Betts v. Rogers

250 P.2d 801, 173 Kan. 613, 1952 Kan. LEXIS 240
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedDecember 6, 1952
DocketNo. 38,719
StatusPublished

This text of 250 P.2d 801 (Betts v. Rogers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Betts v. Rogers, 250 P.2d 801, 173 Kan. 613, 1952 Kan. LEXIS 240 (kan 1952).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Harvey, C. J.:

Some of the questions which arose between the parties to this action respecting their rights to the real property [614]*614involved were determined by this court in its opinion in Wright v. Rogers, 167 Kan. 297, 205 P. 2d 1010, and In re Estate of Wright, 170 Kan. 400, 227 P. 2d 131. We refer to the opinions in these cases for the questions there determined. After our decisions in the last case mentioned the parties completed the making up of the pleadings, certain facts were stipulated, there was a pretrial conference and a trial by the court. At the close of plaintiffs’ testimony the contesting defendants demurred thereto, the demurrer was sustained by the trial court, and plaintiffs have appealed.

The record discloses that for some years prior to his death on November 28, 1938, William R. Wright was the record owner of a described tract of 480 acres of land in Decatur county. He and his wife, May Wright, had lived upon the property for a number of years. About 200 acres of the land were in cultivation and the remainder in pasture. In November, 1936, William R. Wright and his wife had executed mortgages on this land to the Federal Land Bank of Wichita to secure the payment of notes in the sum of $4,000, and also executed a mortgage on the land to the Land Rank Commissioner of Wichita to secure the payment of $300. William R. Wright left a will by which he devised all his real property to his wife, May Wright. Under date of December 1, 1939, May Wright executed a quitclaim deed for all of the real property to Leo J. Rogers, the husband of her daughter, lanth Wright Rogers. Under date of May 13, 1943, Leo J. Rogers executed a quitclaim deed covering the same real property to his wife, lanth Wright Rogers. Roth these quitclaim deeds were duly recorded on March 19, 1943. May Wright did not remarry and died intestate October 16, 1946. She left surviving her six children and children of two deceased children. In amending the petition since our last decision all of the heirs at law of May Wright were made parties plaintiff, along with the administrator of her estate, except a son, Harold Wright, and her daughter, lanth Wright Rogers. They were made defendants together with Leo J. Rogers. Harold Wright made a voluntary appearance and filed an answer in which he neither affirmed nor denied the allegations of the amended petition but asked, in the event the petition be allowed, that his rights in the subject matter of the litigation be protected.

The real purpose of the action is to have the quitclaim deed executed by May Wright conveying the real property to Leo J. Rogers construed to be a mortgage, and the quitclaim deed executed by Leo J. Rogers to his wife, lanth Wright Rogers, be held to be an [615]*615assignment of the mortgage, and that there be an accounting of the sums paid by Leo J. Rogers and his wife, or either of them, upon the mortgage debt or for taxes or other necessary purposes, and also an accounting of rents received from the property, and that an equitable decree be rendered by the court respecting the property and the income therefrom, details of which need not be stated.

Since plaintiffs’ case depends primarily upon what agreement was made between May Wright and Leo J. Rogers and his wife at the time she executed the quitclaim deed on December 1, 1939, other than what is shown by the instrument itself, we think best to set out the allegations of the petition pertaining to that matter. They are found in paragraph 9 of the petition as amended. The paragraph reads, as follows:

“9. That on or about December 1, 1939, the defendant, Leo J. Rogers, husband of the defendant Ianth Wright Rogers, and a son-in-law of said May Wright, had income or means by which he represented to May Wright he would be able to pay, or help pay, such taxes, expenses and instalments due and to become due on die aforesaid indebtedness; and on or about December I, 1939, said May Wright, at the suggestion, instance and request of said Leo J. Rogers and Ianth Wright Rogers, executed and delivered to said Leo J. Rogers a deed whereby said real property was conveyed to said Leo J. Rogers upon the agreement and for the reasons hereinafter set out, which said instrument was in form a quitclaim deed; that said quitclaim deed was executed and delivered to said Leo J. Rogers by said May Wright, upon the following agreement, understanding and conditions, to-wit:
“(a) It was agreed, by and between said Leo J. Rogers and Ianth Wright Rogers, and the said May Wright, that said Leo J. Rogers and Ianth Wright Rogers would, from their own funds, advance and pay such sums as May Wright herself could not pay, on the taxes on the above-described real property, on the expense of operating same, and upon the above-described mortgage indebtedness, and that said May Wright would thereby and thereupon become indebted to said Leo J. Rogers and Ianth Wright Rogers for such sums as might be advanced and paid under said agreement, and that said Leo J. Rogers and Ianth Wright Rogers would be repaid such sums so advanced and paid by them, by the said May Wright, or from the rents and profits of said real property thereafter to accrue, or from the sale of said real .property if same should be necessary to raise money to pay said advanced sums.
“(b) It was further agreed, by and between said Leo J. Rogers and Ianth Wright Rogers, and the said May Wright, that said Leo J. Rogers and Ianth Wright Rogers, upon payment to them of such sums as they had advanced and paid out of their own funds under the above agreement, would reconvey said real property to said May Wright, or would convey said real property to all those persons who would be heirs-at-law of said May Wright should said May Wright be dead at the time of the payment of such sums or debt to said Leo J. Rogers and Ianth Wright Rogers.
“(c) And it was agreed by and between said Leo J. Rogers and Ianth [616]*616Wright Rogers, and said May Wright, that the aforesaid deed from May Wright to Leo J. Rogers was made, executed and delivered for the purpose of securing to said Leo J. Rogers and Ianth Wright Rogers such sums as it was anticipated May Wright would owe to said Leo J. Rogers and Ianth Wright Rogers for the sums which said Leo J. Rogers and Ianth Wright Rogers thereafter should actually advance and pay for said May Wright for the purposes above set forth; and it was the purpose and intent of all of said parties, to-wit, of Leo J. Rogers, Ianth Wright Rogers, and May Wright that said instrument to said Leo J. Rogers which is of record in booh 58 of deeds at page 264 of the records of Decatur County, Kansas, was in fact a mortgage, although in form a deed. And it was at all times understood by said Leo J. Rogers, Ianth Wright Rogers, and May Wright that the said quitclaim deed to said Leo J. Rogers was a mortgage, and security for the debt owing, and to become owing, from said May Wright to said Leo J. Rogers and Ianth Wright Rogers; and by reason of the foregoing the said quitclaim deed to Leo J. Rogers, made by said May Wright as aforesaid, at the time of its execution became and was, and ever since has been, and now is, a mortgage.”

In respect to defendants’ motion to make the paragraph more definite an amendment to the petition was made in which it was alleged that the agreement set out in paragraph 9 was oral and was made in Decatur county, the exact place in the county being unknown, and provided:

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Related

Spear Ex Rel. Spear v. Rogers
227 P.2d 131 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1951)
Wright v. Rogers
205 P.2d 1010 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1949)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
250 P.2d 801, 173 Kan. 613, 1952 Kan. LEXIS 240, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/betts-v-rogers-kan-1952.