Troutt v. Branham

OPINION

LEWIS, Judge.

This is an appeal by defendants E.C. Branham, Sr. and E.C. Branham, Jr. (Bran-hams) from a judgment finding them liable to plaintiff William E. Troutt (Troutt) as a result of the Branhams’ cattle damaging Troutt’s corn crop.

Troutt and the Branhams rented two different parts of a Sumner County farm from William H. McClain. Troutt planted corn on the part he rented and the Branhams pastured fifty-one cows, two bulls, and twenty-five or thirty calves on the part they rented. A single fence separated the cornfield and the pasture.

Somehow a gate in this fence became completely…