Title: Chasteen v. Childers

State: kansas

Issuer: Kansas Supreme Court

Document:

218 Kan. 519 (1976)
546 P.2d 935
KEITH CHASTEEN, Appellee,
v.
GLEN CHILDERS, Appellant, and AMERICAN QUARTER HORSE ASSOCIATION and THOMAS W. BROOKS, Appellees.
No. 47,725

Supreme Court of Kansas.
Opinion filed January 24, 1976.
C. Bruce Works, of Topeka, argued the cause and was on the brief for appellant.
Thomas W. Brooks, of Overland Park, argued the cause, and William D. Hamblin, of Overland Park, was with him on the brief for appellees.
The opinion of the court was delivered by
FATZER, C.J.:
This is an appeal from a judgment in favor of *520 the plaintiff-appellee, Keith Chasteen, and third-party defendant, Thomas W. Brooks, in an action brought under the provisions of the agister's lien law (K.S.A. 1974 Supp. 58-207 et seq.) to assert and enforce a statutory lien on certain horses for their care and keep.
The plaintiff-appellee owned some 400 acres comprised of five tracts of land in Sections 17 and 18, Township 12 South, Range 18, East of the Sixth Principal Meridian in Douglas County, Kansas. The land was on the north and south of U.S. Highway 40, east of Big Springs, Kansas.
In 1971, the defendant-appellant, Glen Childers, rented 70-100 acres of pasture from a Mr. Young who lived in the farmhouse and was then in possession of the property generally described above. The pasture rented was good brome grass. The appellant inspected the fence and its condition was good. It appears that the pasture had been under an oral lease in favor of the appellant from Mr. Young in 1970, and that they had a similar oral agreement in 1971. Young apparently abandoned the farm late in October, 1971.
During the middle of October, 1971, and pursuant to his oral agreement with Young, the appellant put five thoroughbred mares and one saddle horse in the pasture. Sometime around November 1, 1971, Chasteen visited the farm, found the appellant's horses either confined in his pasture or running loose upon the public highway adjoining his premises. Chasteen also found the farmhouse was in shambles, machinery was missing or parts taken, and the farmstead was generally in disrepair. Chasteen then entered into a written contract leasing the property to a Mr. Henry of Lecompton and also gave his attorney, Mr. Brooks, authority to go to the farm and pick up the five thoroughbred mares and the saddle horse. Mr. Brooks contacted Mr. Ray K. Miller, Jr., Route 2, Lee's Summit, Missouri, who was in the stabling and horseshoeing business, about pasturing the horses on his farm near Lee's Summit. Mr. Miller testified by deposition:
The horses were in excellent shape when Miller picked them up on November 5, 1971. On the same day, a pasturing agreement was entered into between Brooks and Miller, for care of the horses at Lee's Summit. The horses were to be put in an 80-acre pasture with 40 other horses, watered and fed hay twice daily. Nothing additional could be done for them, including veterinarian care, without Brooks' consent in advance. The agreement specifically provided that Brooks was to pay $12.50 per month per horse for feeding and watering seven horses. The extra gelding picked up by Miller did not belong to Childers. It should be noted that the number of horses is sometimes referred to in the record as six and sometimes as seven. The record indicates Childers put his horses in this pasture in the middle of October, 1971. He took three mares and two fillies, which were thoroughbred horses, and a sixth horse, which was a gelding and not a thoroughbred. On November 7, 1971, he checked and found his horses were gone. He checked with the house adjacent to the pasture, and asked the occupants if they knew where the horses were. He was directed to see Mr. Henry. Childers talked to Henry and he directed Childers to get in touch with Brooks, which Childers did that Sunday evening the 7th of November, 1971.
Childers called Brooks by telephone in Overland Park, and we quote from the record:
"Q. Which town?
"Q. Did you tell him they were thoroughbred horses?
"Q. Did you describe the horses to him?
Childers asked Brooks where the horses were, and got no satisfactory response.
On November 11, 1971, Childers talked to Chasteen at his hotel in Kansas City, Missouri. The record reflects:
"A. No, he didn't.
"Q. What else did he tell you, if anything?
A week or so after the above conversation with Chasteen, Childers again called Brooks by telephone. We quote from the record:
