Case Name: M. Goldberg vs. W. D. Torrey
Court: Louisiana Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1885
Citations: 1 Gunby 100
Docket Number: 
Parties: M. Goldberg vs. W. D. Torrey.
Judges: 
Reporter: Legal points decided by the Second circuit court of Louisiana (Gunby's Reports)
Volume: 1
Pages: 100–101

Head Matter:
M. Goldberg vs. W. D. Torrey.

Opinion:
Clinton, J.
Where the owner of a plantation enters into a written contract with a merchant, who furnishes supplies to the tenants-on said plantation, whereby said planter agrees that he will waive his lessor's lien in favor of said merchant, in case of a total failure of the crop, and the word 'total" is erased, and there is a conflict of evidence as to who erased it, held : The con tract will be construed against defendant who wrote it, for the reason that it would he nugatory if the word "total" were left in it. C. C. 1950, 1951, 1957.
2.A crop is a failure when it does not pay the expenses reasonably necessary to make it, under ordinary circumstances.