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104 Ind. 210

Campbell v. Hunt

Indiana Supreme Court

Decided October 6, 1885

Indiana Supreme Court · decided 1885-10-06

<p>New Trial as of Eight. — Action to Recover Real Estate. — Leasehold Interest. — A leasehold for a term of years is such a “ valid subsisting interest in real property” under section 1050, E. S. 1881, as entitles-the lessee, in an action to recover possession, to a new trial as of right under section 1064, E. 8. 1881.</p> <p>Evidence. — Partnership.—Lease of Land for Particular Business. — Rents.— Action to Recover Real Estate. — Where, upon the formation of a partnership to conduct the business of grape culture, one partner, in furtherance of the business, takes a lease for a term of fifty years to a part of the land to be used in such business and owned by the other, and then, upon a dissolution, by agreement a portion of the vineyard is set apart to the lessee in severalty, without any limitation as to its use, the latter may, in an action by him subsequently brought to recover its possession, prove its rental value for general purposes, and evidence offered by the defendant as to its rental value for grape culture only, is not admissible.</p> <p>Practice.— When Eirorin Excluding Evidence Cured by Withdrawing Objection to Admission. — Where evidence is excluded on objection, but immediately thereafter the objection is withdrawn to the only part of it which is material, the error, if any, is cured, although the party offering the evidence declines to avail himself of the concession.</p> <p>Former Adjudication. — Judgment on Eemurrer. — Where a case is disposed of on judgment-upon demurrer to an answer, and not upon its merits, it does not constitute a former adjudication. It is only where the matter in issue has been either actually or presumptively determined, that the judgment is a bar to another action.</p> <p>Eeal Estate, Action to Eecover. — Action upon Claim in Fee Simple not Bar to Action under Lease. — The commencement of an action upon a claim of title in fee simple does not estop the plaintiff from subsequently bringing an action for the same land on a claim under a lease.</p>

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1885-10-06

How this case has been cited

Cited by 12 later decisions — most recently June 1970

12 state decisions

301885189019001910192019301940195019601970decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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¶1On Petition for a Rehearing.

Niblack, C. J.

¶2The appellants complain that in the opinion heretofore filed in this ease, we erred in holding that by the agreement of partition entered into between Mrs. Campbell and Strong, the latter was discharged from any obligation to-cultivate the land set off to him in grapes. But the argument, employed in support of that complaint would, if permitted' to prevail, lead to the conclusion that the land set off to Mrs. Campbell under the same agreement could only in like man*217ner be cultivated in grapes during the period covered by the original lease, and, as we are not prepared to place such a construction upon the agreement in question, we feel constrained to adhere to the construction of that agreement heretofore given by us.

¶3The appellants next complain that we were wrong in holding that the circuit court did not err in refusing to confine the inquiry as to the rental value of the land in controversy to its value for cultivation in grapes. Accepting our construction of the agreement of partition as correct, as we continue to do, there was necessarily no error in that ruling of the circuit court.

¶4It is further complained that our holding, in effect that the circuit court did not err in excluding certain proof proposed to be made by the appellant Samuel A. Campbell, is not well supported by the facts, as they are made to fully appear by the bill of exceptions in the record.

¶5This case is in many of its features sui generis. In the first place, the original agreement entered into between Finney and Strong was a very unusual agreement, hard to classify or to construe, and, as the sequel has proven, an unfortunate one for Finney’s estate. In the next place, the agreement for partition made between Mrs. Campbell and Strong was seemingly a very generous and unrestrictive arrangement on the part of the former. No rent, or other equivalent, was reserved for the use of the land set apart to Strong. He was only required to pay the accruing taxes upon the land so long as he occupied it. The land was apparently and presumably set off to Strong for a consideration which had already moved either to Mrs. Campbell or to Finney, her then late husband. Construing, therefore, the original agreement, and the agreement making partition, together, the reasonable inference seems to be inevitable that Strong became, through those agreements, vested with a greater and more indefeasible interest in the land assigned to him than is ordinarily acquired under a lease containing mutual and dependent stipulations *218and covenants. We consequently regard the authorities cited by counsel in support of their position as inapplicable to the peculiar facts of this case, and, for a similar reason, are of the opinion that the matters proposed to be proved by Campbell were not material to any question then before the circuit court.

Filed Dec. 16, 1885.

¶6The petition for a rehearing is overruled.

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