph L. Harris, of the firm of J. L. Harris & Co., so far as it is responsive to these allegations, must be taken as evidence. In regard to the payment of the rent for the tow years mentioned, he says that he simply paid it upon the order of Bryan & Bro., out of funds of theirs in his hands, as he would have paid any other order of theirs, and without any knowledge as to the nature, character, or extent of the lien, or that the rent was a lien on cotton in his hands. As regards the possession of the lease referred to, he says that they (Harris & Co.) did, at one time, in the year 1880, which is over a year previous to the crop on which the lien is now claimed, have this lease in their possession; that it was deposited with them by one Whitaker, who claimed to have an interest in the lease, as collateral security for a loan of $600; and that, Whitaker having soon thereafter paid the same, it was returned to him without any further attention on their part. This statement is confirmed by the answer, which is also under oath, of Joel E. Bryan, the surviving partner of Bryan & Bro.; the other brother, Lemuel, having died before the trial. He says that L. C. Bryan & Bro. shipped of the cotton grown on the Point Chicot plantation in the year 1881, 467 bales, all of which was shipped to their own account to J. L. Harris & Co., to be by them sold as cotton factors, and the proceeds applied to the payment of advances made to their firm by Harris & Co.; and (referring evidently to the question of the lien stated in the bill to be impressed on said cotton) says that if it was impressed with anything beside the shipping brand of his...