Davis v. Bellows

Citations

• 99 Miss. 838
• 56 So. 174

Syllabus

<p>Timber Contract. Construction, of same.</p> <p>Where plaintiff contracted with defendant to purchase all merchantable timber on a certain tract of land and to pay for the stumpage at the rate of one dollar and twenty-five cents per M, payments to be made on June 15, 1903, and quarterly thereafter, for timber previously cut and to remove all the timber by January 1, 1908, and plaintiff deposited with defendant thirty-two hundred dollars to pay for the last timber to be cut. Held, that the contract between the parties gave plaintiff's the right to cut all the merchantable timber for a period of five years, plaintiff to pay one dollar and twenty-five cents per M feet for all timber actually cut in that time, payments to be made as provided in the contract and that the right thus granted terminated on January 1, 1908. That the thirty-two hundred dollars paid to defendant at the date of the contract did not become absolutely the money of defendant, whether the plaintiff cut the timber or not, but was left with defendant as a mere advance payment or security for timber which plaintiff expected to cut and pay for at the rate of one dollar and twenty-five cents per M feet and which if plaintiff did not cut would be returned to plaintiff.</p>