Law and the Farmer PDF
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LAW AND THE FARMER LAW AND THE FARMER JACOB H. BEUSCHER Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin 1 9 5 3 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC ISBN 978-3-662-37151-0 ISBN 978-3-662-37864-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-662-37864-9 Copyright, 1953 Springer Science+Business Media New York Originally published by Sringer Publishing Company, Inc. in 1953. Softcoverreprint ofthe hardcover1st edition 1953 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED LIBRARY OF CoNGREss CATALOG CARD NuMBER: 53-7521 Preface At the University of Wisconsin a close working relationship he tween the Law School and the College of Agriculture has hrought me into frequent and stimulating contact with agricultural econo mists and rural sociologists. I am proud to count some of these ahle men as close friends. Since 1947 I have heen teaching a course in farm law to future farmers, county agents, agricultural specialists and vocational agriculture teachers. At the Law School we have heen running law-in-action studies trying to determine how rules of law in the hooks actually operate in various important instances: transferring the farm from one generation to the next; operating the farm under father-son agreements; using farm personal property as a source of credit; drafting canner-grower contracts; administer ing milk control orders; the operation of ruralland use controls. I have teamed up with agricultural college people in rural zoning and agricultural extension work. Consequently I have had the stimulation of many discussions ahout farm legal prohlems with agricultural extension personnel, vocational agriculture teachers, G. I. on-the-farm trainers and trainees, farm short course students, groups of farm people and individual farmers. This work and these experiences convinced me that there is need for a hook of this kind. Over and over I have found great interest and a real thirst for information ahout law as it relates to the farming husiness. There is ample evidence that ignorance of the law Ieads constantly to costly mistakes. There is genuine con cern that young people heing trained for farming or farm advisory johs are not heing taught how to protect themselves from such mistakes. All the groups with whom I have talked are anxious to know enough ahout the law to he ahle to detect an incipient legal ache or pain so that timely expert help can he sought. The hook that meets these needs must he readahle, it must have continuity and above all technical language must be kept strictly V vi PREFACE in band. Such a book must be content with the important problems, avoiding the confusion inevitable in encylopedic coverage. It needs hundreds of specific IDustrations to illumine general rules. It also needs to get behind the rules, to explain their historical antece dents, why they are here today, what they are intended to ac complish and, to the extent possible, how they actually operate. In short, it needs to make law live for the reader. In 1951 I wrote Farm Law in Wisconsin which many were gen erous enougli to say met this bill of particulars. This has encour aged me to venture this national book. The arrangement of the Wis consin book is retained because it permits functional treatment of problems as they come up in life and avoids discussing legal con cepts in the order they happen to be discussed in the law books. For example, the material in Part III dealing with the transfer of the family farm is gathered together in six chapters which blend one into the other, whereas in a legal encyclopedia it would be collected under the diverse headings of partnerships, corporations, gifts, contracts, mortgages, descent, distribution, wills, inheritance laxes and the like. Though I have relied on the Wisconsin book for arrangement, diversity of legal rules among our forty-eight states has required that most of this book be written afresh. By grouping states I have tried to give the reader a picture of the di:ffering patterns of these rules without losing him in a morass of diverse detail. In describing inheritance rights, requirements for making wills and inheritance taxes, I have resorted to tables giving specific information for each state. And sometimes I have tried to clarify by telling in detail how a rule actually operates in a particular place. The problems which follow most chapters are intended primarily for classroom use, but other readers may find them helpful checks on understanding. The footnotes have been kept to a minimum. They are provided for those who wish to read more widely on par ticular topics. The forms at the end of the book are Wisconsin in origin. I had the choice of selecting forms from a variety of states, of preparing forms that might be acceptable in several states, or of o:ffering forms from a single state only. In the interests of con sistency and hecause the forms are o:ffered for illustrative purposes only, I chose the latter. PREFACE vii I know there is a need for this book. I have tried hard to fill it. And in making this attempt I have, I hope, related law to life so that it will take on color for the reader and not seem cold, arbitrary and conscienceless, but a living, vital part of our social order. J. H. HEUSCHER Madison, Wisconsin February 1953 Contents PREFACE V PARTONE GeHing our Bearings about Law 1. LA W, AND HOW IT IS MADE 1 2. COURTS AS LA W MAKERS 15 3. SOME IMPORTANT DIVISIONS OF THE LAW 29 PARTTWO Legal Problems when Acquiring or Transferring a Farm 4. ACQUIRING A FARM 33 5. CONTRACT LA W IMPORTANT TO THE PURCHASE OF A FARM 48 6. REAL PROPERTY LA W IMPORTANT TO THE PURCHASE OF A FARM 64 7. APPLYING CONTRACT AND REAL PROPERTY LAW TO THE PURCHASE OF A FARM 81 8. THE DEED, LAND DESCRIPTIONS AND THE RECORD- ING SYSTEM 100 9. THE FARM LEASE 117 PART THREE Transferring the Family Farm from One Generation to the Next 10. THE F AMILY FARM TRANSFER PROBLEM 137 11. FATHER AND SON OPERATING AGREEMENTS 142 12. FARM TRANSFERS WHICH BECOME EFFECTIVE WHILE THE PARENT IS STILL ALIVE 157 13. TRANSFERS ON DEATH WHERE THERE IS NO WILL 173 14. TRANSFERS OF THE FAMILY FARM BY WILL 200 15. PROBATE PROCEDURE 209 16. GIFT AND DEATH TAXES WHICH APPLY TO FARM TRANSFERS 213 PART fOUR Legal Problems when Operating a Farm 17. REGULATION OF THE FARMING BUSINESS 229 18. TAXATION OF THE FARMING BUSINESS 260 19. UNSECURED FARM DEBTS 286 20. SECURED FARM DEBTS 297 21. THE FARMER AS A CREDITOR AND SELLER 316 22. BOUNDARIES, FENCES AND WATER RIGHTS 320 23. TRESPASSING, ANIMALS AND STRAYS 347 24. A FA RMER'S DUTY TO BE CAREFUL 355 APPENDIX 361 INDEX 397 PARTONE GETTING OUR BEARINGS ABOUT LA W 1 Law, and How It Is Made Preventive Side of Law The role of law in our society is to prevent disputes as weil as to settle them. W e are all familiar with that side of the law which settles disputes; it is dramatically depicted in our movies by pre senting the lawyer who points an accusing finger at a cowering witness, or the rohed judge wlemnly instructing a jury. But in this hook we are more concerned with the other side of the law: how it prevents disputes and avoids expensive lawsuits. We study hygiene and physiology to know when to see a doctor. By the same token, a general knowledge of the legal rules which affect us in our daily lives should help us foresee legal difficulties so that we can get expert advice hefore it is too late. The preventive side of law is especially important for farmers, because farm busi ness is affected by law in many ways. Here are a few situations in which the farmer comes into con tact with the rules of law: buying and selling farms, Ieasing farms, inheriting them; regulations that affect milk product:i.on or nursery stock; borrowing money, signing notes and real estate or chattel mortgages; diverting surface water onto a neighbor's land; fences and boundaries; rights in streams and lakes; buying seed and fertilizer; signing up to purchase a combine on conditional sales I
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