Avery v. Vail

108 N.E. 599, 60 Ind. App. 99, 1915 Ind. App. LEXIS 18
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 23, 1915
DocketNo. 9,207
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 108 N.E. 599 (Avery v. Vail) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Avery v. Vail, 108 N.E. 599, 60 Ind. App. 99, 1915 Ind. App. LEXIS 18 (Ind. Ct. App. 1915).

Opinion

Felt, J.

This suit was brought for partition and to quiet title to real estate. The undisputed facts show that Eobert Andrew died intestate, the owner of the real estate in controversy, and left as his only surviving relatives, certain first, second and third cousins. The amended petition for partition was filed by certain second and third cousins against appellants and a large number of persons, some of whom were alleged to have no interest in the real estate, but it was further alleged that the plaintiffs and a large number of the defendants were the owners in fee simple as tenants in common of the real estate which is the subject of the litigation. The complaint contains the necessary averments to authorize a judgment quieting the title against certain defendants and alleged that the real estate was not susceptible of division without damage to the several owners, who were alleged to own undivided portions thereof in various proportions, from an one-seventeenth to an one two-hundred-thirty-eighth interest therein. The appellants answered this complaint by general denial. On the issues so formed, the cause was submitted to the court, which found for the plaintiffs and rendered judgment quieting title against certain defendants and made a general finding that the plaintiffs and other defendants, including appellant, Elwood Avery, are the owners in fee simple, as tenants in common, of all the real estate described in the complaint, and that the same can not be divided among the several owners without damage, and ordered that the same be sold and appointed a commissioner to make the sale.

The court did not find and adjudge the interests of the several tenants in common of the land, but [101]*101gave direction to the commissioner regarding the sale and the payment of costs and expenses, and then decreed as follows: “The balance remaining in his hands he shall pay to the clerk of this court for distribution among the several owners of said real estate, according to their several interests as the same may hereafter be found and adjudged by the court. It is hereby further ordered by tbe court that this decree and order shall in no way affect the right, title and interest of any of the parties hereto except those against whom title is quieted, as to their interests in the real estate above described, nor as to the funds arising from the sale thereof by said commissioner, but the rights of each and all of said parties hereto except those against whom title is quieted are hereby transferred to the fund arising from said sale and the interests of said several parties in said fund upon the sale of said real estate shall be hereafter determined by the court.”

The land was sold and the funds were paid to the clerk in pursuance of the foregoing decree. The order of sale was made December 19, 1912, and in January, 1914, appellant Elwood Avery, filed his petition asking that the funds be distributed and that all the net proceeds from the sale of the land be paid to the living first cousins of the decedent, as his sole and only surviving heirs under the statute of descents. A like petition was filed by appellant, Daisy Avery, alleging that she was an assignee of Elwood Avery, and had an interest in the funds to be distributed. The appellees filed a cross-complaint in which it was alleged in substance that second cousins whose parents were dead, and third cousins whose parents and grandparents were dead were entitled to inherit by representation. The appellants answered the cross-complaint by general denial and the issues so formed were then tried. The par[102]*102ties duly requested the court to make a special finding of facts and state its conclusions of law thereon, which was accordingly done. The court stated its conclusions of law by which the second and third cousins were adjudged to have an interest in the funds proportionate to their interests in the land which were ascertained by making first cousins the basis of the distribution and allowing second cousins to take by representation the interest of their deceased parents, the cousins of Robert Andrew, deceased, and where a second cousin had died leaving children, the children were given the share that would have gone, under the foregoing rule, to their parent, if living.

Appellants filed a motion for a new trial, as of right; and also for cause, both of which were overruled. From the judgment rendered on the foregoing conclusions of law, appellants have appealed and separately assigned errors in the conclusions of law stated on each finding of facts; in overruling the separate motions of appellants for a new trial as of right; and in overruling the motion for a new trial for cause.

The questions presented by the briefs relate to appellants’ right to a new trial as of right, and to the conclusions of law. The findings show the source of the title, that all the parties claim to inherit from Robert Andrew, deceased, and show that he left surviving him ten -living first cousins, including appellant Elwood Avery, and numerous second cousins, the children of deceased cousins and several third cousins, the children of a deceased second cousin. No question, is made about the correctness of the findings and it is conceded by appellants that if on the facts found second and third cousins are entitled to share at all in the estate, the judgment is right, but it is earnestly insisted that the living first [103]*103cousins of Robert Andrew, deceased, are “the next of kin, in equal degree of consanguinity” and therefore entitled to the estate to the exclusion of the second and third cousins, who are of a more remote degree of consanguinity.

1. [104]*1042. [103]*103Eoth appellants and appellees claim to inherit by virtue of the provisions of §2994 Burns 1914, §2471 R. S. 1881, but appellees assert that the section must be construed in connection with §2991 Burns 1914, §2468 R. S. 1881, and that when so interpreted the principle of representation applies to collateral kindred the same as to direct descendants. That part of §2994 Burns 1914, supra, material, is as follows: “If there be no person entitled to take the inheritance according to the preceding rules, it shall descend in the following order: First. If the inheritance came to the intestate by gift, devise, or descent from the paternal line, it shall go to the paternal grandfather'and grandmother, as joint tenants, and to the survivor of them; if neither of them be living, it shall go to the uncles and aunts in the paternal line, and their descendants, if any of them be dead; and if no such relatives be living, it shall go to the next of kin, in equal degree of consanguinity, among the paternal kindred; and if there be none of the paternal kindred entitled to take the inheritance as above prescribed, it shall go to the maternal kindred in the same order.” Section 2990 Burns 1914, §2467 R. S. 1881, provides for the inheritance by children. Section 2991 Burns 1914, §2468 R. S. 1881, provides that grandchildren of the ancestor “shall inherit the share which would have descended to the father or mother, and grandchildren and more remote descendants and all other relatives, of the intestate, whether lineal or collateral, shall inherit by the same rule: Provided, That if the intestate shall have [104]*104left, at his death, grandchildren only, alive, they shall inherit equally.” Section 2992 Burns 1914, §2469 R. S. 1881, provides for inheritance by surviving parents and brothers and sisters, and their descendants. Section 2993 Burns 1914, §2470 R. S.

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Bluebook (online)
108 N.E. 599, 60 Ind. App. 99, 1915 Ind. App. LEXIS 18, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/avery-v-vail-indctapp-1915.