Anderson v. United Realty Co.

79 Ohio St. (N.S.) 23
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 10, 1908
DocketNo. 10689
StatusPublished

This text of 79 Ohio St. (N.S.) 23 (Anderson v. United Realty Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Anderson v. United Realty Co., 79 Ohio St. (N.S.) 23 (Ohio 1908).

Opinions

Summers, J.

In the Court of Common Pleas of Lucas county this was an action by Peter Anderson against several defendants to recover the possession of several city lots, or parcels of real estate in the city of Toledo.

The title of Peter Anderson to the lands in question depends upon the construction to be given to his grandfather, Henry Anderson’s will. Plenry Anderson, the grandfather, made his will on February 28, 1846, and died on the third day of April following. He left two children only, William born February 12, 1828, and James H. born June 25, 1831. William died in 1850 intestate, unmarried and without issue. James H. the other son, died in 1902, intestate and left surviving him as his only child, and only heir at law, the plain.tiff, Peter Anderson, who was born August 27, 1859, and he is the grandson and the only grandchild, and only living descendant of the said Henry Anderson.

The testator gave all of his property, both real and personal, to certain persons in trust, and the will then reads as follows:

“Item. It is my will that when my son William arrives at' the age of twenty-one years the trustees of the first and general trust shall deliver to him a settlement of the affairs of the trust, and if my debts are then paid, and as soon as that takes place, they shall put him in possession of one-half [39]*39of my property, reserving thereout two-fifths parts of said moiety by valuation, which my said trustees shall hold in trust and properly invest and pay over to him at the age of twenty-five years. If my interest in the American Land Company be not brought into the general trust at the time William becomes twenty-one, but is brought in at any time before he arrives at twenty-five, so soon as brought in, two-fifths shall be deducted therefrom and invested and paid over to him at twenty-five, the other three-fifths he shall have, as soon as paid in. I find the above does not express my will in this: When I say two-fifths shall be deducted from the interest I may have in the land company for investment, and three-fifths to be paid to him, I mean two-fifths of a moiety shall be deducted and three-fifths of a moiety paid over.

“And it is my will that my said trustees hold and invest and pay over the remaining moiety of my estate to my son James at the respective periods of twenty-one and twenty-five years of age, being governed as to the amounts to be paid at each of the respective periods by the same rules and directions as are above laid down in the bequest to William, and to be governed in all other respects by the regulations laid down concerning the same.

“If either of my sons die without lineal descendants, the one surviving shall take his estate above bequeathed, and, if the survivor dies without lineal descendants, then one-half both of the decedent’s original portion, as well as one-half of the portion taken by survivorship, shall go to my brother Peter, [40]*40the other half to such of my brothers and sisters as may be living at the time of the death of such surviving son. If my brother Peter be not living at the time, of the death of my surviving son, so dying without lineal descendants, then the share he would have taken, if living, shall go to his children living at the time of the decease of my said son, and if there be no children surviving, then the share shall go to my other brother and sisters surviving at the time of such decease of my son. I make the following explanation: The limitation over on the death of my surviving son without lineal descendants is intended to take effect if there be no lineal descendants living at the time of the decease of such son. Nothing in the foregoing will shall be construed as to deprive either of my sons disposiftg of their portions by will on their attaining the age of twenty-one years, respectively. The above limitations over shall give way to the provisions of such wills.”

This will was duly probated in Mississippi, and an authenticated copy of the will and of the probate thereof were thereafter duly filed in the Probate Court of Lucas County, Ohio, where the will was duly admitted to probate and record as a will from another state.

On April 7, 1860, James H. Anderson, the father of the plaintiff, and the then surviving son of the testator, executed and delivered to one Charles Butler a quitclaim deed of all the real estate involved in this action, which deed was duly signed, sealed, acknowledged and executed by him in the presence of two witnesses who [41]*41signed the deed as such, and which deed was duly recorded in the Recorder’s Office of Lucas County, Ohio, on May 3, 1860.

The defendants derive their title from Charles Butler. In 1838 the land in controversy was owned in fee simple by one Edward Bissell, who then mortgaged it to Charles Butler to secure the payment of his bond for a large sum due in one year. In 1841 Butler assigned the bond and mortgage to Henry Anderson as collateral security for the payment of his note to Anderson, and, in default of payment, Anderson in 1843 filed his bill in chancery in the Court of Common Pleas of Lucas County, Ohio, to foreclose the Bissell mortgage. The land was hid in by Anderson at the master’s sale in 1844 and he received the deed therefor. Pie then entered into an agreement with Butler which in effect, so it is contended, made the land the property of Butler and vested the title in Anderson merely as security for the payment of Butler’s note to Anderson. Butler thereafter obtained quitclaim deeds from Bissell and from Anderson’s trustees and from William and James PI. Anderson, and it is also contended that the proof shows that the payments made by Butler to Henry Anderson and to his trustees discharged the note, but it is not necessary to narrate the facts in detail, for if the title was in James H. Anderson his quitclaim deed conveyed it to Butler, and it did not descend from James PL Anderson to his son, the plaintiff, and these facts become material only in the event the plaintiff took an estate in the land under his grandfather’s will. The facts are set nut in [42]*42detail in the opinion of the circuit court, 9 C. C, N. S., 473.

The petition in this case was filed August 17, 1905. The defendants were not tenants in common, but each held a lot in severalty. Some of the defendants by answer objected to the petition on the ground that separate causes of action against several defendants were improperly joined, and on August 25, 1905, one - of the defendants, a corporation, filed its petition and bond for removal into the next circuit court of’ the United States to be held in the northern district of Ohio, western division. The petition for removal averred that the corporation was the owner and in exclusive possession of one of the lots, that it had no interest in any of the other lots and that none of the other defendants had any interest in • its lot, that the corporation was a citizen of Michigan, that plaintiff was a citizen of Tennessee, and that the controversy in said suit between the corporation and the plaintiff was a separable controversy, wholly between it and the plaintiff, relating to the ownership and right to possession of the real estate described as lot 332 in Port Lawrence Division, Toledo, Ohio, and the rents and profits to the same, and that the value of the real estate in controversy, exclusive of interest and costs, exceeded the sum of two thousand dollars.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Railroad Co. v. Koontz
104 U.S. 5 (Supreme Court, 1881)
Steamship Co. v. Tugman
106 U.S. 118 (Supreme Court, 1882)
Texas Transportation Co. v. Seeligson
122 U.S. 519 (Supreme Court, 1887)
Torrence v. Shedd
144 U.S. 527 (Supreme Court, 1892)
Garrozi v. Dastas
204 U.S. 64 (Supreme Court, 1907)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
79 Ohio St. (N.S.) 23, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/anderson-v-united-realty-co-ohio-1908.