"Q. Did he ever make a demand on you for money?
"Q. What was that demand, if you know, sir?
On December 22, 1971, Brooks wrote a letter to Childers' lawyer, which we quote in part:
On February 25, 1972, Chasteen commenced this action in the district court of Douglas County. The question of venue was raised and on April 7, 1972, the case was transferred to Shawnee County. We quote from the petition:
The prayer was that Chasteen recover a money judgment in the amount of $1,020 against Childers, and that the agister's lien asserted by Chasteen be foreclosed and the horses sold to satisfy the judgment.
During the month of May, 1972, Brooks admitted to Miller he did not own the horses and asked Miller to return them to Childers.
On June 1, 1972, Childers filed his answer and cross petition in which he asked for $26,000 actual damages and $25,000 punitive damages. On the motion of defendant, Brooks was made a party defendant and the cross petition was amended to include him.
A trial was had to a jury and at the conclusion of all the evidence the district court announced oral findings of fact and conclusions of law and directed a verdict for the plaintiff, Chasteen, and the third-party defendant, Brooks. The district court found the appellee, Chasteen, was entitled to the relief prayed for under the provisions of K.S.A. 1974 Supp. 58-207, and further found that under the undisputed evidence the horses were under the exclusive control of Miller as an independent contractor, and that Chasteen and Brooks had no liability for damages thereto. Childers perfected this appeal.
Did the district court properly base its ruling on K.S.A. 1974 Supp. 58-207? The appellant argues that under the undisputed facts neither K.S.A. 1974 Supp. 58-207 nor any other statutes furnished the appellees any relief for maintenance of the horses in the manner in which they were taken and removed from the state of Kansas. He contends the appellees had exclusive control of the feeding and care of the horses while they were in Miller's pasture, and that when the appellees voluntarily surrendered them to the appellant in May, 1972, any claimed lien was abandoned under K.S.A. 58-215. The appellant further contends that the provisions for taking up stray animals pursuant to K.S.A. 47-229 et seq. should control.
We first consider K.S.A. 1974 Supp. 58-207 upon which the appellees relied and the district court granted relief. The statute reads in part:
It is clear that neither of the appellees were the "keepers of livery stables" nor were they "engaged in feeding horses." One was a member of the bar in Johnson County and the other was an absentee landowner living in a hotel in Kansas City, Missouri. The district court placed considerable reliance on Kelsey v. Layne, 28 Kan. 218, in finding that K.S.A. 1974 Supp. 58-207 was applicable to the present controversy regardless of the requirements mentioned. Kelsey is not a precedent under the facts in this case. The following is quoted from the opinion:
We now quote K.S.A. 58-215 which reads:
As indicated, the horses were voluntarily surrendered to the owner, Childers, in May, 1972. The case was not tried until considerable time thereafter. In any event, any lien claimed by the appellees for feed and care of the horses was abandoned by the voluntary surrender of the horses to Childers, and the district court erred in this respect. (K.S.A. 58-215.)
However, there is a more compelling reason why the appellees are not entitled to any relief under their petition. Basically, strays are defined as domestic animals running at large, or found in an enclosure, whose owner is unknown. Strays are defined in K.S.A. 47-229 (b) as follows:
The provisions for taking up strays are found in K.S.A. 47-230 which reads in part:
K.S.A. 47-236 prescribes the care that a taker-up is required to exercise, which reads in part:
Another statute which is pertinent under the facts and circumstances of this case reads in part:
We are of the opinion that a taker-up must show a strict compliance with the statutory requirements before he is to enjoy any of the rights of a bailee.
This seems to be the generally accepted rule. In 3A C.J.S., Animals, § 129, p. 611, we find the following statement:
In Moore v. Hensley, 189 Mo. App. 326, 175 S.W. 91, after concluding that "a person to acquire any right to the possession of or a special property in a stray must take the steps provided by the statutes," the court continued:
