Barras v. Youngs

152 N.W. 219, 185 Mich. 496, 1915 Mich. LEXIS 987
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedApril 19, 1915
DocketDocket No. 31
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 152 N.W. 219 (Barras v. Youngs) 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
Barras v. Youngs, 152 N.W. 219, 185 Mich. 496, 1915 Mich. LEXIS 987 (Mich. 1915).

Opinion

Kuhn, J.

The bill of complaint prays for an accounting to the beneficiary from his trustee. The complainant, a resident of Escanaba, had formerly resided at Iron River in this State, which latter place he left in 1906 and went to Nevada, where he remained about four years. He is a graduate of the law department of the University of Michigan, and had practiced law for a short time, but since his graduation his business has 'been mainly real estate. He was the owner of an undivided quarter interest in the N. i/2 of the N. E. %, the S. E. % of the S. W. and the S. W. 14 of the S. E. 14 of section 26, and the N. E. % of section 36, township 43 north, of range 35 west, Iron county, Mich. The S. E. % of the S. W. % and the S. W. % of the S. E. % of section 26 was known as “Weimer’s Field.” The complainant’s cotenants in this property were his mother, Frances E. Barras, and his uncle by marriage, John D. Ross, who together owned the remaining undivided three-fourths interest in the land. Some time prior to 1907 the complainant had given his uncle, John D. Ross, a mortgage on his interest in all these lands. Some friction having arisen between the complainant and his mother and Mr. Ross, arising out of certain business dealings, the uncle started foreclosure on his mortgage, and the complainant’s interest in the land was sold on December 14, 1907, to Mr. Ross. The amount required to redeem approximated $1,500, and the time of redemption expired on June 14, 1908.

[499]*499It appears that the complainant and defendant had met and beeome acquainted at Iron River, and this acquaintance had ripened into a warm friendship, and while the complainant was in Nevada he and the defendant became jointly interested in the exploration of certain mineral lands in that State, it having been arranged that the complainant was to look after the business on the ground and the defendant to furnish the necessary money to carry on the enterprise. It was while in Nevada that the complainant first learned of the foreclosure of this mortgage by his uncle from some source. A letter written to him by the defendant about December 21, 1907, also informed him of this fact. Upon learning of the foreclosure he immediately wrote Mr. Ross, requesting him to cancel the foreclosure and to accept as a substitute a trust deed of the property under which he would be authorized to sell at discretion the complainant’s interest in the lots of a proposed plat of Weimer Field and retain the proceeds until the complainant’s indebtedness to him, principal and interest, was fully paid, it appearing that in 1903 the complainant and his cotenants had caused about 50 acres of Weimer’s Field to be surveyed and staked out into lots and a plat thereof to be made, but the same had never been recorded. Mr. Ross did not reply to the letter written by the complainant, and on January 1, 1908, the complainant wrote the defendant of his offer to Mr. Ross and of his failure to secure an extension and of his fear that Ross was trying to get his interest in the property, and that unless complainant heard from defendant by February 1st, he thought he would sell to a building company at Iron River, which had offered him $1,500 for his interest in Weimer’s Field some time previous to the foreclosure sale. In reply, the defendant recommended the sale to the building company, as the complainant would be thus enabled to [500]*500pay his debt and save his remaining interest, and also offered to raise the money and take up the mortgage and thereby assist the complainant. The defendant also, in the meantime, endeavored to find a purchaser for Weimer’s Field at a better price than was offered by the building company, and wrote the complainant of a prospect of selling to one Swanson at $2,500. This sale the complainant was willing to make, but Swanson finally decided to invest his money elsewhere. On February 4, 1908, the defendant wrote a letter to the complainant, in which he suggested, “not to let his property go by default,” and also “if we have a little time and it has to be done, we will put the money in and save it. You and your wife could make a trust deed to me, and I am sure if we had thirty days time we could pay it.” To this the complainant replied under date of February 9, 1908, as. follows:

“Now in regard to the Weimer and your suggestion of taking up the mortgage Mr. Ross holds and my giving a trust deed. This is in exact accordance with what I would wish, but did not wish to impose on your generosity in this regard, and therefore wrote Mr. Byers on the first of this month that I had decided to sell my interest and I then asked him to procure better terms than the fifteen hundred dollars previously offered. I knew this was. giving the property away even at the price of lots at the time I left Iron River; your letter, however, gave me a good insight into the matter, for if all the lots are sold in the original plat of Iron River, of course our addition will sell rapidly, and if the price of the original plat lots, which are only 30x120 ft., sell for three hundred dollars, ours, ought to sell for the same money when we give them almost twice the ground; our lots being 50x140 ft. If I remember right, I figured when I laid out the Weimer that the lots included in the plat at two hundred dollars for the lots in the first tier of blocks facing the road, and one hundred and fifty dollars for the balance of the lots, would, if all were sold, amount to about thirty thou[501]*501sand dollars. This being only a little over one-half of the Weimer field. However, I gave Mr. Coe a blueprint of the plat, which you can get from him and figure out yourself.
“The amount of Mr. Ross’ mortgage as foreclosed last December, including Holmes title which he purchased, was fourteen hundred and one dollar and some cents. I suppose interest and the expenses extra would bring the amount up close to fifteen hundred dollars, but if you advanced this money to me, there is to offset this in the neighborhood of five hundred dollars due me on my interest on the sale of lots, which I made when I was. in Iron River, besides the interest since that time.
“As you are better acquainted with the risks and advantages of this real estate in Iron River, than I am, I will submit this proposition to you, for if you inconvenience yourself to put up money for me, Cap, I want you to make something good out of it.
“Therefore, if you are willing to take your security on the Weimer and the pay from the sale of the lots, I to give you a trust deed for same, and when the money you have advanced and the interest thereon is paid up from the sale of the lots, I will then give you a deed for one-half of my interest then remaining in the whole Weimer eighty; that is, an undivided one-eighth interest. This said agreement can be embodied in the trust deed. In the meantime, when the lots are put on the market, I see no reason why you, Frank, or Dave could not get the agency for the same, as the commission is ten per cent., and would amount to quite a bit on a lively market. As I figure it, it would only need the sale of fifteen or twenty lots more to fully pay up fifteen hundred dollars; that is, with the money now due on my interest from previous sales, and we could then whack between us the rest of any sales which would be due on this quarter interest, which would be quite a chunk in itself, you can, how- ■ ever, figure this out better from the blueprint at Coe’s than I can try to explain on paper. I have until the first of June to redeem, so we have plenty of time.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
152 N.W. 219, 185 Mich. 496, 1915 Mich. LEXIS 987, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barras-v-youngs-mich-1915.