Blake v. Barrett

• Decision Date: 05 June 1883
• Citation: 61 Iowa 79,15 N.W. 845
• Parties: BLAKE v. BARRETT.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

61 Iowa 79

15 N.W. 845

BLAKE

v.BARRETT.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Filed June 5, 1883.

Appeal from Harrison district court.

The plaintiff brings this action to recover of the defendant the value of over 1,400 bushels of corn. The plaintiff alleges that the corn in question was raised upon premises which he rented from one Addie E. Barber, and was his property, and that the defendant obtained possession thereof by force and threats, and converted the same to his own use. The defendant for answer denies that the corn referred to in the petition was the property of the plaintiff, and alleges that prior to the time he took possession of the corn the plaintiff represented that the corn belonged to one F. J. Barber, and counseled and advised the defendant to purchase the same of Barber, which the defendant did, relying upon the representations of plaintiff that the land described in plaintiff's petition did not belong to Addie E. Barber, but belonged to her husband, F. J. Barber, and was fraudulently conveyed by F. J. Barber, without consideration, to his wife, to hinder and defraud his creditors; and that plaintiff rented the lands of Addie E. Barber to assist said Barber and wife in defrauding defendant in the collection of a just claim against the said F. J. Barber. The trial was to a jury, and resulted in a verdict and judgment for plaintiff for $450.50. The defendant appeals.L. R. Bolter, for appellant.

E. K. Burch and S. H. Cochran, for appellee.

DAY, C. J.

The evidence shows that the plaintiff entered into a written lease with Addie E. Barber for certain premises, for the term of one year from the first day of March, 1879, agreeing to pay for the rental one-third of all the crops raised, and that he raised on said premises over 6,000 bushels of corn. On the sixteenth day of June, 1879, F. J. Barber executed to the defendant a bill of sale for an undivided one-third interest in all the crops on the land described in the petition. The evidence tends to show that at the time of the execution of the bill of sale, F. J. Barber was indebted to the defendant, and that before the bill of sale was executed the plaintiff told the defendant that he rented the farm of F. J. Barber, and advised him to get a bill of sale of one-third of the crop, and that the defendant obtained 1,494 bushels of corn, which was hauled for him by the plaintiff. The evidence tends to show that the corn was undivided, in cribs on the farm, and that plaintiff hauled and sold a portion of it as his own, and hauled to the defendant the quantity above named, pursuant to the bill of sale.

1. While the corn was being delivered, and when the defendant had received from six to nine hundred bushels of it, the plaintiff informed the defendant that Barber came about dark and took some of the corn away. At the suggestion of the plaintiff the defendant had Barber...