Ammerman v. Linton

214 S.W. 170, 279 Mo. 439, 1919 Mo. LEXIS 159
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJuly 9, 1919
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 214 S.W. 170 (Ammerman v. Linton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ammerman v. Linton, 214 S.W. 170, 279 Mo. 439, 1919 Mo. LEXIS 159 (Mo. 1919).

Opinion

GRAVES, J.

Action in ejectment, by petition in ordinary form. Defendant Adda Kirby answered: (1) by a general denial; (2) she avers that the right of possession is in one C. W. Dnrrett, stating the facts from which such conclusion is drawn. Defendant Charles W. Kirby, answers (1) by a general denial as to all matters not expressly admitted, and (2) admits that he was the former owner in fee of the land, but avers that C. W. Durrett is now the owner and entitled to the possession thereof. Defendant Linton was a tenant of Charles W. Kirby, and so answers, stating the terms of the tenancy.

C. W. Durrett, by leave of court, filed an intervening petition, by which he claimed title and the right of possession to said land by and through a trustee’s deed under a foreclosure of a deed of trust executed by Charles W. Kirby, to Cálvin Carder, trustee, of date March 22, 1911. The answer to Durrett, and replies to answers of defendants, were general denials. Plaintiff had judgment and the intervening petitioner. Durrett, has appealed.

Actions touching the issues involved in the instant case have been in this court heretofore. [Bank v. Kirby, 175 S. W. 926; Bank v. Kirby, 190 S. W. 597.] The records and judgments in these two cases are interAvoven in the facts of the instant case. They are also, in a way, injected into the pleadings of this case. A historical review of the whole transaction will not be Avithout good purpose.

Charles W. Kirby and his wife, Adda Kirby, lived at Stronghurst, Illinois. October 15, 1909, they executed and delivered to Elmer E. Taylor, notes aggregating $7500, which they attempted to securé by mortgage on 200 acres of land in Knox County, Missouri, the land [445]*445involved in the instant suit. Taylor assigned the notes and mortgage to the First National Bank of Stronghurst, April 12, 1911, and said bank brought suit in the Circuit Court of Knox County to foreclose this mortgage, and Kirby and wife, supra, were the defendants. This was Cause No. 6901 in the Circuit Court of Knox County, and. upon appeal here, by plaintiff, it was this land as an estate by the entirety. So it seems to have been tried below, and so it was treated here. [175 Cause No. 16935 in this court. [175 S. W. 926.] In 175 Southwestern it is erroneously stated to be Cause No. 16835, but our files show it to be No. 169S5. In this Cause No. 6901, Adda Kirby, by verified answer, averred among other things that she and her husband held S..W. 926, supra.] We find upon looking at the old abstract it was admitted to be an estate by the entirety. When here we ruled that the circuit court properly found that the mortgage had not been acknowledged, but as the estate was one by entirety the mortgage was good as between the parties, and could be foreclosed. We also ruled that there was no final judgment against Adda Kirby and that the suit was prematurely brought. The cause was reversed and remanded. But it must- be borne in mind that Charles W. Kirby not only failed to plead in said Cause No. 6991 in Knox County (No. 36935 in this court), but did not appeal from the judgment of foreclosure as to his interest in the land.

Whilst Cause No. 6901 from the Knox Circuit Court was pending here upon appeal, the plaintiff therein caused special execution to be issued as against Charles W. Kirby and his interest in the land, and it is under the sale and deed from the sheriff under this special execution that plaintiff claims title. This special execution was issued November 6, 1913, and sale was had thereunder in June, 1914.

•March 23, 1915, after the reversal of the judgment as to Adda Kirby said Cause 6901 from Knox County Circuit, the First National Bank of Stronghurst brought another suit of foreclosure against Charles W. and [446]*446Adda Kirby, in the Circuit Court of Knox County. This was Cause No. 7272 of that court. In this cause Charles W. Kirby plead that the judgment in Cause No. 6901 was res adjudicata, and a bar to Cause No. 7272, as to him. The circuit court upon trial so held, and again he did not appeal. In Cause No. 7272, the defendant Adda Kirby disclaimed that the estate was one by entirety (in 175 S. W. 926, we had held that with such an estate her mortgage was good although not acknowledged), but averred that her husband Charles W. Kirby was the owner in fee and she only had an inchoate right of dower. Notwithstanding this answer and evidence tending to prove it, the trial court held (in Case No. 7272) that the unacknowledged mortgage was binding upon Adda Kirby, and her inchoate right of dower. As said above, the court, in Case No. 7272, ruled that the judgment in No. 6001 was res adjudicata as to Charles W. Kirby, and he went no further. Adda Kirby appealed to this court, and Case No. 7272 in Knox Circuit Court became Case No. 19027 in this court. [190 S. W. 597.] In this cause this court held that whilst an unacknowledged deed of trust would (as between the parties) bind both husband and wife as owners of an estate by the entirety, yet such an unacknowledged instrument would not convey (even as between the parties) inchoate dower. We therefore reversed that judgment, and directed the circuit court to set aside its judgment so far as it affected the appellant Adda Kirby, and to dismiss the cause as to such appellant.

The record in this case would tend to show that Adda Kirby falsified when, in her verified answer in Case No. 6901, she averred that she and her husband held the lands as an estate by the entirety. The verification of the answer no doubt prompted the admission of record in the first case. This record shows the common source of title to be John M. Harkness. It then shows a warranty deed from John M. Harkness and wife to Charles W. Kirby. But be this as it may, plaintiff claims under the sheriff’s deed aforesaid.

[447]*447Now for Durrett’s claim of title and possession. On March 22, 1911, Charles W. Kirby (not joined therein by his wife) made and executed to Calvin Carder, as trustee, a deed of trust on the lands in question, to secure the payment of two notes (aggregating $6500) given by Kirby to his wife Adda Kirby. On October 21, 1915, the sheriff of the county, as successor trustee, sold the lands under this deed of trust, and executed a trustee’s deed to Durrett, as the purchaser at such sale. The intervener, Durrett, claims title and the rigid of possession under this deed. This sufficiently outlines the case.

I. There are some harsh features in this case growing out of the false averment in Adda Kirby’s answer in Cause No. 6901, to the effect that she and her husband held .the land as an estate by the entirety. The case seems to have proceeded nisi, and here, on that theory. [Bank v. Kirby, 175 S. W. 926.]

In the instant case (a possessory action in ejectment) plaintiff showed: (1) a conveyance from the admitted common source of title to Charles W. Kirby; (2) a deed of trust from Kirby and wife to Taylor; (3) an assignment of notes and deed of trust to First National Bank of Stronghurst by Taylor; (4) the judgment of reversal by this court of the judgment in No. 6901, so far as Adda Kirby was concerned (she being the only appellee), but with a holding that the deed of trust was good between the parties; (5) special execution as against the interest of Charles W. Kirby’s interest in the land; and (6) the sheriff’s deed under such special execution to the plaintiff in this case.

[448]*448 Deed.

[447]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
214 S.W. 170, 279 Mo. 439, 1919 Mo. LEXIS 159, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ammerman-v-linton-mo-1919.