Territory v. Tsunekichi

Citations

• 23 Haw. 813
• 1917 Haw. LEXIS 22

Syllabus

<p>Chattel Mortgages — definition.</p> <p>A chattel mortgage is a transfer of the title, or right to acquire title, to personal property as security for the payment of money, or performance of some other act, upon condition that if the transferrer performs the specified act the title shall revest in him. The right to terminate the transferee’s interest is a fundamental characteristic.</p> <p>Same — instrument examined and held to he an executory contract and not a mortgage.</p> <p>A planter agreed in writing to sell such sugar cane as he might raise upon his land during two years to a plantation. The plantation advanced money and agreed to make further advances upon the security of the crops and the indenture, also to purchase the cane and pay for the same at a- specified price per ton of sugar ■which it would manufacture from the cane based upon the price for the time being of ninety-six degree polarization sugar in New York City. The plantation was given the right to deduct the amount of advances from the purchase price, and it was agreed that in case of default on the part of the planter the plantation should have the' right to • cancel the agreement or enter upon the land and take possession of the growing crops, if any, and harvest the same. And it was provided that the agreement should continue in force for the full period notwithstanding the payment by the planter of all indebtedness. Held, that the instrument was not a mortgage, its whole tenor being against the idea of a transfer of the title, or the right to acquire title, to the crops of cane as security for the performance of a condition which, if performed, would divest the transferee’s interest therein.</p>