McClatchy v. Anthony Farms

SOUTHWICK, J.,

for the Court.

¶ 1. This suit concerns the lease of about 400 acres of land for agricultural purposes, a sublease of the same land, and the reach of the landowner’s statutory lien on crops. The trial court voided the crop lien because the owner sought payment of the rent owed her out of the proceeds from the subtenant’s crops but did not join her own tenant in the suit. We agree that the plaintiff should not have sought payment from the subtenant as surety on the debt without first seeking payment from the principal debtor. The remedy for that procedural defect is not necessarily…