Cooper v. Daugherty

7 S.E. 387, 85 Va. 343, 1888 Va. LEXIS 41
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedAugust 23, 1888
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 7 S.E. 387 (Cooper v. Daugherty) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cooper v. Daugherty, 7 S.E. 387, 85 Va. 343, 1888 Va. LEXIS 41 (Va. 1888).

Opinion

Richardson, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is the appeal of John J. Heldreth and Margaret A., his wife, and of Isaac Oorvin, from two decrees rendered respectively at September term, 1887, and at March term, 1888, of the circuit court of Wythe county, in the four consolidated causes of W. P. Cooper, Guardian, &c., against Daugherty, Adm’r, &c., and others; of E. McG. Phelps, for, &c., against J. J. Heldreth •and others; and of James T. Heldreth against J. J. Heldreth and others, on original bills in creditors’ suits, and of J. J. Heldreth and wife against D. S. Peirce, Commissioner, and others, on a bill of review.

The facts are these: One undivided fourth of one hundred and fifty-two acres of land in said county, known as the Bretner heirs’ land, was, in 1872,- conveyed by Kent, commissioner, to John Daugherty, whose wife, Catherine, owned another fourth thereof. A lien was retained for the unpaid purchase money; [345]*345the shares of Daugherty and wife, amounting to seventy-six acres, were laid off together. Daugherty died before 1879, intestate, without having paid this purchase-money, and leaving his wife and four children, to-wit: Wm. A., James H., Mary J., wife of Henry Simmonson, and Margaret A., the female appellant, surviving him.

In 1879 the mother, Catherine, and three of her children, viz: William, James and Mary, conveyed to J. J. Heldreth their interest in another tract of ninety acres, owned by John and Catherine Daugherty as tenants in common.

In 1881 Catherine died intestate. Her interest in the seventy-six acre tract descended to her said children, whereof twenty-two acres were assigned to Mary J. Simmonson as her share. In 1884 Wm. A. and James H. Daugherty conveyed their interest in said seventy-six acres to J. J. Heldreth in consideration that he pay certain debts of John Daugherty, deceased, and the balance of the purchase-money unpaid on the Bretner heirs’ land, for which a lien was retained. Heldreth failing to pay off this lien, W. P. Cooper, guardian of those heirs, in 1888, brought suit in said circuit court to enforce the lien.

At the March term, 1885, a decree of sale was rendered, and in May of that year J. J. Heldreth and wife, in order to prevent the sale, conveyed to the commissioner, C. B. Thomas, the entire ninety acres to secure the Bretner debt. In February, 1885, J. J. Heldreth conveyed the twenty-two acre and thirteen acre parcels of land, which he owned in fee simple, to secure f400, borrowed money, to J. H. McGravock, and in February, 1885, hé conveyed the ninety acres to secure debts to Clark, Blessing & Co., his endorsers.

In March, 1885, he conveyed the three parcels of fifty-four, twenty-two and thirteen acres to his wife in consideration that she pay the McGravock debt, and a debt to Bettie Walters and one to Samuel Umbarger, none of which did she ever pay. At the date of this last deed there existed several prior liens, to-wit: the Bretner debt on the fifty-four acres, and thejudg[346]*346ment of Phelps, docketed in September, 1884, was a lien on all three of said parcels embraced in his said deed to his wife, which sought to prefer the McG-avock, the Walters, and the Umbarger debts to the Phelps judgment. On this judgment a fi. fa. had been issued, a forthcoming bond taken, with W. A. Daugherty and James T. Heldreth as sureties, the bond forfeited and execution awarded on the same day the deed to her was executed.

In August, 1885, Phelps filed his bill to subject the lands of his debtor to his judgment. In due time there was an account of lands and liens, a report thereof returned; and a decree to rent.

In February, 1886, J. T. Heldreth brought his bill to enforce the lien of a judgment in his favor against J. J. Heldreth; and at the ensuing term the causes of Phelps and of J. T. Heldreth against J. J. Heldreth were heard together, and in them an account was ordered, as there had been at the previous September term in the cause of Cooper v. Heldreth. Reports were duly made, which were excepted to; and at the September term, 1886, these three causes were heard together, the exceptions overruled, and a decree entered for the sale of the lands other than the ninety acres.

At December term, 1886, O. B. Thomas, commissioner, reported sale of the ninety acres under decree in the Cooper case, and on the next day J. J. Heldreth filed a bill of review. At March term, 1887, a decree was made in these four consolidated causes, annulling all the decrees and orders that had been entered in each of them, and directing W. E. Fulton, commissioner, to take an account of lands and of liens, and have a survey and plot of the lands made and returned with his report.

In August, 1887, the commissioner returned his report with the plot of survey. To this report a number of exceptions were filed, and at the September term, 1887, the court sustained the exception of Cooper to his judgment being placed in the fourth [347]*347instead of the first class, overruled the other exceptions, and recommitted the report with instructions to the commissioner to ascertain and report as to what debts J. J. Heldreth was legally entitled to be allowed the benefit of the homestead exemption, and to report anew the liens on his lands and on the lands conveyed to his wife, etc.

The amended report was returned in February, 1888, to which numerous exceptions were again filed by J. J. Heldreth, and one by Umbarger. At March term, 1888, a decree was rendered overruling all of the exceptions and confirming the report of the commissioner, from which it appeared that the total amount of all liens, principal and interest, to March 12th, 1888, and costs, was $2,493.07, including debts as to which the homestead is not waived, and that the several tracts of land were worth respectively, as follows: ninety acres, $900; fifty-four acres, $810; twenty-two acres, $440, and thirteen acres, $300; making a total of $2,450, and that the rents and profits would not pay off these liens in five years.

And the court decreed that the Phelps judgment is a lien in the order reported by the commissioner on the three-fourths of the ninety acres; that the other debts as reported are liens on the said three-fourths of the ninety acres, and that the trust-deed executed to O. B. Thomas, trustee, to secure the debt to the Bretner heirs, and the trust deed executed to J. R. Tench, trustee, in addition to being liens on the said three-fourths interest, are liens on the one-fourth interest of Mrs. Margaret A. Heldreth in the ninety acres, and that the said trustees, so far as their liens are unsatisfied out of the three-fourths interest, are entitled to go upon the one-fourth interest of Mrs. Heldreth ; and that the said Phelps’ judgment, in the order reported, is also a lien on two-thirds of the fifty-four acre tract, and upon the whole of the twenty-two acre and the thirteen acre tracts, and is the same debt reported as a lien on the three-fourths of the ninety acres, the latter being the judgment on the forthcoming bond taken on said judgment and that there can he but [348]*348one satisfaction ; and that the homestead exemption cannot he claimed against the judgments on the two notes to O. B. Thomas; and that the lien in favor of the Bretner heirs should be paid out of the three-fourths interest in the ninety acres before any part of Mrs. Heldreth’s one-fourth thereof should be applied thereto.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Rorer v. Ferguson
31 S.E. 817 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 1898)
Walker's Ex'or v. Page
21 Va. 636 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 1872)
Ward v. Churn
18 Va. 801 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 1868)
Evans v. Spurgin
11 Gratt. 615 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 1854)
Smith's Adm'r v. Charlton's Adm'r
7 Gratt. 425 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 1851)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
7 S.E. 387, 85 Va. 343, 1888 Va. LEXIS 41, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cooper-v-daugherty-va-1888.