Cole v. Gray

38 N.E. 856, 139 Ind. 396, 1894 Ind. LEXIS 315
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 21, 1894
DocketNo. 16,982
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 38 N.E. 856 (Cole v. Gray) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cole v. Gray, 38 N.E. 856, 139 Ind. 396, 1894 Ind. LEXIS 315 (Ind. 1894).

Opinion

McCabe, J.

The appellee John M.'Gray brought this suit against the appellant and others, in the Hamilton Circuit Court, to quiet his title to several lots in the city of Noblesville, in the county of Hamilton, to wit: Lot 4, in square 2; lots 2 and 3, in square 3; lots 3 and 4, in square 6, all in Evans and Gray’s addition; also the east half of out lot 9 in G. M. Shaw’s addition in said city.

The circuit court overruled a demurrer to the com* plaint, assigning the insufficiency of the facts therein.

The appellant, Cole, answered the complaint by a general denial, and filed a cross-complaint against his codefendants and others.

The appellee John M. Gray answered the cross-corn- ■ plaint by a general denial and a second paragraph in confession and avoidance.

Some of the other parties were defaulted, and the rest of them answered the cross-complaint, but no question arises thereon.

There was a trial of the cause in the Hamilton Circuit Court, and a new trial as of right taken, and the venue, of the cause was changed to the Tipton Circuit Court, where a trial of the issues by the court, without a jury, resulted in a finding and judgment in favor of the appellee John M. Gray, quieting his title in the lots mentioned, subject to a lien thereon in favor of the appellant, Cole, for $7.20 for taxes paid for which said Cole had judgment.

The errors assigned call in question the action of the trial court in overruling the demurrer to the complaint and in overruling the demurrer to the second paragraph of the answer to the cross-complaint, and in overruling appellant’s motion for a new trial for cause.

The complaint is in the usual form of a complaint to quiet title, alleging, in substance, that the plaintiff was [398]*398the owner in fee simple of the lots in question, and that the defendants, the appellant and others, claimed some interest therein, but that they had no interest nor lien upon said premises, nor any part thereof.

The objection urged to this complaint is that it appears from the subsequent pleadings and from the evidence on the trial, that appellant, Cole, held a lien on the lots for money paid on an invalid tax sale thereof, and for taxes paid thereon by his grantor and himself while holding such invalid tax title.

It is contended by the appellant that the owner of real estate can not maintain an action to quiet his title against the holder of an invalid tax title without first tendering to such holder the amount due him on account of the lien for the purchase-money paid and subsequent taxes paid and keeping the tender good.

Many decisions of this court are cited in support of this contention.

One of the cases cited by counsel in support of their contention is Willard v. Ames, 130 Ind. 351. That was a suit also to quiet title, the complaint being in two par-graphs. The first paragraph was in the usual form, substantially the same as the complaint here. No question was raised as to that paragraph. The second paragraph showed specifically that the cloud upon the plaintiff’s title, on account of which it was sought to quiet it, arose from a tax sale and deed, and proceeded upon the ground that the tax title was ineffectual to convey the title, and sought to have it declared void. And it was very properly held that the paragraph was bad because it' disclosed that the defendant had a lien for the taxes paid, and that before the plaintiff can be heard in a court of equity to ask that such a sale and conveyance be set aside and declared void and his title quieted, he must do that which equity requires, namely, pay or tender that [399]*399which, has been expended for his benefit, there being no such payment or tender alleged in that case. To' the same effect are all the cases cited by appellant’s counsel on that point.

Manifestly, those cases have no application to the present complaint in this case, because it does not disclose the existence of any such lien; on the contrary, it expressly alleges that the defendants have not only no interest in the lots, but that they have no lien thereon of any kind.

The demurrer admits these averments to be true. A party- can not demur to a pleading without admitting the truth of all material facts alleged for the purposes of the demurrer. These facts were material to the right of the plaintiff to maintain the action to quiet his title. The sufficiency of the facts in a pleading on a demurrer thereto can not be strengthened or weakened, added to or diminished by facts stated in other pleadings subsequently filed, or by the facts proven on the trial. The sole question presented by a demurrer to a pleading for want of sufficient facts is whether the facts stated therein, conceding them to be true, are sufficient in case of a complaint to .constitute a cause of action, in case of an answer to constitute a defense, and in case of a reply to constitute an avoidance of the answer. In such case no question is presented as to the truth of the material facts stated.

We, therefore, hold that the complaint stated facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action and that the court did not err in.overruling the demurrer thereto.

The cross-complaint was in two paragraphs. The first stated a cause of action to quiet the alleged title of the cross-complainant, Cole, to the lots already described, but did not disclose the nature of the claim that the [400]*400defendants to the cross-complaint were making to the lots.

The second paragraph, after stating substantially the same facts stated in the first paragraph, states that the cross-complainant’s title to said lots is a deed executed by the auditor of the county, pursuant to a sale thereof for the nonpayment of taxes thereon, to one Abijah M. Jenkins, who afterwards conveyed the same by deeds to the cross-complainant, and that all of said deeds were duly and properly recorded in the recorder’s office of Hamilton county. Moreover, the paragraph states that if, qpon the final hearing of the cause, the court shall be of opinion that the cross-complainant’s title to said real estate is invalid by reason of any informality, defect or irregularity in said tax sale or otherwise, then in that event the cross-complainant prays the court that the amount of taxes assessed against said real estate for which the same was sold at said tax sale shall be ascertained and computed together, with the taxes subsequently paid thereon by the -cross-complainant and his grantor, said Abijah M. Jenkins.

The controlling question in the case arises on the demurrer to the second paragraph of the answer of the appellee John M. Gray to the cross-complaint of appellant.

The substance of that paragraph is that on September 4, 1888, Peter Gramling recovered a judgment against said appellee John M. Gray for $155 and costs, and that said Gramling on October 1,1889, duly assigned said judgment to the cross-complainant, Cole; that afterwards an execution was duly issued on said judgment whereon said lots were duly sold at sheriff’s sale to said cross-complainant for $150 on January 11, 1890, and a certificate of purchase was accordingly issued to him by the sheriff; that on February 15, 1887, and for many years [401]*401before that time the plaintiff appellee John M.

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Bluebook (online)
38 N.E. 856, 139 Ind. 396, 1894 Ind. LEXIS 315, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cole-v-gray-ind-1894.