Bayer

Manuel J. Gomes, a Merced County farmer and dairyman, and his wife, Mary, borrowed money from the plaintiff, Merced Production Credit Association, for the purchase of hay, and executed a migratory chattel and crop mortgage on April 16, 1959, to secure the repayment of the loan. Included in the mortgaged property were 38 cows, described according to age, brand, and breed, “together with all increases both by natural increase and by all purchases”; the farm machinery owned by the mortgagors and the crops grown on their specifically described real property in Merced County were also included. This mortgage was duly recorded in the office of the County Recorder of Merced County on April 21, 1959.

In the fullness of time and without notice to the mortgagee, all of the originally described cattle were sold by the Gomes family, and the controversy in this case turns on the question whether the lien of the mortgage attached to other cattle, namely, 27 cows, placed with Mr. and Mrs. Gomes on their Merced County ranch by the defendant, P. S. Bayer, and which according to the respondent, became “increases” to their herd by purchase within the meaning of the mortgage. The trial court held…