Slone-Carter Grain Co. v. Jones

• Decision Date: 10 October 1952
• Docket Number: SLONE-CARTER,No. 5523,5523
• Citation: 1952 NMSC 94,56 N.M. 712,248 P.2d 1065
• Parties: GRAIN CO. v. JONES et al.
• Court: New Mexico Supreme Court

Page 1065

248 P.2d 1065

56 N.M. 712

SLONE-CARTER GRAIN CO. v. JONES et al.

No. 5523.

Supreme Court of New Mexico.

Oct. 10, 1952.

Morgan & Morgan, Portales, Smith & Smith, Clovis, for appellants.

Mears & Mears, Portales, for appellees.

SADLER, Justice.

The appellant, defendant below, appeals from a judgment against him in the sum of $2,303.20 in favor of the plaintiff, appellee in this court, awarded by the district court of Roosevelt County following a trial before the court without a jury. The complaint alleged breach of an oral contract to sell and deliver to plaintiff all sweet sudan seed raised on described land for the cropping season of 1950 at an agreed price of $4 per hundred weight. The parties will be referred to as they appeared below.

In the year 1950 the defendant, C. S. Jones, was the owner of the SW 1/4 of Section 33, Township 5 South, Range 37 East, N.M.P.M. In the early part of that year he entered into an oral agreement with his son, Marvin Jones, then a minor, under which the latter was to farm the land above mentioned for the year 1950. Under the arrangement made C. J. Jones was to select the area to be planted to each crop to be grown as determined by him. The son, Marvin, was to arrange for the seed to be planted put the father was to pay for it. C. S. Jones, the father, would decide the time for harvesting and selling the crops, the price at which to be sold and the person to whom to sell. The son was authorized to contract the sale of the crops, make delivery of them, receive the purchase price therefor and pay same over to his father. The oral agreement further provided that C. S. Jones should pay the living expenses of Marvin Jones and family for the year 1950 and in addition he was to receive a portion of the proceeds from the crops for his work on the farm which at all times was to be worked under the supervision and control of the father, C. S. Jones.

The plaintiff is a copartnership composed of Jay Slone and Cyril Carter and was engaged at all times material to this action in the grain business at Portales, New Mexico. On June 8, 1950, the plaintiff entered into a written contract with the defendant, Marvin Jones, whereby plaintiff agreed to furnish him all the seed necessary to plant the above described land in a crop of sweet sudan and when harvested to purchase same from him, the defendant, Marvin, promising to sell all the sweet sudan seed so raised on the land in 1950 at the agreed price of $4 per hundred weight. The plaintiff at the time of entering into such contract knew Marvin Jones was in possession of the land described and was farming it in 1950. Actually, as already indicated, the land was owned by his father, C. S. Jones.

The sweet sudan seed crop so planted and raised for the cropping year of 1950 belonged to C. S. Jones and the contract made between plaintiff and Marvin Jones was made for the use and benefit of C. S. Jones. It was not until about September 10, 1950, that C. S. Jones first learned of the contract between his son, Marvin, and the plaintiff. He did not repudiate the contract, however, until a day or two prior to commencement of this action by which time he could have learned that the market price of sweet sudan seed was in excess of what plaintiff was to pay as set forth in the written contract between plaintiff and Marvin Jones.

When the father learned of the contract made by his son with the plaintiff he would not permit his son to deliver the sudan seed to plaintiff and did not offer to pay plaintiff for the seed furnished until after commencement of this suit. A total of 57,580 pounds of sweet sudan seed was raised and harvested by the son. Plaintiff was at all times ready, and willing and able to pay the agreed price it contracted to pay and the defendants were so notified. The market price of sweet sudan was $8 per hundred weight on November 1, 1950.

The trial court having made the foregoing findings of fact concluded therefrom that the oral agreement between C. S. Jones and Marvin Jones created a relationship between them whereby the latter was authorized to farm the lands in question as agent for the former; that in contracting the sale of the sudan seed crop Marvin Jones acted as agent for an undisclosed principal, namely, C. S. Jones, for whose benefit the contract was made and who was liable thereon. The court further concluded that plaintiff was entitled to recover from defendant, C. S. Jones, $2,303.20, the difference between the contract price and the market price at the time of the breach of the contract, with statutory interest and costs.

It was on the foregoing findings and conclusions that the trial court entered judgment against the defendant C. S. Jones in the sum already stated. Before entering into a discussion of the merits of the appeal it should be added that the defendant Marvin Jones, although a minor at time of entering into this contract, had married in the fall of 1949 which explains the recitation in the court's findings that as a part of the agreement between father and son C. S. Jones was to pay the living expenses of his son, Marvin Jones, and family. Furthermore in the separate answer filed by Marvin Jones through a guardian ad litem, among other defenses, he pleaded his minority and disaffirmed the contract, praying a dismissal upon that ground. In the final judgment entered the court dismissed him out of the case, leaving the single defendant C. S. Jones, his father, as the appellant in this court.

The defendant argues the case under as many as four separate points and much time is spent in presenting the contention that the case was not tried on the theory of agency and, hence, agency should not be considered as support for the judgment, citing Pecos Valley Trading Co. v. Atchison T. & S. F. Ry. Co., 24 N.M. 480, 174 P. 736; and in seeking to determine whether the contract between the father and son was one of landlord and tenant as in Washburn-Wilson Seed Co. v. Alexie, 54 Idaho 727, 35 P.2d 990, or whether the son was a mere share cropper as discussed in Powers v. Wheless, 193 S.C. 364, 9 S.E.2d 129. The latter points are merely incidental to the question whether the son was in fact an agent of his father and, if an agent, whether this discloses a case for holding the father liable as an undisclosed principal. But these and every other question argued, each and all, are resolved by deciding the single issue, namely, assuming agency of some sort on the part of the son, was he authorized to contract the sale of the sweet sudan seed crop which he was about to plant, cultivate and harvest, under the arrangement disclosed between him and his father.

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