Anstays v. Anderson

160 N.W. 475, 194 Mich. 1, 1916 Mich. LEXIS 465
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 21, 1916
DocketDocket No. 101
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 160 N.W. 475 (Anstays v. Anderson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Anstays v. Anderson, 160 N.W. 475, 194 Mich. 1, 1916 Mich. LEXIS 465 (Mich. 1916).

Opinion

Stone, C. J.

It appears that on June 21, 1906, John V. Hauser, one of the defendants, being the owner thereof, conveyed to his wife, Laura J. Hauser, a strip of land in Sparta township, Kent county, consisting of 10 acres, being 106 2/3 rods in length, and being bounded upon the north by the right of way of the Toledo, Saginaw & Muskegon Railway Company, and there being a highway on the east side thereof. In and by said deed the grantor reserved the possession and use of said land for and during his lifetime'. The grantee of said deed, Laura J. Hauser, having been in possession of said premises, died intestate on May 19, 1910, leaving surviving her, as her heirs at law, four [3]*3children by a former husband, to wit, Eliza Wainwright, Lena Anstays Shoemaker, William H. Anstays, and Ted B. Anstays. On April 27, 1914, the said John V. Hauser conveyed his life estate in and to said premises above reserved to the defendant William H. Anderson. Mr. Hauser had lived upon the premises from the time of the death of his wife until his deed to defendant Anderson. He was 60 years old at the time he conveyed his interest in the premises to Mr. Anderson. Defendant Anderson owns a large farm just across the railroad right of way, and to the north of the Hauser property. He also owns 25 acres which adjoins the Hauser property on the south. This makes the Hauser .property lie directly between the two farms. At the time Mr. Anderson purchased the life interest of John V. Hauser, the following buildings stood upon the premises: A large two-story frame dwelling house, consisting of an upright and two-story wing, with German siding, with a natural stone, seven-foot basement under the whole house. The house stood upon a side hill about ten feet west from the main traveled highway, and three or four rods from the. fence of the railroad right of way upon the north. The basement had an outside door. There were seven or eight rooms in the house, all plastered and in fairly good condition. At the corner of the house stood a, dug cement well about eighteen feet deep. Near the house there was a structure used as a henhouse, with a shed roof. There was also a pigsty, and a barn, or a building that was used as a barn, which consisted of poles or small timbers stuck in the ground, which was sided up, and had a shed roof, and the main part-served the purpose of a barn for a few head of cattle and one or two horses, and whatever stock Mr. Hauser had. There was also a shed or lean-to where he kept his hay and buggy. It is claimed by the plaintiffs [4]*4that at this time the dwelling was of the value of $700 or $800. The value of the outbuildings was in dispute, some witnesses claiming them to be worthless, and others placing small valuations thereon.

The testimony shows that, for some years prior to the conveyance to defendant Anderson of said life interest, this property had been used independently, as a small farm and home of the Hauser family. The house was located near a good highway, and back and west of the house there was a small orchard, consisting mainly of pear trees. The evidence shows that defendant Anderson, owning the lands upon both the north and south of these premises, desired to change the location of the dwelling house. It was not located where he thought it should be in connection with his other holdings. He therefore proceeded to move the house back about 35 rods into the field, and placed it within 6 to 10 feet of the fence of the railroad right of way, and it was standing in this condition upon blocks at the time of the filing of the bill of complaint and the issuance of the temporary injunction. In moving the house the plaster had fallen off the walls, the house was left out of plumb, and the doors would not close. Some of the siding had been torn off to fasten planks on in the course of moving, and one or more fruit trees had been removed for the purpose of placing the house. The chimney had been entirely torn down and piled on the floor in such a manner that it sunk the floor away from the walls around the mop-boards below the plaster. Mr. Anderson, stating that the outbuildings were worthless, gave the same to the defendant Hauser and a neighbor, and they had been entirely removed from the premises; no part of them remaining upon the property. The well at the corner of the house had been entirely filled up, and no trace of it could be found. The natural stone foundation [5]*5under the house where it formerly stood and the cellar had been caved in and buried and filled over with dirt.

The bill of complaint was filed on or about August 22, 1914, and the condition of the property at that time was as above stated, and it remained in that condition until the following summer. In the meantime the defendants had appeared in the case, and a demurrer had been filed on the ground, among other things, of the nonjoinder of parties plaintiff. Thereupon the bill was amended by making William H. Anstays and Eliza Wainwright, the brother and sister of the plaintiffs, defendants. Very shortly thereafter both of these last-named defendants quitclaimed their interests to the plaintiff Lena Anstays Shoemaker, after which the demurrer was overruled and the defendant Anderson answered. The bill was later taken as confessed by the defendant John V. Hauser. In the summer following the filing of the bill, the defendant Anderson proceeded to put some repairs on the house at the point 35 rods from the highway, where it was standing in the field, at the time the bill was filed. He had the rooms in the house replastered, the house straightened up and made plumb, so that the doors opened and closed, a foundation placed under the upright part of the house and the wing, a basement placed under the upright part of the house, but not under the wing. The latter is a cement basement. The house was put in fair condition, and the ceilings and walls papered, the woodwork painted, and a new galvanized iron roof was put on the house, and it has been painted upon the outside. This was the condition of the house at the time the case was heard upon pleadings and proofs in November, 1915. The facts in the case as to the removal of this dwelling house by the defendant Anderson and the giving away and removal of the outbuildings are not much in dispute. [6]*6The bill alleges that the defendant Hauser removed the outbuildings personally, but the undisputed evidence in the case is that the same were removed after Mr. Anderson became the owner of the life estate, and by his consent. The defendant Anderson, who was examined by the plaintiffs under the statute, admitted that he caused the stone where the foundation was to be covered up, and knocked the walls in far enough, so that he could scrape over them and have plenty of room to plow without hitting stone. He also stated, in testifying, that when he moved the house he had in mind using it for a tenant who was looking after his own property, and that was what he moved it back there for. The court below dismissed the bill of complaint, and plaintiffs have appealed.

There is much discussion of the legal propositions involved in the case by counsel for both plaintiffs and defendant Anderson.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
160 N.W. 475, 194 Mich. 1, 1916 Mich. LEXIS 465, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/anstays-v-anderson-mich-1916.