Berry v. Folkes

60 Miss. 576
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 15, 1882
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 60 Miss. 576 (Berry v. Folkes) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Berry v. Folkes, 60 Miss. 576 (Mich. 1882).

Opinion

Cooper, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

From the decree of the chancellor all the parties appeal.

The complainants in the court below assign for error, the action of the chancellor : —

1. In declaring the real estate to be partnership property.

2. In denying immediate partition to complainants.

3. In declaring the land subject to the debts of the partnership of Fizer & Folkes contracted after the death of Fizer and before the filing of the bill in this cause.

4. In fixing the beginning of the farming season of 1882, instead of the date of the' filing of the bill (December 13, 1881), as the date of the termination of the partnership.

5. In disallowing the application of the heirs of Fizer for an allowance for support during the litigation, and for attorney’s fees.

6. In modifying the injunction which had been issued, so as to permit Folkes to dispose of the crops of the year 1882, upon his entering into bond to have forthcoming the rents which might be assessed against him for that year.

7. In directing an account to be taken of the value of the improvements placed on the lands by Folkes after the filing of the bill.

8. In directing that Folkes should only be charged with interest at six per cent per annum instead of ten.

The appellant Folkes assigns for error the action of the court: — ■

1. In not enforcing the contract with Hilliard against the heirs of Fizer.

2. In not. allowing the business of the firm of Fizer & Folkes to be carried on until payment could be made of all the partnership debts.

3. In not allowing Folkes to continue the business under the will of Fizer, until the place shall be improved and put in successful cultivation;

4. In appointing a receiver.

[603]*6035. In holding appellant Folkes as a tenant for the year-1882.

6. In not allowing Folkes compensation for his services in managing the business after the death of Fizer.

7. In directing interest to be charged against Folkes in the settlement of the partnership accounts.

8. In not sustaining Folkes’ plea of usury as to the Estes, Fizer & Co. account.

9. In construing the will of Fizer.

The appellant, Hilliard, by his first six assignments of error presents the same points raised by the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth of Folkes. The seventh is upon the refusal of the chancellor to instruct the commissioner that Folkes, upon an accounting, should be credited with one-half the value of one-third of the plantation.

8. In not declaring that the lien of complainants for whatever might be due from the defendant Folkes in order to pay the partnership debts and to equalize the accounts between the partners, should be postponed to any decree that Hilliard might thereafter obtain against Folkes on the contract of January, 1877, in the event Hilliard should elect not to accept the moneyed compensation allowed.

9. In requiring Hilliard to elect whether he would accept a moneyed compensation before the amount thereof had been determined, and before declaring how his right to proceed against Folkes under said contract would be affected by the lien claimed for complainants.

■ 10. In not declaring that whatever rights Hilliard might have to enforce the contract of January, 1877, out of Folkes’ moiety of the land, should be subject to only the partnership débts, and the indebtedness of Folkes as partner to complainants, which were existing on the 241,h of January, 1877, and which had not been since paid, and that so much of this moiety, as might be afterwards decreed to Hilliard in any litigation with Folkes should not be liable to even such debts, [604]*604until Folkes’ interest in all the other partnership property real and personal should first be exhausted.

It is unnecessary to consider seriatim the assignments of errors, as most of them are included in the examination of the general question which lies at the root of the controversy, which is, what was the character of the ownership which Fizer and Folkes had in the land?

As to the claim now propounded by the complainants, that the land shall be dealt with as property held under a tenancy in common, pure and simple, it would be sufficient to say that such was not the theory upon which their bill was exhibited.

But aside from this, an examination of the evidence showing the circumstances under which it was brought, the contract in reference to its improvement, the manner in which it was dealt with by the owners and the intimate connection it has with the partnership affairs, has led us to the conclusion that the land in no event could be considered as held by the owners as tenants in common, unaffected by the result of the partnership dealings conducted by them. On the other hand, the same considerations lead to the conclusion that the partners did not intend to reduce it to partnership property for all purposes, certainly not the extent of converting it into pei’-sonalty.

There was contemplated by the owners a tenancy in common, but it was to fully begin only when the partnership should by finally closed. There was also a partnership, but it was to end, not in the conversion of the land into personalty for the purposes of distribution, but in the partition of it between the members of the firm, or a continuation of the enjoyment of it as tenants in common.

The powers, rights and obligations of the owners cannot be determined wholly by the laws of partnership, nor of those of co-ownership, but are governed partly by those of each. 1 LindL.on Part. 63.

[605]*605The contract of partnership was entered into solely for the purpose of purchasing, improving and equipping the place. The profits of the partnership business were to consist of lands and not of money; as rapidly as realized they were converted into realty by investing them in the payment for, improvement and equipment of, the place. The end and object of the partnership was the ownership of an improved and arable plantation. The partnership was the means by- which this end was to be attained.

The relations of the parties to each other and to the property are analogous to the cases of co-ownership of mines worked by the owners as partners. As to these Lindley, in his work on partnership, suggests the following, among other rules : upon a dissolution of the partnership, the mine itself not being partnership property, must be divided between its several owners and not bé sold.

As between the real and personal representatives of a deceased partner, his share in the mine will be real and not personal property.

With a view to a dissolution the court will, if necessary appoint a receiver to carry on the mine for the benefit of all parties interested.

The obligation of each co-owner to account to the others, is the same as that of one partner to account to his copartners, and much more extensive, therefore, than that which exists in a case of mere co-ownership.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
60 Miss. 576, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/berry-v-folkes-miss-1882.