Anison v. Rice

282 S.W.2d 497, 1955 Mo. LEXIS 819
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedSeptember 12, 1955
Docket44665
StatusPublished
Cited by39 cases

This text of 282 S.W.2d 497 (Anison v. Rice) 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
Anison v. Rice, 282 S.W.2d 497, 1955 Mo. LEXIS 819 (Mo. 1955).

Opinion

VAN OSDOL, Commissioner.

Plaintiff, Gus Anison, instituted this action against defendants, Wilbur W. Rice and Eliza Jane Rice, for specific performance of an alleged oral contract to execute a note and to secure the same by deed of trust on approximately 692 acres of described land in Boone County. The trial court found that defendants had undertaken to execute the stated instruments as alleged by plaintiff and entered judgment for plaintiff and against defendants for the amount of the principal of such note, interest and attorney’s fees, all in the aggregate amount of $7,908; decreed that the described land should be subject to a lien for such amount; and directed that execution issue. Defendants have appealed.

This case illustrates an application of the equitable doctrine of subrogation. It also treats with the power of a trial court in an equitable action to grant relief, even other than and different from that specifically sought by plaintiff if such relief is consistent with the pleadings and the evidence, as well as with the power and duty of an appellate court, in trying an equitable action de novo upon appeal, to render or to direct the entry of such judgment as the trial court should have rendered.

Plaintiff had' alleged that defendants were owners as joint tenants of the described real property (defendant Eliza Jane is the mother of defendant Wilbur); that the property had been encumbered by the lien of a deed of trust to the Union Central Life Insurance Company, beneficiary; that the debt secured by the lien was in default; that foreclosure by sale under the deed of trust had been commenced, the sale, being advertised for July 17, 1952; that on July 16, 1952, defendant Wilbur acting for himself and as agent for his mother, defendant Eliza Jane, orally negotiated and contracted with plaintiff for a loan from plaintiff in the principal amount of $6,600, “said sum to be loaned to the Defendants by the Plaintiff to pay the balance due on the aforedescribed note and Deed of Trust held by the Union Central Life Insurance Company and halt the foreclosure commenced by aforesaid substitute trustee”; that, in consideration for the loan, defendants agreed to execute and deliver their note and secure the same by deed of trust on the described land;, that plaintiff performed his part of the contract and advanced the amount ($6,600) to defendants, and at their request plaintiff paid such sum to the Union Central Life Insurance Company in payment and satisfaction of the debt and security therefor “held by said Company and halted the foreclosure commenced against said realty”; that, although plaintiff had made demand upon defendants to perform their part of the contract and to execute and deliver to plaintiff a note and deed of trust as agreed, defendants have failed and refused to comply.

Plaintiff prayed for an order requiring defendants to specifically perform their part of the contract; for an order declaring the described land should be held by plaintiff as security for the loan made by plaintiff to defendants; for an order directing defendants to execute their note and deed of trust; and for Such further relief as to the court should “seem meet and just in the premises.”

*500 Defendants by separate answers denied those allegations of paragraphs of plaintiff’s petition stating the contract, and averred that, moreover, the alleged contract “being a contract concerning land and for the conveyance of land is void because not in writing and same is within the Statute of Frauds”; and defendant Eliza Jane further stated' in her separate answer that defendant Wilbur was not authorized by her in writing, or otherwise, to enter into any contract as alleged in plaintiff’s petition and so the alleged contract was wholly void.

Plaintiff introduced evidence tending to show that on July 16, 1952, he ’was a resident of Farmington, New Mexico; that defendant Wilbur W. Rice, at that time, was also a resident of that city; that on or shortly before July 16th defendant Wilbur interviewed plaintiff and subsequently by prearrangement met with plaintiff and one Palmer, plaintiff’s attorney, with the purpose of procuring a loan from plaintiff to defendants in the amount of $6,600. According to plaintiff’s testimony and that of his witness Palmer, defendant Wilbur in conference with plaintiff and Palmer on July 16th, urged the imminence of the foreclosure (advertised for July 17th) and represented that he would “guarantee” that his mother, defendant Eliza Jane, would sign instruments evidencing a loan from plaintiff to pay defendants’ indebtedness to the Union Central Life Insurance Company and to satisfy the lien securing such indebtedness to that Company and would join with defendant Wilbur in making a note to plaintiff and join in securing the same by deed of trust on the described land ip Boone County.

Plaintiff and his witness Palmer also testified that plaintiff advanced defendant Wilbur the sum of $6,600; that the attorney Palmer, acting for plaintiff and at defendant Wilbur’s request, transmitted by telegraphic money order the sum of $6,083 to the Union Central Life Insurance Company to satisfy Company’s encumbrance; that the cost of transmitting the $6,083 to the Company was $18.03, “there was a little variation there”; that the balance of the $6,600 was paid over to defendant Wilbur personally, because he “needed it for items which were pressing him around Farming-ton” ; and that the Union Central Life Insurance Company executed its release as of date July 21, 1952, releasing the lien held by Company.

Plaintiff and his witness Palmer further testified that defendant Wilbur, at the time the loan was consummated, executed a note in their presence in the principal sum of $6,600, due on or before six months from date with interest at 8 per cent payable semi-annually and with 10 per cent additional on the amount unpaid, if placed for collection in the hands of an attorney. (This note [Plaintiff’s Exhibit 1] was admitted into evidence over the objection-’of defendants.) At the time, according to plaintiff’s evidence, the attorney Palmer also prepared a deed of trust (New Mexico form) which defendant Wilbur signed, but which mortgage was considered a “preliminary security” pending the procurance and execution by defendants of a deed of trust, Missouri form; this instrument (the “New Mexico form” mortgage), according to plaintiff’s evidence, was subsequently “lifted” by defendant Wilbur from the file of the attorney Palmer.

Defendant testified that he did not sign the note (Plaintiff’s Exhibit 1) ; that plaintiff lent him, defendant Wilbur, $6,100, the loan being made on his unsecured note; that he signed a note for that amount “for five years at seven percent interest”; that he did not agree or “guarantee” that he and his mother were to execute a deed of trust on the described land to secure the note he signed (for $6,100), or any other;, and that he had no authority from his mother to encumber the land and had so advised plaintiff and the attorney Palmer. However, defendant Wilbur in his testimony admitted he had, just prior to July 17th, importuned plaintiff for a loan to take up the Union Central Life Insurance Company indebtedness and to prevent the foreclosuré — “I told him I needed some money and needed it badly and needed it quickly.” .

*501 The trial court specifically found, inter alia, as follows,

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Bluebook (online)
282 S.W.2d 497, 1955 Mo. LEXIS 819, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/anison-v-rice-mo-1955.