Danciger v. Stone

210 S.W. 865, 278 Mo. 19, 1919 Mo. LEXIS 67
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedApril 7, 1919
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 210 S.W. 865 (Danciger v. Stone) 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
Danciger v. Stone, 210 S.W. 865, 278 Mo. 19, 1919 Mo. LEXIS 67 (Mo. 1919).

Opinion

BOND, C. J.

Suit for an undivided one-half of a certain fifty-six and one-half acres of land in Jackson County, Missouri.

In 1849 one Archibald Rice conveyed by warranty deed to each of his two daughters, Manerva R. Rice and Mary Ann Franklin, an undivided one-half interest in'certain land in Jackson County, including the fifty-six and one-half acres in dispute. Manerva Rice later became the wife of Andrew J. Stone, who purchased the half interest of Mary Ann Franklin (afterwards Mary Ann Ish) , in all the land deeded to her by her father, so that in 1853 Manerva Stone and her husband Andrew J. Stone each owned, in their own right, an undivided one-half interest in the fifty-six and one-half acres in question.

On April 14, 1856, Andrew J. Stone and his wife, Manerva Stone, sold certain lands containing three hundred and forty-nine and one-half acres to William S. Stone, including an undivided one-half interest in the said fifty-six and one-half acres, describing the latter parcel to-wit:

“Also the undivided one-half of the south end of the east one-half of the northeast quarter of Section 2. Township 48, in Range 33, containing fifty-six acres and a half, the one-half of which hereby sold is 28% acres, and containing in the aggregate hereby sold and conveyed, 349% acres more or less, and being the same land deeded by Archibald Rice and wife to Mary Ann Kranklin (now Mary Ann Ish, the wife of John H. Ish) and Manerva R. Rice (now Manerva R. Stone, wife of the [23]*23said Andrew J. Stone and one of the grantees herein) on the 22 day of March, 1849; and the undivided half of said land was deeded by John H. Ish and wife aforesaid to said Andrew J. Stone on the 17 day of May, 1853, both of which deeds are now of record in the Eecorder ’s office of Jackson County and State of Missouri, reference to said deeds being hereby had.”

The controversy in this case grew out of the construction to be placed on the above deed, the plaintiffs on the one hand claiming it conveyed the half interest of Manerva Stone, while the defendants insist it conveyed the half interest of the husband, Andrew J. Stone.

Manerva Stone died in the year 1857, leaving four children, Juilet, Sallie, William and Jacob.- William Stone died in 1895, leaving as his only heir his widow, Jennie Stone, one of the defendants herein. Jacob Stone died in 1888. His estate was not administered'until 1905, when letters testamentary were granted and in the course of administration the administrator sold Jacob Stone’s alleged one-quarter interest in an undivided one-half of the fifty-six and one-half acres in dispute to defendant Bennett for $75, said Bennett acting as attorney for Frank H. Cattrell, the real purchaser.

The other two children of Manerva Stone, Juliet and Sallie, each quit-claimed their interests, if any, in the disputed tract to the plaintiff, the Park Plaza Eealty Company.

It also appears of record that on January 17, 1867, Andrew J. Stone and his second wife, Julia, conveyed to William S. Stone, an undivided “one-half of the following tracts or parcels of land,” among which was the disputed parcel of “56% acres off the,south end of the east half of the northeast quarter of Section 2, Township 48, Eange 33.” William S. Stone took possession of the land and he and his grantees have continued in actual possession thereof until this controversy arose.

In the first instance three suits were instituted; one by the Kansas Western Co-Operative Company [24]*24against Jennie Stone and others; another a partition suit by Jennie Stone, and the third by Fannie Danciger, who acquired title from the Kansas Western Co-Operative Company, against Jennie Stone, Ernest Bennett and others, all of which were, by consent, consolidated and tried as one, the Park Plaza Realty Company being substituted as plaintiff in two of the suits and substituted as defendant in the partition suit.

At the trial plaintiff introduced in evidence an affidavit of Andrew J. Stone, which was read, attached to and made a part of his deposition, a pertinent clause to the dispute in hand being as follows:

“That ... on which date (April 14, 1856) affiant and his wife sold an undivided one-half interest in said land to affiant’s brother, William S. Stone, (said one-half interest being the one-half interest belonging to said affiant’s wife at the time of her marriage).”

A decree was entered in favor of the substituted plaintiff, the Park Plaza Realty Company, in which the court found that is was the intention of both of the grantors by their deeds, to convey the undivided one-half interest in the fifty-six and one-half acres in controversy owned by Manerva R. Stone, individually, and not the intention of the grantors to ■ convey, or of the grantee to accept, the undivided half interest in said land owned by the grantor, Andrew J. Stone, individually. The court further found in favor of the Park Plaza Realty Company as substituted defendant in the partition suit wherein Jennie Stone was plaintiff, and dismissed her petition. The court also found that the Park Plaza Realty Company and its predecessors and those through whom it deraigned title had, from April 14, 1856, been in “open, notorious, visible, actual, continuous, adverse possession” of the land in controversy, and that said Park Plaza Realty Company “is the owner in fee simple, and is now in possession of said above described land,” and that none of the defendants, naming them, “have any interest in or right [25]*25of title to said real estate described heretofore herein or any part of same. ”

From judgment entered in accordance with this decree, Jennie Stone and Ernest Bennett appealed.

Conveyed. I. It may be conceded {hat the terms of the deed do not render it absolutely certain whether it was the intention of the grantors therein to convey the undivided half interest of the wife or the undivided half interest which the husband acquired by purchase from her sister in the fifty-six and one-half acres in dispute, since the operative words of the deed do not specify, in express terms, which of the two undivided half interests were intended to be conveyed. The deed was made by the two co-owners in the form of a warranty and the grantee therein was the brother of the husband. At the time of its execution (1856) the wife was under common law disability. The husband was under no disability. In such circumstances, with the view of protecting her rights, the law requires that the instrument should show the “performance of every act on her part necessary to convey her estate.” [Peter v. Byrne, 175 Mo. 233; Dooley v. Greening, 201 Mo. 343; Linville v. Greer, 165 Mo. l. c. 397.] Hence there was no presumption afforded by the. language of the deed that it was intended by the wife’s joinder therein to convey her undivided one-half interest in the land in dispute, rather than the undivided half interest in the same which her husband then owned and had acquired (as recited in the deed) from her sister. IJnléss, therefore, the respondents have shown in the record by evidence aliunde that it was the purpose and object .and intent of the makers'of the. deed to convey thereby only the undivided half interest belonging to the wife, or that by some other method title was vested in those under whom respondents claim, defendants should have had a decree in the court below.

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233 S.W. 451 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1921)

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Bluebook (online)
210 S.W. 865, 278 Mo. 19, 1919 Mo. LEXIS 67, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/danciger-v-stone-mo-1919.