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118 Wis. 405

Malick v. Kellogg

Wisconsin Supreme Court

Decided June 18, 1903

Wisconsin Supreme Court · decided 1903-06-18

<p> Landlord and tenant: Unlawful detainer: Nonpayment of rent: Pleading: General denial: Admissions: Oonstruotion of allegations of answer: Construction of lease: Landlord’s breach of covenants. </p> <p>1. In an action for unlawful detainer for nonpayment of rent, the answer contained a denial of all allegations of the complaint not therein admitted, hut contained no specific admission that defendant, was in possession of the premises. The making of the lease was admitted, and the defense was based on the sole ground that the plaintiff had failed to perform certain agreements or conditions which were to be performed after possession was taken, by reason of which the payment' of rent was excused or rendered impossible. Held that, applying reasonable rules of construction, the allegations of the answer must be construed as admitting defendant’s possession of the premises.</p> <p>2. When a fact is admitted by clear and necessary implication from other facts expressly stated in a pleading, the admission is as effective as though it were expressly stated, and will not be overcome by a mere general denial.</p> <p>3. The lease of a farm for dairy purposes provided that the lessor should provide pasture for 100 head of cattle and cleared land enough to feed the same, not less than 100 acres. The cleared land was not described. Held, that a construction that lessor was obliged to provide an additional 100 acres of cleared land for pasturage was untenable.</p> <p>4. Where, after the tenant has taken possession, the landlord has failed to perform his agreement to make certain improvements upon the demised premises, such agreement is an independent agreement, not one upon which the right to demand rent depends, and hence is not a defense to an action for unlawful de-tainer for nonpayment of rent.</p>

Relies on Phillips v. Port Townsend Lodge, No. 6 · Peterson v. Kreuger · Miller v. Larson

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Affirmed · Decided 1903-06-18

How this case has been cited

Cited by 7 later decisions — most recently February 1979

7 state decisions

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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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Winslow, J.

¶1While the answer contains no specific admissions that the defendants are in possession of the demised premises, and while it does contain a denial of all allegations of the complaint not therein admitted, we think that, applying reasonable rules of construction, its allegations must be construed as admitting possession of the premises. The making of the lease is admitted, and the defense is based, not on the ground that possession was not delivered, hut on the sole ground that the plaintiff has failed to perform certain agreements or conditions which were to be performed after possession was taken, by reason of which it is alleged that the payment of rent has been excused or rendered impossible. The allegation that no rent is due is evidently but a legal conclusion from the previous facts stated. When a fact is admitted by clear and necessary implication from other facts expressly stated in the pleading, the admission so made is as effective as though it were expressly stated, and will not be overcome by a mere general denial. Miller v. Larson, 17 Wis. 624.

¶2The fact of possession of the leased premises being admitted, the question is whether the failure of the plaintiff to perform his agreements constitutes a defense. The farm leased was several hundred acres in extent, and was evidently leased for dairying purposes. The plaintiff agreed to build a creamery, to provide pasture for 100 head of cattle, and cleared land enough to feed the same, not less than 100 acres, and to build a silo sufficient to provide ensilage for said cattle. It seems to us very plain that these agreements were all expected to be performed upon the leased premises, and after the defendants took possession.' The claim that the agreement means that the plaintiff was to provide an additional hundred acres of cleared land for pasturage is untenable; we find noth*409ing in the agreement that indicates such an intention. It is unreasonable to suppose that it was the intention to make so large and material an increase in the leasehold estate without describing or locating the land so to be added, or indicating in any clear way that such was the purpose. It is not a case, therefore, of failure to put the tenant in possession of the leased premises, nor of eviction of the tenant from any part of the premises, but simply a ease where the landlord has failed to perform his agreement to make certain improvements upon the premises after the tenant takes possession. It cannot he distinguished from a covenant to make repairs during the term. Such an agreement is uniformly held an independent agreement, and not one upon which the right to demand rent depends. Peterson v. Kreuger, 67 Minn. 449, 70 N. W. 567; Phillips v. Port Townsend, 8 Wash. 529, 36 Pac. 476; Wood, Landlord & T. (2d ed.) 1132, 1133. Were this an action to recover the rent, and were the landlord’s -breach pleaded as a counterclaim, the question would be entirely different. The demurrer was rightly sustained.

¶3By the Court. — Order affirmed.

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