Alexander v. Daugherty

69 Ind. 388
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 15, 1879
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 69 Ind. 388 (Alexander v. Daugherty) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Alexander v. Daugherty, 69 Ind. 388 (Ind. 1879).

Opinion

Biddle, J.

Complaint, by the appellants, against the appellees, to review a judgment, in the following words:

“ Come now the plaintiffs, Ira Alexander and Rebecca Alexander, and complain of Lorenzo C. Daugherty, Americus C. Daily, Harvey G. Hazelrigg, Silas A. Lee, Samuel S. Daily, George Wren and William T. Wren, and say that they are husband and wife, and that, on the second day of the May term of the Boone Common Pleas Court, for the year A. D. 1871, defendants obtained judgment against said plaintiffs, by default, for the sum of twenty-one hundred and ninety-eight dollars and ninety-eight cents ($2,198.98), and for the foreclosure of a mortgage, given to secure said not.es, on the following described real estate, situate in Boone county, Indiana: The east half of the north-west quarter, and the east half of the north fraction of the south-west quarter, all in section twenty-seven, in township nineteen north, of range two west, containing one hundred acres, more or less.

“That, on the 6th day of June, 1871, plaintiffs, now defendants, caused the clerk of said court to issue a certified copy of said decree, directed to the sheriff of said county, and caused said sheriff to advertise said lands for sale under said decree, and that, on the 15th day of July, 1871, said sheriff did sell said lands to defendants Daugherty, Daily, Hazelrigg, Daily and Lee, and said sheriff did, on the 18th day of July, 1872, execute to said defendants a' sheriff’s deed for said lands; and that, on the 18th day of July, 1873, said defendants sold and convoyed by warranty deed said lands to their codefeudauts George Wren and William T. Wren, who are uow in .possession of said lands.

[390]*390“ The plaintiffs aver that said judgment, and all proceedings had under and pursuant thereto, as set forth above, are null and void and of no effect or virtue in law, for the following reasons, to wit:

“ That at the time the alleged judgment was taken; and at the time when service of summons was had upon said Ira Alexander, he was weak in body, sick, and confined to his bed, was also weak, impotent and of unsound mind: that he had no knowledge whatever that a summons had ever been served upon him; that he did not have at the time sufficient mind to discern, comprehend or understand the nature or effect of the writ of summons commanding him to appear arnd answer to the defendants’ complaint at said May term, 1871, of said court; that said sickness and unsoundness of mind of said Ira Alexander have continued ever since, and up to and until about the 10th day of January, A. D. 1874; that he then became conscious and was informed, and for the first time comprehended, that these defendants had obtained judgment against him, aud that his lands had been sold and conveyed away from him.

“ That defendants had full knowledge of the aforesaid condition of said Ira Alexander, and that they, fraudulently conniving and combining to cheat and defraud him out of his said lands, obtained said judgment against said Alexander, when he had no notice -whatever of the pendency of said suit, and, in fact, could not know or comprehend the import of a notice, or the contents of the summons, by reason of the unsounduess at said time, to wit, the 19th day of April, 1871.

“The plaintiffs further aver, that on the 22d day of December, 1865, the defendants loaned plaintiffs the sum of seven hundred dollars and no more, and that on the 22d of December, A. D. 1866, plaintiffs paid defendants the sum of one hundred and twenty-six dollars ($126.00), on said seven-hundred-dollar loan, and that on the 22d day of De[391]*391cember, A. D. 1867, they paid the further sum of one hundred and twenty six dollars ($126.00), on said seven-hundred-dollar loan to defendants, and that on the 7th day of January, A. D. 1869, the plaintiff's obtained a further loan of five hundred dollars from the defendants, aud took up their seven-hundred-dollar note, made and executed on the 22d day of December, 1865, and bearing interest at the rate of ten per cent, per annum, aud executed their note, secured by mortgage on said lands, for the sum of one thousand five hundred aud fifty-one dollars aud seventy cents ($1,551.70), which was in excess the sum of three hundred and fifty dollars more than plaintiffs owed defendants, and that on the 7th day of January, 1870, the defendants requested plaintiffs to execute to them their note, secured by mortgage, for the sum of three hundred and thirty-oné dollars and ninety-three cents ($331.93), as and for one year’s interest on the first named note, which plaintiffs had executed to defendants on the 7th day of January, A. D. 1869, calling for the sum of one thousand five hundred and fifty-one dollars and seventy cents ($1,551.70), which defendants agreed to credit said note with, which they, the said defendants, failed and refused to do. Wherefore plaintiff's say that said three hundred thirty-one dollars and ninety-three cents note was given for no consideration whatever other than above mentioned, which was to have been credited on the said 1,551.70 dollar note.

“ Plaintiffs further aver, that all of the proceedings had in said Boone Common Pleas Court, at said May term,' 1871, a full, true and complete transcript of all the proceedings had in said Common Pleas Court is filed herewith and made a part hereof, were unknown to these plaintiff's; that said Ira Alexander, as aforesaid, during all of the time aforesaid, was of unsound mind, that said plaintiff's have a full and complete defence to said action then pending in said court, and would have [392]*392availed themselves of said defence, had not said Ira at the time been of unsound mind, weak in body, and unable to attend court or employ counsel, or know or comprehend the nature or effect of said proceedings; that the said plaintiffs’ defence to said action consists of the following facts, to wit: That, at the time of the execution of the notes and mortgage sued on in said Boone Common Pleas Court, said Ira Alexander was of unsound mind, and so remained until the 10th day of January, A. D. 1874; that he, at the time of the execution of said notes and mortgages, did not have sufficient mental capacity to know or comprehend the nature or character of the transaction, or the obligation he was assuming; that the mind of said Ira Alexander was so far impaii’ed by disease that he could not and did not know or comprehend the character of the obligation, nor did he know the contents of the same.

“ And that a further and partial defence that said plaintiffs have to said Jiotes and mortgages, and to said action, is, that the sum of nine hundred dollars, which is included in said notes, is usurious, in this, to wit:

That, on the 22d day of December, A. D. 1865? plaintiffs borrowed from defendants the sum of seven hundred dollars and executed their promissoi'y note, secured by mortgage, due one year from date, for eight hundred and twenty-six dollars, with interest at ten per cent, after maturity, the one hundred and twenty-six dollars ($126.00) being added to the seven hundred dollars borrowed, as and for interest on the said seven hundred dollai’s ($700.00) for one year, at the rate of eighteen per cent, per annum, and on the 22d day of December, 1866, the plaintiffs paid defendants on said note the sum of one hundred and twenty-six dollars, and on the 22d day of December, A. D. 1867, the plaintiffs paid defendants on said note the sum of one hundred and twenty-six dollars ($126.00), all of which the defend[393]

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Bluebook (online)
69 Ind. 388, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/alexander-v-daugherty-ind-1879.