Darrar v. Chase

• Decision Date: 20 July 1959
• Docket Number: No. 8694,8694
• Citation: 342 P.2d 703,81 Idaho 398
• Parties: Eugene DARRAR, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Cyril CHASE, Mansfield Shepherd, and Chase-Shepherd Lumber Company, Inc., Defendants-Respondents.
• Court: Idaho Supreme Court

Page 703

342 P.2d 703

81 Idaho 398

Eugene DARRAR, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Cyril CHASE, Mansfield Shepherd, and Chase-Shepherd Lumber Company, Inc., Defendants-Respondents.

No. 8694.

Supreme Court of Idaho.

July 20, 1959.

J. H. Felton, Warren Felton, Lewiston, for appellant.

E. L. Miller, Scott White Reed, Coeur d'Alene, for respondents.

Hawkins & Miller and the late James W. Wayne, Coeur d'Alene, for respondents, Cyril Chase and Mansfield Shepherd.

Scott W. Reed, Coeur d'Alene, for respondent, Chase-Shepherd Lumber Co., Inc.

PORTER, Chief Justice.

This is an action prosecuted by plaintiff for the recovery of triple damages for malicious trespass on timber alleged to be owned by plaintiff-appellant. At the trial the court entered judgments of nonsuit in favor of defendants. From such judgments appellant prosecutes this appeal.

On the first of February, 1955, Carl M. Buell, as seller, and respondents, Cyril Chase and Mansfield Shepherd, as buyers, entered into a written agreement whereby the seller sold to the buyers all the merchantable timber located upon a certain 80-acre tract of land in Shoshone County, for the agreed price of $5 per one thousand board feet of logs taken from such land. The seller guaranteed that there would be not less than 400,000 board feet of logs on such land, and received an advance payment from the buyers in the sum of $2,000. The contract provided that it would expire on December 31, 1955.

At the time the purchase contract was made, the buyers entered into a contract with the appellant, Eugene Darrar, whereby Darrar was employed to and agreed to log and remove all merchantable timber from such 80 acres of land and deliver it to the sawmill of the buyers at Calder, Idaho, for the agreed price of $23 per thousand board feet. By this contract, appellant likewise guaranteed to harvest and deliver at least 400,000 board feet of logs from such timber tract.

These negotiations and the subsequent contracts were largely the result of the efforts of appellant. The interests in the two contracts of the respondents, Cyril Chase and Mansfield Shepherd, were thereafter transferred to the respondent corporation.

Appellant moved onto the timber tract with his machinery and with his men and commenced logging. In May, 1955, the sawmill of respondents was burned. This slowed down the ability of respondents to receive logs and likewise slowed their payment for same. The rebuilding of the sawmill was not completed for about two months.

In July appellant ceased to log the timber tract and moved off his machinery and men, giving as his reason for discontinuing the performance of his contract, the slowness of unloading at the mill of respondents and the slowness of payment. Appellant had delivered approximately 276,000 board feet of logs and was paid therefor in full. Appellant did not return to the timber tract and complete his contract to remove all the merchantable timber and deliver it to respondents.

On January 11, 1956, a meeting was had between the appellant, a representative of the respondents and Carl M. Buell. At such meeting it was agreed that the expiration date of the purchase contract between Carl M. Buell and respondents should be indefinitely extended and that the logging contract between appellant and respondents should likewise be extended in order that appellant could complete his contract to remove and deliver to respondents 400,000 board feet of logs for which respondents had paid Buell and all other merchantable timber from the 80-acre tract in question. It was also agreed that appellant should receive $2 per thousand board feet additional compensation for all timber thereafter removed and delivered to respondents.

Appellant failed and neglected to carry out his contract to remove all the merchantable timber from the 80-acre tract and deliver it to respondents. Thereupon respondents contracted with one Lester Darrar, a brother of appellant, to complete the removal of the merchantable timber from the 80-acre tract and the delivery of such timber to respondents, and which logging he completed between the latter part of July and the latter part of September, 1956.

In the meantime, appellant became interested in timber contracts with other parties and became desirous of obtaining the merchantable timber still remaining unremoved from the 80-acre tract in question. On July 17, 1956, he obtained from Carl M. Buell, an instrument in the form of a quitclaim deed transferring to appellant all merchantable timber on the 80-acre tract and containing an expiration date of December 31, 1956. This instrument recites no consideration and in...