See, also, Brite v. Pfeil, 334 S.W.2d 596 (Tex. Civ. App. 1960).
And so here. As the appellees alleged and contended, the horses were found in Chasteen's enclosed pasture, or on the adjoining public highway, without his knowledge and consent, and whose owner was not known in the community or to Chasteen. The evidence was that the perimeter fence of the pasture was good  a six-strand barbed wire fence, but that a corral fence, constructed of barbed wire and board, within the enclosed pasture, was down and could not keep livestock confined. But the appellees made no attempt to comply with the provisions of the statute. No report was made to the sheriff of Douglas County of the taking up of such strays. The sheriff was not informed as to the place where the animals were being kept and the address of the taker-up, nor were other provisions of the statute complied with, such as giving a description by color, weight, sex, mark or brand, if any. The failure of the appellees to comply with K.S.A. 47-230 when they took up the horses constituted an illegal act making them wrongdoers, and their possession was therefore unlawful.
As indicated, Chasteen advised Brooks to go to the farm and "get anything he could get his hands on." On November 5, 1971, Brooks directed Miller to pick up the horses and take them out of Douglas County and to Lee's Summit, Missouri. Previously, Brooks advised Miller, in whose limited care the horses were placed, that they belonged to him and his wife. Two days later, November 7, Childers contacted Brooks by telephone and requested the return of his horses. He informed Brooks he would like to have them back before the expenses for their keep increased. Brooks told Childers the horses belonged to Chasteen. When Childers contacted Chasteen, he was told the horses were not Chasteen's, but that he (Childers) would have to deal with Brooks. Had Brooks and Chasteen turned over the horses when they were first approached by Childers there would have been only a nominal feed bill, no veterinarian bill, and no damage to the horses. But the stalling continued until sometime in May, 1972, and the valuable brood mares were kept on a starvation diet during the winter months.
*528 We conclude that under the undisputed facts in this case, the appellees present no logical theory upon which to recover the cost of feed and care, veterinarian fees, and transportation of the horses. If, as indicated, the horses were taken up as strays, there was no compliance with K.S.A. 47-229 (b) et seq., and any possession the appellees exercised over them was unlawful. On the other hand, if they were lawfully on the premises pursuant to a lease to Childers, then the taking up of the horses and removing them out of the state constituted an outright conversion of the horses.
If there was not a conversion at the time of the taking, there most certainly was when two days later appellees refused to return the horses to Childers or disclose the place where they were taken. In Watkins v. Layton, 182 Kan. 702, 324 P.2d 130, we considered the law of conversion and stated:
We now turn to the appellant's cross-petition for damages to his horses. The district court concluded:
We do not agree. The appellees took exclusive possession and control of the horses when they were taken up and removed from the pasture and concealed on a farm in Missouri. That being the *529 case, the appellees were bound by the provisions of K.S.A. 47-236 to see that the horses had proper care and that responsibility could not be avoided by its delegation to another. Neither did the undisputed facts disclose an independent contractor relationship. The contract between Brooks and Miller provided:
Miller testified and his testimony is not disputed:
We are of the opinion that under the undisputed facts Miller was not an independent contractor. In McCarty v. Great Bend Board of Education, 195 Kan. 310, 403 P.2d 956, it was said:
From the foregoing conclusions we hold the appellees are liable to the appellant for damages and the only issue left in the case is the amount of such damages.
The judgment is reversed with directions to the district court to grant judgment for the defendant on plaintiff's petition and proceed to try as the only issue left in the case, the amount of cross-petitioner's damages for the unlawful taking and the improper care of the horses.
It is so ordered.