Court Opinion

ID: 6738229
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-07-20 23:20:10.263907+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:01:52.516022
License: Public Domain

Robinson, J.
(concurring). This case presents an appeal from a judgment against defendant for $1,045.46 and costs. The action arises from one of those cut-throat cropping contracts under which plaintiff *65farms certain lands of the defendant during the years 1914 and 1915. Each party was to have an equal share of the crops, and until a division the title of all the crops was to be in the defendant. In 1914 the crop was poor and the plaintiff run in debt to the defendant. In 1915 the crop was good and defendant took it all and neglected and refused to make any division. When he got the plaintiff’s money into his pocket he concluded that was a good place to keep it. He trumped up false claims and forced the plaintiff to incur the needless expense of this action, and now he presents a printed brief of 125 pages and asks this court to consider eighteen assignments of error. The alleged errors amount to nothing. The case presents no question of law. It depends entirely on questions of fact. The question is: Does the evidence sustain the findings ? As the record shows, the trial court has carefully stated the account between the parties, and it might well have been a few hundred dollars more in favor of the plaintiff.
The plaintiff is given credits amounting to............................$2,628.17
The defendant has credits ............................................ 1,632.51
The balance is ...................................................... 995.66
The interest made it................................................. 1,045.46
As the record shows, defendant presented to the court a trumped-up and dishonest account against the plaintiff, claiming a balance of $2,-554.98. It included these items:
In 1914, 75 acres tillable land used by plaintiff as pasture................$ 375.00
Interest at 10% ......................... 50.00
In 1915, 75 acres used as pasture..................................... 750.00
Interest at 10% .................................................... 12.50
In 1915, 35 acres used as corn ground................................. 350.Ó0
Interest at 10% ..................................................... 5.80
7 acres millet ground ................................................ 70.00
Damage to house by negligence of plaintiff ............................ 100.00
Such manifestly dishonest charges in a verified account give to other items a strong suspicion of dishonesty. The same is true of defendant’s testimony. It does not bear criticism. It is in keeping with his accounts. The minister of justice — the attorney retained by the defendant in this case — should not have permitted the filing of such an account, *66and much less should he have sworn to it. Just think of $10 an acre for 'if5 acres of poor, gravelly, stony, sandy pasture land.
- If the defendant had kept a fair and honest account, as in duty bound, and had promptly paid the plaintiff the money due him on a sale of his crops, there would have been no occasion for this action. The findings are well sustained by the evidence. Judgment affirmed.