¶1(dissenting). I think there is no ambiguity in the clause of the lease giving the lessee “the first privilege of renting the farm if not sold at the end of the year.” As I view it, it gave the lessee the privilege of renting, provided he was willing to enter into as favorable a lease as any one else. This is the plain and obvious meaning of the language used. The court construes the language as an agreement to renew the existing lease if no sale was made. If this was what was intended, it would have been an easy matter to have said so. Arbitrary rules of construction are more honored by being breached than by being observed, where they serve-to defeat the intention of parties to a written contract.
162 Wis. 131
Fergen v. Lyons
Decided January 11, 1916
Wisconsin Supreme Court · decided 1916-01-11
Ray Stevens, Circuit Judge. Action for specific performance. There was a general demurrer to the complaint which was overruled. The plaintiff, with some other matters not material to he stated, pleaded the following for a cause of action: Defendants Nellie Lyons, George, J. 8., Nettie, FranJc, Edward, and Charles Grady, April 1, 1914, rented their farm to the plaintiff for the term of one year.
Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know
Affirmed · Decided 1916-01-11
How this case has been cited
Cited by 11 later decisions — most recently July 2010
10 state decisions
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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