Baker v. Underwood

63 Mo. 384
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedOctober 15, 1876
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 63 Mo. 384 (Baker v. Underwood) 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
Baker v. Underwood, 63 Mo. 384 (Mo. 1876).

Opinion

Napton, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an action of ejectment to recover the northwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section 22, T. 50, R. 21.

The titles of the plaintiff and defendant were based on the conceded title of Wm. Stokes in 1822, by patents from the United States. The land was military bounty land.

The plaintiffs, who are heirs of Peter Lindell, claim the land by virtue of a sale by the United States- marshal for the district of Missouri, under a judgment of the district court against John O’Fallon, executor of Stokes, and an execution and a deed from said marshal in 1825.

The defendants claim under a regular chain of title from Ann Carson, only daughter and heir of Wm. Stokes, originating in 1846. ' .

Consequently, the only question in the case was, whether the marshal’s deed in 1825, or rather, the record of it, was properly admitted in evidence as against the defendants, who were conceded to be bona fide purchasers fbr value, and without any other notice than the records imported.

This deed and the executions referred to in it, and the advertisement for sale, are recorded in the records of the United States district court.

The acknowledgment of the deed was on the 8th of September, 1825. The records of that date state that Henry Dodge, United States marshal, personally appeared in the district court, and acknowledged the execution of the deed from him as marshal, to Peter Lindell. The records of Ray county show that the deed was filed for record in that county, and duly recorded in 1828.

The clerk of the Carroll county court certifies that this record is duly recorded in the office of the recorder of deeds, and taken from the Ray county records. It was conceded that the land in dispute was in 1825 in Ray county, now in Carroll county.

The deed from Dodge, marshal, recites two writs of execution, returnable to the September Term of the district court in 1825, copies of which are annexed to the deed (as recited in it), and [386]*386made a part and parcel of it; and further states that he levied on and seized all the right, title and claim, interest, estate and property of him, the said William Stokes, deceased,” to certain lands, including this now in dispute, and advertised as the law directs (stating the particulars), which advertisement is also made a part of the deed ; and in pursuance of said execution and advertisement, he did, on the 7th of September, 1825, at the court house door, in the city of St. Louis, during the sitting of the district court, sell the land, or rather, all the right, title and interest of Wm. Stokes, or that appertaining to his estate, in the land advertised, to Peter Lindell, the highest bidder. He therefore transfers and assigns to Peter Lindell, etc., this interest. This deed is signed and sealed, 9th of September, 1825. .

The executions command the marshal, that of the goods and chattels, lands and tenements of the said Wm. Stokes, deceased, at the time of his death in the hands of his executor, to be administered, he cause to be made the damages and costs recited in the judgments.

The advertisement recites, that by virtue of two executions issuing from the district court of Missouri, the marshal would sell at the court house door to the highest bidder, on the 7th day of September, between the hours of 9 and 5, all the right, title and interest of Stokes in certain lands, of which the land, now in dispute, was a part, etc. The record of the district court recites, that on the 8th of September, 1825, Henry Dodge, marshal of said district, personally appeared in the district court and acknowledged the execution of this deed. The records of Ray county show that this deed was recorded there on the 18th of September, 1828. The certificate of the recorder of .Carroll county (taken from Ray county) is produced, and also of the now clerk of the district court of the United States.

The judgment roll of the district court is then produced, showing the proceedings and final judgment in the cases on which executions against O’FaMon, executor of Stokes, issued.

The title of the defendant depended on a deed from the daughter and heir of Stokes in 1845, which is conceded to have been for value and properly executed and recorded. So that the only [387]*387question in the case is as to the admission of the marshal’s deed in 1825, and its effect as giving notice-to the purchaser from the heirs of Stokes, in 1845.

It will be perceived by an examination of the cases of Kennerly vs. Shepley (15 Mo. 640), and Keene vs. Barnes (29 Mo. 377), that the value of such deeds was somewhat discussed, but that the precise question presented here was not determined. In the former case the deed was lost and had never been recorded, and the controversy was between the creditors of Kennerly, represented by the administratrix of Kennerly, and the grantee in the marshal’s deed. In the last case, the objections to the marshal’s deed were not specified, and the court refused to decide oh them. The date of the marshal’s deed in the case of Shepley vs. Kennorly was, however, the same as the present, and it was undoubtedly the opinion off the court that final process in 1825 from the United States district court was not regulated by our State statutes, but by the district court under the act of congress of 1793.

It seems clear that, although the statute of 1825 (R. C. 1825, p. 370, § 21) requires a sheriff’s deed to be acknowledged before the circuit court of the county in which the estate therein conveyed is situate, the acknowledgment of the marshal’s deed must be by analogy, acknowledged before the district court of which he was an officer, and to which he must make his return on the execution ; and as the acknowledgment of a sheriff’s deed did not require the court or clerk to certify that the sheriff was personally known to be the sheriff, so the certificate of the court, that the marshal was personally known, was unnecessary, as the court must be presumed officially to know its own officer. (Laughlin vs. Stone, 2 Mo. 43.) The 16th' section of our statute (R. C. 1825, p. 368) requires the sheriff to expose land levied on to sale at the court house door of the county where the land is situate, and during the term of the circuit court, but the United States marshal, being ordered to levy on land within the district, sold the same in the county where the district court was held, and at the door of the courthouse where such court was held, during the session of said court, observing, however, the other requisites named in the said section of our act. And such a sale being [388]*388sanctioned by the district court, was presumed by this court in the case of Shepley vs. Kennerly to have been in accordance with the rules and regulations of said court.

The executions in this case differed from the executions authorized by our statute against executors, heirs, etc., for the 2nd section of the act requires when such executions are issued, that the sheriff shall be directed only of the goods and chattels which were of the ancestor, intestate, testator, etc., at the time of his death, he cause to be made the debt damages and costs, and if sufficient goods and chattels cannot be found in his county, then that of the lands and tenements which were of the ancestor, etc. he cause to be made the debt, damages, etc. The executions in this case were directed to be levied on the goods and chattels, lands and tenements generally.

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63 Mo. 384, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/baker-v-underwood-mo-1876.