Collins v. Cunningham

Summary

The Arkansas Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment against Jesse Collins, who sought the return of rents paid for subleasing levee-district pasture land from WD Daggett Farms. The court held that Collins was not a third-party beneficiary of the pasturage permit between the farming operation and the St. Francis Levee District and that he failed to establish a basis for recovering rents already paid despite the permit’s restriction on subleasing.

Holdings

1. Collins was not a third-party beneficiary of the agreement between WDDF and the St. Francis Levee District because the agreements did not show an intent to benefit him and did not establish the required privity or obligation running from the promisee to him.
2. Even assuming WDDF lacked the right to sublease the levee property, Collins was not entitled to recover the rents he paid because he identified no legal basis showing that the permit's restriction transformed his occupancy arrangement into a right to occupy the property rent-free or otherwise required repayment.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Collins had to establish that he was a third-party beneficiary of the permit between WDDF and the St. Francis Levee District to challenge the permit's terms.
2. Whether the permit's prohibition against unauthorized subleasing entitled Collins to recover rents already paid to WDDF on the theory that the sublease rendered the permit void and deprived WDDF of any right to charge rent.

Disposition

affirmed