Donovan v. Donovan

48 N.W. 163, 85 Mich. 63, 1891 Mich. LEXIS 661
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 27, 1891
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 48 N.W. 163 (Donovan v. Donovan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Donovan v. Donovan, 48 N.W. 163, 85 Mich. 63, 1891 Mich. LEXIS 661 (Mich. 1891).

Opinion

Champlin, C. J.

On November 1,- 1886, Clara E. Donovan was the owner in fee .*of certain real estate described in the bill of complaint in this cause. On that date she conveyed by quitclaim deed to the defendant James Donovan, who was and is her husband, all her right, title, and interest in and to said real estate, the consideration mentioned in said deed being $6,000 and other valuable considerations, which deed was duly recorded the day it was given. At the same time James [64]*64Donovan executed and delivered to her a promissory note for the purchase money, which note reads as follows:

“$6,000. Quincy, Mich., Nov. 1, 1886.
“ One year from date, for value received, I promise to pay to Olara E. Donovan, or order, six thousand dollars, with interest at seven per cent, per annum.
“James Donovan.”

This conveyance from the complainant to her husband was made for the express purpose of placing the title to the property in the defendant James Donovan, in order that he might mortgage it and raise money thereon. On November 16, 1886, the defendant James Donovan conveyed to his wife real estate of the value of $1,000, which sum was indorsed upon the aforesaid note.

On April 8, 1887, James Donovan, together with his wife, the complainant in this suit, executed a mortgage upon the property described in the bill of complaint in this suit to Ebenezer O. Grosvenor, for the sum of $2,500, which mortgage was duly recorded on the day of its date. On June 9, 1888, one John S. Ranney, of Chicago, 111., commenced a suit in the circuit court for the county of Branch, in which county the real estate in dispute is situated, by attachment, and levied upon the whole of said premises; and such proceedings were had therein that at the March term, 1889, a judgment was rendered in favor of Ranney and against James Donovan for $7,352.15; and afterwards Ranney caused an execution to be issued out of said court, and levied upon said lands, claiming that they belonged to the said James Donovan, and he proceeded to advertise the same for sale under such execution. In the mean time, and on December 4, 1888, James Donovan and the complainant, his wife, executed a mortgage covering said property .to one George Woodworth for the sum of $700; and again. [65]*65on February 25, 1889, Donovan and his wife executed another mortgage to Woodworth for $2,650. These mortgages were duly recorded.

On June 4, 1889, while Ranney was proceeding and advertising said land for sale on his execution, the complainant, Clara E. Donovan, filed her bill of -complaint in the Branch circuit court in chancery, claiming a vendor’s lien on the real estate for the unpaid purchase money, and claiming, further, that such lien was paramount to said attachment and execution levies; and praying, among other things, for an injunction restraining Ranney and the sheriff from further proceedings in the premises, and that her lien might be declared and foreclosed in the same manner as if it were a mortgage upon said premises, and that the defendant Ranney, and all persons claiming under him, might be foreclosed from all equity of redemption; and alleging, further, that the levy of the attachment and execution operated as a cloud upon her title to and interest in said premises, and that she held no other security for the purchase price of said lands except the note hereinbefore set forth. The bill also states that Frank A. Jjyon claims to have some interest in the judgment rendered in favor of Ranney; and that Jesse B. Sutton, of Quincy, also claims and appears from the records of the register of deeds of said county to have a claim against and interest in said premises; and also that one Martha Conley claims an interest in said premises; but she avers that such claims, if any, are subject to her vendor’s lien, as hereinbefore set forth.

The bill of complaint does not allege _ that George L. Maltz has any interest in the premises, but process of subpoena is prayed against him, and an answer íb filed by John S. Ranney, George L. Maltz, and Frank A. Lyon, three of the defendants, to the bill of complaint. They [66]*66deny that the complainant has a vendor’s lien or any lien upon the premises as against the rights of said defendants, or as against the rights of any of the creditors of said James Donovan. They admit the commencement of the suit by attachment, set up in the bill, in favor of Ranney against Donovan, but allege the fact to be that on June 9, 1888, and for a long time prior thereto, the said James Donovan was and had been the owner in fee-simple of said premises, and the whole thereof, and that the same were subject to levy and sale for the satisfaction of the debts of the said James Donovan, unaifected by any lien or claim of said complainant. They admit that Frank A. Lyon claims to have an interest in the claim of John S. Ranney in and to said premises, as set forth in the complainant’s bill. of complaint. They deny that Martha Oonley has any interest in and to said premises.

James Donovan and Martha E. Conley filed a joint and several answer, admitting that James Donovan was the husband of the complainant, and admitting the sale by complainant to Donovan, the execution of the note, the payment of $1,000, and the levying of the execution, as stated in the bill, and that said Martha E. Conley claims that she has a life-interest in said premises.

A replication was filed to the answers, and proofs were taken in open court. The circuit judge decreed that the complainant had a lien on the premises, ordering a sale, as upon the foreclosure of a mortgage, to satisfy the lien.

It was said in Hiscock v. Norton, 42 Mich, at page 325, that—

The general -doctrine relative to what is understood as the vendor’s lien upon realty rests on the postulate that it is not equitable for one to absorb another’s wealth, without recompense; and, therefore, as between grantor and grantee, the court will intend that the purchased estate was to be held for the unpaid purchase money, [67]*67unless circumstances are found which repel the presumption. And among the circumstances which will have this effect are reckoned, first, the formation of arrangements between the parties, which suffice to make out that reliance was not placed on any unwritten claim against the land.”

The taking of the note for the purchase price would not discharge a lien of the vendor; and the presumption would be, looking alone to the sale and taking of the note without security, that she had a lien for the purchase money. But the testimony of the complainant shows that she sold and conveyed the land described in the bill of complaint to her husband for the purpose of placing the title to the land in her husband to enable him to raise money thereon by mortgage, and that the several mortgages above referred to were executed for that purpose; that about the time the land was to be sold on execution, as she testifies, her husband spoke to her about filing a claim for a vendor’s lien, and that was the first she ever thought of claiming a lien upon the property.

The first question to be determined is whether, at the time the complainant sold and conveyed the premises to her husband, she had, as between the vendor and the purchaser, a vendox-’s lien. The testimony shows that the sale was absolute, and the whole title in fee was conveyed to and vested in James Donovan.

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Bluebook (online)
48 N.W. 163, 85 Mich. 63, 1891 Mich. LEXIS 661, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/donovan-v-donovan-mich-1891.