Colonial & U. S. Mortg. Co. v. Jeter

• Decision Date: 17 January 1903
• Citation: 71 S.W. 945
• Parties: COLONIAL & U. S. MORTG. CO. v. JETER.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

71 S.W. 945

COLONIAL & U. S. MORTG. CO. v. JETER.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

January 17, 1903.

Appeal from circuit court, Chicot county; Zachariah T. Wood, Judge.

Action by the Colonial & United States Mortgage Company against Garland Jeter. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff appeals. Reversed.

Harry E. Cook and Norton & Prewett, for appellant. Baldy Vinson, for appellee.

BATTLE, J.

The Colonial & United States Mortgage Company brought this action against Garland Jeter on a note executed by him for the rent of lands, and sued out an order of attachment against the crops raised on the lands during the year they were rented for the purpose of enforcing and foreclosing a landlord's lien thereon. The defendant answered, and admitted the execution of the note, but denied it was given for rent. He denied that he rented the lands, but on the contrary averred that he purchased them, and executed the note sued on in part for the purchase money, and said: "If the evidence of such contract furnished this defendant by plaintiff is construed to mean a rental contract, then defendant avers that plaintiff has practiced a fraud upon him, in this: that he stated to defendant that the evidence so furnished him was a bond for title or a certificate of purchase in its effect, both as a matter of law and a matter of fact, and this defendant will be grossly misled to his prejudice."

The jury in the case returned a verdict in favor of the defendant, and the court rendered judgment accordingly, and the plaintiff appealed.

In the trial appellant adduced as evidence a written contract, by which it leased to the appellee certain lands from July 1, 1897, to November 1, 1900, and the appellee agreed to pay therefor certain sums of money on the 1st day of November in the years 1897, 1898, 1899, and 1900, for which sums three several notes were executed by him to appellant; and by which they further agreed that, if the appellee "shall have paid the rent notes above mentioned, together with any additional sums" provided for in the lease "as rent and attorney's fees that said lessor may have to pay for collecting said notes after their maturity, then said lessee [the appellee] shall have for the period between Nov. 1, 1900, and January 1, 1901, the option to purchase said lands for the sum of $1,000," to be paid in certain annual installments on the 1st day of November in the years 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, and 1905. The appellant then read as evidence one of the notes mentioned in the lease, which was given for the rent of said lands for the year 1899, for the sum of $312, it being the note sued on in this action. The crops attached were raised on the land leased, and in the year 1899.

The appellee, Garland Jeter, in his own behalf, testified as follows: "My name is Garland Jeter. I am the defendant in this cause. In the spring of 1897 I made a contract with Mr. Hornor for the rent of the property involved for $100 per year, and I was to make all necessary improvements. I put a fence around the property. There are about 95 acres in the tract. The place was in a bad condition at that time, and $100 was a good rent for same. About the 1st of July, 1897, a Mr. Williamson, from Memphis, came to see me about the place. He said that he was agent for the plaintiff, and asked me did I not want to buy the place. He said that I could get it for $1,000, to be paid in five years, the notes to be for $200 each, with interest. After some further conversation I told him that I would take the property, and he said that he would send me the papers after he returned to Memphis. In about a week I received the papers. One was a contract, and there were four notes. The contract filed above is an exact copy of the one signed by me, and the note sued on is...