Dodge v. Cutrer

• Decision Date: 20 November 1911
• Docket Number: 14596
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: D. D. DODGE v. J. W. CUTRER

56 So. 455

100 Miss. 647

D. D. DODGE v. J. W. CUTRER

No. 14596

Supreme Court of Mississippi

November 20, 1911

APPEAL from the circuit court of Coahoma county, HON. SAM C. COOK Judge.

Suit by D. D. Dodge against J. W. Cutrer. From a judgment for defendant, plaintiff appeals.

Mrs Flora E. Dodge, and her husband, H. C. Dodge, were the owners of a plantation in Sunflower county, Mississippi, and were engaged in the business of planting as a partnership, under the firm name and style of H. C. & F. E. Dodge. Some marital troubles having arisen between them, Mrs. Dodge, through her attorney, began negotiations for the sale of her undivided half interest in the property, which resulted in the sale of same on July 13, 1905, to J. W. Cutrer, the appellee here. There were several liens and incumbrances on said property including the taxes for 1904, which were mentioned in the conveyance, and, except as to those enumerated, the grantor warranted the title to the property. In the course of the negotiations it appeared that D. D. Dodge (this appellant) who was the father of H. C. Dodge, was asserting a claim of an indebtedness due him by H. C. & F. E. Dodge, and accordingly, contemporaneously with the execution and delivery of the deed from Mrs. F. E. Dodge to him, Cutrer executed the following instrument, to-wit:

"State of Mississippi, Coahoma county. As a part of the consideration of the conveyance which F. E. Dodge has this day executed to me of certain lands in Sunflower county state of Mississippi, I agree to pay and hold the said F. E. Dodge harmless from the payment of any and all debts, including taxes on the above lands for the year 1905, for which H. C. Dodge and F. E. Dodge are jointly liable, or which were or are a part of the indebtedness contracted and owing by the firm of H. C. Dodge and F. E. Dodge, who lately conducted business as partners on the above-mentioned lands in Sunflower county, state of Mississippi, under the firm name and style of H. C. & F. E. Dodge. Witness my signature at Clarksdale, Mississippi, this the 13th day of July, A. D. 1905. J. W. Cutrer."

Thereafter D. D. Dodge demanded of Cutrer the payment of two certain notes, then long past due, executed jointly by H. C. Dodge and F. E. Dodge in favor of D. D. Dodge, in 1898 and 1900 respectively, aggregating the sum of nine hundred and twenty-five dollars. Payment having been refused, suit was brought. At the close of the...