Armas

The parties to this action (brothers), on the twenty-sixth day of December, 1919, entered into a written agreement of lease, whereby the defendant leased to the plaintiff forty acres of land, situated in what is designated in the lease as “Rotterdam Colony,” in Merced County, for the term of five years, for the total rental of $1,250, payable annually in installments of $250, the initial payment of $250 to be made and the same was made on the date of the execution of the lease. Among the covenants or conditions of the lease was the following:

The controversy here revolves around the foregoing provision of the lease.

The complaint alleges that the defendant (lessor), prior to the twenty-second day of September, 1920, and while said agreement of lease was in full force and effect and while the plaintiff was, under the terms of said agreement of lease, in the possession and occupation of the lands therein described, sold and conveyed said land to a person other than the plaintiff; that the latter, on the twenty-second day of September, 1919, surrendered the possession of said real property and appurtenances to the defendant, and thereupon demanded of defendant “that he pay to…