Brown v. Howard

175 S.W. 52, 264 Mo. 466, 1915 Mo. LEXIS 85
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedMarch 30, 1915
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 175 S.W. 52 (Brown v. Howard) 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
Brown v. Howard, 175 S.W. 52, 264 Mo. 466, 1915 Mo. LEXIS 85 (Mo. 1915).

Opinion

RO'Y, C.

This is a suit begun September 15, 1909, to compel an accounting by the defendant William A. Howard as trustee of real estate. The finding and judgment were for defendants and the plaintiffs have appealed.

George W. Brown died in 1875 the owner of the east 20 feet of lot 1 and the east 20 feet of the south 16 feet of lot 2 in block 30 in the city of St. Joseph, on which there was an old two-story business house. It is hereafter called the Market Square property. He also owned lots 4, 5, 6 and 7 in block 1 in Landis & Hull’s'addition to said city. The Market Square property was encumbered for $3000 at 10 per cent. He left a will which was admitted to probate and read in evidence, but it in no way affects the issues herein. For convenience we shall consider the case as though he died intestate. After the death of George W. Brown the incumbrance on the Market Square property was foreclosed by suit against the heirs of B'rown and the property sold under that proceeding to Parmelia J. Brown, a daughter of the deceased, on March 11, 1875.

On-September 10, 1888, Silas Woodson acquired the title to said lots 4, 5, 6 and 7 at a sale under a proceeding against the widow and heirs of George W. Brown, foreclosing the lien of a special tax bill for street improvements, and on September 25 following Woodson conveyed the lots to Parmelia J. Brown, who executed a deed of trust to Hoagland on the Market Square property to secure $3000 at 9- per cent, and another to the same party on lots 5, 6 and-7 to secure $1160 at 8 per cent. She died in 1896, intestate and without issue. Her heirs were her mother, Mary A. [469]*469Brown, her brother, the plaintiff Henry P. P. Brown, her sisters, Evelyn Knapp and Ellen Howard, wife of her codefendant herein, and her nephew Paul Floyd, only heir of a deceased sister of Parmelia J. Brown.

Demands amounting to $1010.49 were allowed against the estate of Parmelia J. Brown, of which $912.65 was held hy the defendant William A. Howard. There were no personal assets in the estate. The probate court made an order to sell all the real estate to pay debts. Under that order all the property except said lot 4 was sold and conveyed to 0. A. Shoup, who paid $110 for the Market Spuare property, and the same amounts for lots 5, 6 and 7, all subject to the incumbrances. Following that sale, most of the heirs consulted together for the purpose of setting aside the sale to Shoup' and saving the property as far as possible to the heirs. In those negotiations Henry P. P. Brown claimed that there were defects in the publication of notice against him in the various proceedings under which his sister claimed title to the property, and that, hy reason of those defects, she had never acquired the interest inherited hy him from his father. As a result of those negotiations all those heirs except Mary A. B'rown and Paul Floyd became parties to the agreement of December 19', 1899, which is set out in haec verba in Howard v. Brown, 197 Mo. l. c. 42 et seq. That agreement provided that John G-. Howard (a brother of William A.) should take title to the property from Shoup and hold it in that trust for said heirs and sell, it on their written request; that the proceeds should he applied, first, to the payment of the incumbrances, then to the payment of William A. Howard’s demands against Parmelia’s estate, the expense of tax deed to Mrs. Grace Brown (the wife of Henry P. P.), and the expense of getting deed from Shoup, including the expense of contesting the sale, and attorney’s fees.

[470]*470It was thereby provided that the surplus after such payments was to be divided among the heirs, Henry receiving one-eleventh of said surplus in excess of what the others were to get. While it was not so stated in the agreement, said extra allowance was made to Plenry by reason of the fact that he claimed as above stated that his sister had never acquired his interest in the property.

Soon after the making of that contract, John G. Howard acquired the title of Shoup, which did not include lot 4. The deed from Shoup- to John G. Howard did not designate him as trustee, but purported to be a simple conveyance of the legal title to him.

As near as can be ascertained from the evidence,, defendant William A. Howard paid $335 and Henry P. P. Brown paid $75 to procure the deed from Shoup to John G. Howard.

On April 21, 1900, Henry P. P. Brown and wife, Evelyn Knapp and Mary A. Brown brought suit against John Ploward and Ellen Howard charging that, in violation of said agreement, John G. Howard had taken the title in his own name and not as trustee, and seeking to have the title vested in the plaintiffs in that suit. That suit was dismissed by the plaintiffs therein on June 16-, 1900.. John G. Howard testified in this suit that after that, suit was brought he talked with Henry Brown about it, and that Henry said, “Well, Mr. Howard, I find no fault with anything you have done, but I have been consulting a lawyer, and I have made up my mind that my little one-eleventh share in that estate is worth more than I will get out of it any other way, and I am not going to do what I agreed to do with you and I am going to have you deed the place back to. theBtrown heirs.” Both John G. Howard and William A. Howard testified that they made an effort to secure-an extension of the loans on the land at a cheaper rate of interest and were not able to do so because[471]*471Hoagland had heard that Henry Brown was making-claim to an outstanding interest in the land, and would not extend the loan unless Henry would release such outstanding interest, which Henry refused to do.

On June 17, 1901, in some litigation between the parties, the nature and result of which are not herein disclosed, the deposition of Henry P. P. Brown was taken and read in evidence in this case, in which the following occurred:

“Q. Did Mr. John Gr. Howard ever ask you to sign a quitclaim deed pursuant to the agreement of this contract for the purpose of trying to procure a loan? A. No, I never had any contract. He asked me to give them one.

“Q. Did he ever ask you to give him a quitclaim in order to fix up this title to try and borrow money at a lower rate of interest than they were paying Mr. Hoagland? A. Yes, he asked me to give him a quitclaim.

“Q. What was you answer? A. That if I wanted to borrow any money on it, I could mortgage my own interest.

“Q. Did Mr. Howard at that time tell you that unless they fixed up the title, Mr. Hoagland would sell it out? A. No, he did not. He told me they would show Mr. Hoagland.

“Q. Which was talking? A. William A. and John G-. Howard.

“Q; What did you tell then? A. I told them there was nothing against my property and that I could mortgage my own property if I wanted to. I did not want to give it away. ’ ’

On May 24, 1900, Hoagland foreclosed his deeds of trust by having sales made by the trustee, and William A. Howard became the purchaser of the Market Square property for $3215, and of said lots 5, 6 and 7 for $1530, and received the trustee’s deeds therefor. On May 20, 1902, William A. Howard acquired title [472]*472to said lot 4 at a sale by tbe administrator of Parmelia J. Brown’s estate for $200.

Tbe defendant in the deposition above mentioned testified in effect that the Market Square property was sold to Shoup for its full value.

The evidence of several real estate men who testified for defendants tended to show that defendant William A.

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Bluebook (online)
175 S.W. 52, 264 Mo. 466, 1915 Mo. LEXIS 85, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brown-v-howard-mo-1915.