Arnold v. Arnold

11 W. Va. 449, 1877 W. Va. LEXIS 45
CourtWest Virginia Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 1, 1877
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 11 W. Va. 449 (Arnold v. Arnold) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering West Virginia Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Arnold v. Arnold, 11 W. Va. 449, 1877 W. Va. LEXIS 45 (W. Va. 1877).

Opinion

HaymoND, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the Court:

The bill in this cause was filed in the circuit court of Marshall county, by Harriet Ann Arnold, Evaline M. Arnold, Caroline Arnold and Virginia Arnold, infant children and a part of the legal heirs of Samuel Arnold.) deceased, by their next friend, Friend E. Clark, against Melissa Arnold, widow of said decedent, Albert G. Arnold, Joseph Arnold, Adaline Reese, John Reese, Elizabeth Fish, Milton Fish, Julia Conkle, James K. P. Conkle, Roberta Arnold, now Roberta Homes, all of whom are also children and legal heirs of said decedent, except the husbands of the married females, to set aside the several following named deeds, purporting to be made by the said Samuel Arnold, deceased, on the 23d day of May 1874, and about ten days before his death, conveying lands in Marshall county to the following named persons, viz: A deed to Joseph Arnold for two hundred acres of land; a deed to Albert G. Arnold for two hundred acres of land ; a deed to Elizabeth Ann Fish for one hundred and fifty acres of land ; a deed to Julia Conkle for one hundred and fifty acres of land; a deed to Adaline Reese for sixty-five acres of land; a deed to Roberta Arnold (now Roberta Homes) for one hundred and eight acres of land ; upon the ground substantially that the said Samuel Arnold, the grantor, was, at the time said deeds were made by him, of unsound mind and mentally incapable of making any rational or legal disposition of said lauds by deed or otherwise, and that said deeds were each and all without valuable consideration, and fraudulently and by undue means obtained and procured from the said decedent, while he was mentally incapable of making said deeds, and that they were and are therefore not his voluntary deeds. The bill further alleges that the said Samuel Arnold, deceased, was twice married; and that said deeds provide for each of [453]*453the children of bis first wife, and leave the plaintiffs, his children by his second and last wife, unprovided for. The bill also claims, that the plaintiffs are entitled to have partition of said lands so conveyed among the legal heirs of said Samuel Arnold, deceased, and that they are each entitled to the one-tenth part thereof, &c., and that the widow’s dower be assigned to her.

The defendants, Albert G. Arnold, Joseph Arnold, George Fish (sometimes called Milton Fish in the record), and Elizabeth his wife, James 1C P. Conlde and Julia his wife, and Roberta Homes, on the first Monday in January 1878, filed their joint demurrer to the plaintiffs’ bill, and for cause of demurrer assigned the following: “That complainants’ bill is filed against the defendants above named, and Reese and wife, who claim title to the six several tracts of land under six several separate and distinct deeds of record from the same grantor, and of the same date, but having no relation to each other otherwise, nor any community of interest therein of any kind.”

In this demurrer there was joinder by the plaintiffs. The same defendants who filed said demurrer, also filed their joint answmr to the bill on the same day they filed their said demurrer, to which the plaintiffs filed their general replication. On the 22d day of June 1875 the cause was heard upon the said demurrer, and the demurrer was overruled by the court. Numerous depositions were taken in the cause, and afterwards, on the 12th day of December 1876, at a special term of said circuit court the following decree was made and entered, viz: This cause came on this day to be heard on the bill and exhibits, process duly executed as to defendants, the answer of defendants and complainants’ general replication thereto, the depositions heretofore filed in this cause, and six several deeds sought in the bill to be set aside. After arguments of counsel it is adjudged, ordered and decreed that the several deéds made by Samuel Arnold, deceased, ion the 23d day of May 1874, to-wit: The deed to Joseph [454]*454Arnold, for two hundred acres of land, recorded in deed bookNo. 21,page 215; the deed to Albert Arnold fortwo hundred acres of land, recorded in deed book No. 21, page 210; the deed to Roberta Arnoldfor onehundred and eight acres of land, recorded in deed book No. 21, page 216; the deed to Julia Conkle for one hundred and fifty acres of land, recorded in deed book No. 21, page 217; the deed to Elizabeth Ann Fish for one hundred and fifty acres of land, recorded in deed book No. 21 page 217; the deed to Adaline Reese for sixty-five acres of land, recorded in deed book No. 21, page 214, copies of which are filed as exhibits with the bill marked A, B, C, D, E, F, and the originals being filed with the depositions, are each and severally hereby cancelled and annulled; and it is ordered, that partition be made of so much of said lands as are not included in the dower, this day assigned to Melissa Arnold by a decree in another suit pending in this court, into ten parts equal in quantity and value, and that one parcel be.allotted to each of the children of Samuel Arnold named in the bill, plaintiffs and defendants, to be hereafter held by each of them in severalty; and J. P. Wayman, Everett Criswell, 'William Alexander, Wm. Lutes, Jr., and Van Kelly are hereby appointed commissioners to make said partition and allotment, after reasonable notice to the parties, defendants, or their counsel, and report how they have executed this decree to this court. And this cause is referred to a commisioner of this court to take and state an account of the rents and profits of the said lands and tenements, which have been received by the defendants, or either of them, or by any other persons, by their order or for their use, ■ which have accrued since the death of- the said Samuel Arnold to the date of their partition and allotment, and report to the court the amount thereof, and who and how much each defendant has had and received of said rental values, and the amount due from each defendant to complainants, and in like manner make report thereof to this court. And this cause is continued.”

[455]*455From this decree a part of the defendants have obtained an appeal to this Court.

The first question to be determined is: Whether the court erred in overruling the demurrer filed to the bill. The only cause assigned in the demurrer in the court below is that above stated. The point that the bill is multifarious in asking to set aside said deeds, and also for partition of the lands, was not made before the court below. It is true that the demurrer filed claims that the bill is multifarious and proceeds to assign specially the reason why it is multifarious, but it does not make the point that the bill is multifarous, because it asks both to set aside said deeds for the cause therein alleged, and for partition, &o. But in the case of Deem v. Phillips et al., 5 W. Va. 168, a contract and deed were set aside on account of gross inadequacy of price, and on the ground of there being undue influence exercised in its procurement by a son upon his father, who was in extreme old- age and bodily infirmity and mental weakness, and partition of the lands made on bill filed by a part of the heirs-at-law.

It seems to me, that the bill in this cause substantially alleges, that the procuring of said deeds and the making thereof were in fact but one. and the same act; that the making of said deeds was in fact but one transaction.

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Bluebook (online)
11 W. Va. 449, 1877 W. Va. LEXIS 45, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/arnold-v-arnold-wva-1877.