Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 2).pdf/486

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460
NORTH DAKOTA REPORTS.

846; State v. Garris, 98 N. C. 733, 4S. E. Rep. 633; Smith v. Coor, 104 N. C. 139, 10 S. E. Rep. 466; Taylor v. Hodges, 105 N. C. 344, 118. E. Rep. 156; Loftin v. Hines, 107 N. C. 360, 12 8. E. Rep. 197. These are all North Carolina cases. It had been held in that state that all crops to be planted might be the subject of a chattel mortgage, and the effect of the above authorities is to limit that holding to the next succeeding crop. The court say in Wooten v. Hill: “The authorities do not warrant the conveyance of an indefinite prospective unplanted crop, and we think it should be limited to crops planted or about to be planted, as the crops next following the conveyance.” And accordingly, in Loftin v. Hines, that court held, in a mortgage of crops for the years 1888, 1889, 1890 and 1891, that the mortgage was invalid as to the crop of 1889; and in this last case the court also places its holding on the ground of public policy in that state, as evinced by various legislative enactments. But these cases can’ have no application here. All considerations of public policy are disclaimed by respondent, and there certainly is nothing in our statute limiting the right to create a lien upon property not in existence to property that may come into existence during the next succeeding season. Granted the validity of a mortgage of crops not in esse, and we see no difference in principle between the case at bar and the case of a chattel mortgage upon a certain stock of merchandise and all goods that may be added to said stock until the debt secured by the mortgage is fully paid. Yet descriptions of the latter class have repeatedly been held sufficient to cover all after-acquired goods until the debt was in fact paid. Hughes v. Wheeler, 66 Iowa 641, 24 N. W. Rep. 251; Cadwell vy. Pray, 41 Mich. 307, 2 N. W. Rep. 52; McCaffrey v. Woodin, 65 N. Y. 459; Fuller v. Railroad Co., 78 Mich. 36, 43 N. W. Rep. 1085. To the profession the policy of authorizing a party to thus indefinitely incumber his future crops may appear of doubtful benefit and of dangerous tendency, but these considerations are for the legislature, and not for the courts. The district court is directed to reverse its judgment and overrule the demurrer. Reversed. All concur.