Bangess v. Partee

2 Shan. Cas. 264
Tennessee Supreme Court·Decided January 15, 1877·Published

Opinion

DeadtcRioK, Cb. J.,

delivered tbe opinion of tbe- court:

Bangess, executor of Archy*Partee, deceased, filed bis bill in tbe chancery court at Columbia, on tbe 24th of September, 1865, in which be alleges that be did, on tbe-day of-, 1865, suggest tbe insolvency of tbe estate of said Partee to tbe county court of Maury county.

Tbe bill further alleges that on tbe 25th of April, 1863, tbe testator sold and conveyed to one E. S. Jones, 300 acres of land, part of a tract of 500 acres lying in said county of Maury, at tbe price of $10,500; $10,000 of the price was paid at tbe time of tbe sale, and tbe purchaser’s note was taken for tbe $500 remaining unpaid, due January 1st, 1864; tbe $10,000 paid was Confederate money, and tbe $500 note is still due and unpaid.

it is further charged in tbe bill that said Jones, on 2'Tth'of August, 1863, sold and conveyed to defendant, T. H. Timmons, tbe said tract of 300 acres of land for $25,000 in Confederate money; and that said Timmons bad notice at tbe time of tbe sale and .conveyance to him, that $500 of tbe purchase money remained unpaid, 'and that a lien was subsisting upon the land, for it is insisted that lien [266]*266should be declared for the whole of tire price of said land, as the Confederate money paid was not a valid payment.

The bill also charges that a deed bearing date in 1861, but without attesting witnesses, was acknowledged by testator in October, 1863, conveying to his son’s (E. C. Par-tee’s) wife, Mary, the remaining 200 acres of the said 500 acre tract, for the- consideration, as expressed in the deed, of $7,500, but thac no consideration was, in fact, paid; and that said Mary has died, leaving her husband and an infant-child, Edward Partee, surviving her. It is charged that testator was, at the time of making these conveyances, in the year 1863, about 70 years of age, feeible in mind and incapable of managing or disposing of his estate.

It is further shown by the bill, that in 1861, the Union Bank obtained judgment in the circuit court of Maury county, against testator, for about the sum of $3,500, which were taken by appeal to the supreme court, and were still pending and undetermined in said court.

The bill further charges that if the claims for the land, etc., be realized, the estate will be solvent, but if -any considerable part of the same should not be realized, then the estate will be insolvent; that the personal estate left is of small value.

The widow, heirs, and creditors of testator are made defendants, and also the infant- son and heirs-at-law of said Mary Partee, and the Union Bank in enjoined from prosecuting said suits pending in the supreme, court; and all the creditors are in like manner enjoined by the fiat of the chancellor upon the said 23d of December, 1865, except that the Union Bank was allowed to prosecute its suit in the supreme court to an affirmance of its judgments, but was enjoined from issuing executions until the further order of the chancellor.

Judgment pro -confesso was- taken against Jones; Tim-mons answered and admitted that he purchased the land of Jones and paid for it, with knowledge that $500 of the purchase money was still due from Jones, and does not [267]*267contest that tliat sum'constitutes a lien upon the land. But he says that testator owed him at the time of his death more than $500, and claims the right to set off his claim on testator against the amount remaining due from Jones for the land. Timmons also states in his answer that before the bill was filed he sold and conveyed the said tract of 300 acres of land to his son, J. K. P. Timmons, for a valuable consideration.

E. C. Partee, the son of testator, and husband of Mary, states in his answer, that down to some time in 1863, testator had means sufficient to pay his debts, and became insolvent by loss of his slave property.

He states that in 1859, testator proposed to him to take 150 acres of his land at $35 per acre; that he declined to do so, whereupon testator urged him to* take it, saying he could pay for it when it suited him, and if he never paid for it it would make no difference to him. Respondent accepted the proposition, regarding it as an advancement to him; no conveyance was then made.

In 1861, the proposition was made by testator that if respondent and his wife, Mary, would give him a power of attorney to draw the money due said Mary from her father’s estate, he would retain $2,000.of it, and in consideration thereof, he would make her a deed to 150 acres of the land.

The power of attorney was executed, but no money was ever received upon it After this, respondent alleges that he paid his father $2,400 in Confederate money, upon his agreeing to make title to the 150 acres.

The deed acknowledged October, 1863, was made for 200 acres instead of 150; respondent states that he does not know why this was done unless it was for the $400 paid over and above the $2,000, but insists that he paid $2,000 for the 150 acres, and that this was all he claimed therefor; and that the 50 acres additional conveyed was either intended as a consideration for the $400, or as a voluntary gift.

[268]*268Tbe Union Bank also answered the bill, and files its answer as a cross-bill, making tbe parties to tbe original bill and J. X. P. Timmons, tbe purchaser of tbe 300 acre tract, defendants, insisting on tbe lien of its judgments and praying tbe court to order tbe sale of tbe land to enforce said liens, and to tbai extent to modify tbe injunctions granted.

Bangess, tbe executor, filed an amended bill making J. K. P. Timmons defendant, and alleging that his father, S. Tl. Timmons, about tbe time of tbe filing of tbe original bill, fraudulently conveyed tbe 300 acres of land to said J. X. P. Timmons; that tbe son was a young man without means, living with bis father, and knew that the land was not paid for and that be bad not paid for it.

J. K. P. Timmons in bis answer admits that be purchased of bis father tbe 300 acres of land and took a conveyance of it 10th of September, 1865; that be agreed to give $12,000 for it in five equal annual installments; be denies fraud, but admits that be has not paid anything for tbe land, and does not deny that be had knowledge that $500 of tbe purchase money was due from Jones for tbe land.

In the supreme court, tbe testator having died in November, 1863, tbe suits of tbe Union Bank were revived against Bangess, tbe executor, and judgments of the circuit court were affirmed February 2, 1866.

Upon these judgments executions were issued 26th of March, 1866, and returned not satisfied. At October term, 1868, tbe chancellor rendered a decree setting aside tbe conveyances to Jones and to Mary Partee, upon the ground that tbe deeds were not properly stamped, and because having been paid for in Confederate money, they were not executed uuou any valid or legal consideration.

The chancellor directed that accounts of the rents and profits should be taken, and tbe parties in possession should be charged therewith, and that an account of tbe assets and debts of testator be taken, and also directed that tbe parties in possession ot said land should be dispossessed, and [269]*269that the master should sell the same for the payment of testator’s debts, and,that the Union Bank was not entitled' to priority of satisfaction of its judgment out of the lands over the other creditors of the estate holding claims by notes or accounts.

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Bangess v. Partee, 2 Shan. Cas. 264 (Tenn. 1877).

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