Court Opinion

ID: 9582913
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:32:45.307024+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:38:45.452541
License: Public Domain

Felton, C. J., and Gardner, P. J.,
dissenting. This was an action for a breach of contract to pay a balance alleged to be due for timber actually cut. There is no evidence which would have authorized the jury to ascertain to a reasonable and moral certainty the number of board feet of lumber cut. In the first *347place the cruises and estimates by the two witnesses were made about four years before the trial and both witnesses testified from memory, without a note or record of their figures or findings. Even if this kind of testimony is sufficient, the testimony in this case furnishes no basis for a solemn money judgment for a reasonably accurate number of feet of lumber cut. Jule Zorn testified that he did not compute the number of board feet and that the only way he knew the number of feet was from figures furnished by the defendant in the case. The testimony of Marvin Raines is wholly insufficient to authorize a verdict. He testified that he made no distinction between estimating timber and cruising it. He testified that he cruised Tract 2 and it had between three (3) and nine hundred (900) trees including jump butts and red hearts. (Jump butts are trees that have been turpentined.) He also testified that his cruise of Tract 2 showed around 110,000 to 115,000 feet and that he would say Tract 2 cut in excess of 67.000 feet of timber. E. E. Shealy’s testimony is similarly deficient. He testified that he cruised both tracts accurately. Later he cruised Tract 2 and it showed 87,000 feet of pine plus about 6 cypress trees. He then testified that he did not cruise the cypress but just estimated it, and he estimated it contained 25.000 feet of cypress. He testified that after the timber was cut he counted the stumps but did not testify that he computed the number of feet from the stumps, etc. He testified that his cruise took into consideration the jump butt and red heart trees. I think the only reasonable construction of the statement that Shealy’s cruise took into consideration jump butt and red heart is that he included them in his cruise or estimate. There are two reasons for this conclusion. The other witness who purportedly cruised the timber swore specifically that he included jump butt and red heart. The second reason is that jump butt timber is merchantable timber and would presumably be included in a cruise so that the statement that both were taken into consideration means that both were included. Up to this point, the testimony does not show with any reasonable degree of certainty how many feet total were cut, but assuming that it shows the total number of feet cut on Tract 2, it still does not show how much merchantable timber was cut. The red heart *348cypress was not merchantable, so unless the evidence shows how much red heart was cut the evidence does not authorize a finding because the result is left to conjecture or guess. The action is not for damages for cutting any unmerchantable timber, but simply for the balance due on the merchantable timber cut. In a case like this, the evidence should show the number of merchantable trees cut, and the number of feet cut should be determined by measuring the number of feet by the diameters of the trees cut and the estimated height, etc., according to the usual practice and custom in the sawmill trade. Even if an accurate cruise could be used, there was none as to all timber in this instance and the amount of red heart could not be deducted so as to arrive at the merchantable timber cut.