Blanchard v. Dorman

139 S.W. 395, 236 Mo. 416, 1911 Mo. LEXIS 210
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJuly 12, 1911
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 139 S.W. 395 (Blanchard v. Dorman) 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
Blanchard v. Dorman, 139 S.W. 395, 236 Mo. 416, 1911 Mo. LEXIS 210 (Mo. 1911).

Opinion

BROWN, C.

This suit was instituted in the circuit court of Henry county to partition certain lands in that county, described as follows: “Thirty-six acres part east half lot two, northwest quarter; seven acres part southwest fourth of the northwest quarter; twenty-seven acres part northwest fourth of the north-we'st quarter all in section three, township forty-one, range twenty-six. One hundred and sixty acres southeast quarter section seven; eighty, acres west half of the southwest quarter of section eight; forty acres the southwest quarter of the northwest quarter of section sixteen; all in township forty-two, range twenty-six.”

The petition was an ordinary one for statutory partition, in which it was stated in substance that Rebecca J. Dorman died intestate in said county on the 17th day of April, 1889, seized of said lands and leaving as her only heirs at law her daughters, Lula E. Davis, Virginia Dorman Golden, Mollie B. McNeel, [424]*424and her sons, the defendants Allen Dorman, George W. Dorman, Sterling P. Dorman and John B. Dorman ; that the said Lnla E. Davis had conveyed to the other heirs named her undivided interest as heir at law of Rebecca Dorman, in said lands, and that after said conveyance and on June 17, 1900, Virginia Dorman Golden died intestate, leaving the plaintiff her sole heir at law, and that the plaintiff and defendants were tenants in common and in possession each of an undivided one-sixth of said lands.

The prayer was for partition in kind and general relief.

This petition has been the subject of much discussion. The transcript made by the clerk of the circuit court of Henry county on change of venue to Cass county purported to contain a copy of it in which the two hundred and eighty acres of land in sections seven, eight and sixteen, in township forty-two were described as in range twenty-six. The original petition was stated in the transcript to have been lost. The original petition was in court and offered in evidence after the entry of the interlocutory decree of partition and described, the -land as being in range twenty-seven, which is the description incorporated in the abstract of record of the plaintiffs in error.

No process was issued or service had in this case until July 8, 1902, when the defendant Allen Dorman filed in the Henry Circuit Court a petition of his own against all the other parties in the first mentioned case for the partition of the same land, after which service was had in both cases and, at the January term, 1903, of the Henry Circuit Court, the case in which Allen Dorman was plaintiff was by order of the court, without objection from either party, consolidated with the original case brought by Mrs. Blanchard under the number of the latter, which was 128 on the docket, and in the same order it was provided “that plaintiff’s [425]*425counsel in each of the above entitled causes, have fee allowed in said cause, equally divided.”

An amended petition was filed by Mrs. Blanchard in the Henry Circuit Court on May 13, 1903, in which the tract of land first described in the original petition was described as “tract No. 2, known as the old Wash Hancock homestead in Clinton Township, Henry County, Missouri, . . . containing seventy-one acres, being the land conveyed by George W. Hancock to Rebecca J. Dorman by deed dated November 27, 1880, recorded on page 566 of deed book 30 of the deed book records of Henry county, Missouri.”This description mentions neither section, township nor range. The other tract is described as “tract No. 1,'the Dorman farm in Honey Creek township, Henry county, Missouri, described as the southeast quarter of section No. seven (7), and the west half of the southwest quarter of section No. eight (8), and the southwest fourth of the northwest quarter of section No. sixteen (16), all in township No. forty-two (42), of range No. twenty-seven (27) containing in all 280 acres, more or less.” This petition further stated in substance that from the death of Mrs. Dorman each of her heirs was the owner of an undivided one-seventh interest of the lands described, and recognized the interest of the others,- until about the first day of March, 1900, when Mrs. Davis sold her said interest to the defendants George W. Dorman, Sterling P. Dorman, Mollie B. McNeel and John B. Dorman and Mrs. Golden for twelve hundred dollars ($1200), pursuant to which sale Mrs. Davis and her husband, Charles W. Davis, conveyed said interest to the parties named.

It was further stated that the defendants Sterling P. Dorman, John B. Dorman, Allen Dorman and George W. Dorman had been in possession of said lands during the years since and including 1900, and collected rents of which they claimed to have applied a portion to the payment of the amount promised to [426]*426be paid to Mrs. Davis for her interest, of which she and her husband claimed that a large portion still remained due and unpaid for which they were entitled to a vendor’s lien on the land. It will be noted that the conveyance of Mrs. Davis and husband, pleaded in this petition, did not include Allen Dorman, so that his interest is stated to be an undivided one-seventh of the land, and the interest of each of the other owners, plaintiff and defendants, an undivided six thirty-fifths, and that division could not be made in kind.

The prayer was for an accounting by the Dormans with respect to the rents and profits, that the amount due Mrs. Davis be determined, and that the land be sold and the proceeds distributed among the parties according to their respective rights and interests, and for general relief.

Lula E. Davis and her husband, Charles W. Davis, were made parties to this petition and were duly brought in by summons.

On September 12, 1902, all of the then defendants filed separate answers to the original petition. All except that of George W. Dorman were identical, admitting the title of Rebecca J. Dorman at the time of her death, in all the lands described in the petition, except the seventy acres in township forty-one and stating that Mrs. Golden at the time of her death had received advancements from the estate of her mother to the amount of $1850.25, which was more than her entire interest in the estate. They also stated the sale by Lula E. Davis of her interest in the estate, to Mrs. Golden, John B. Dorman, Sterling P. Dorman, George W. Dorman and Mollie B. McNeel, who executed their two joint and several promissory notes to her in payment of the purchase price of twelve hundred dollars, one of said notes being for the sum of eight hundred dollars, bearing interest at 7 per cent, and one for four hundred dollars, bearing interest at [427]*4278 per cent, upon which, about eleven hundred dollars still remained due and unpaid, and that the plaintiff by her written contract with Mrs. Davis had ratified the purchase and assumed the liability of her mother on the notes. The prayer was that the plaintiff be required to bring her advancements into hotchpot with the said real estate as required by section 2913, Revised Statutes 1899, and that this proceeding be stayed until the promissory notes given for the purchase price of the interest of Mrs. Davis should be paid or secured by a lien on the said land.

The answer of, George W. Dorman was identical, except that in addition to the statements contained in the other answer he asserted and claimed the absolute ownership of the seventy or seventy-one acres in township forty-one.

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Bluebook (online)
139 S.W. 395, 236 Mo. 416, 1911 Mo. LEXIS 210, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/blanchard-v-dorman-mo-1911.