Doyle v. Brundred

41 A. 1107, 189 Pa. 113, 1899 Pa. LEXIS 609
CourtSupreme Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJanuary 2, 1899
DocketAppeal, No. 202
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 41 A. 1107 (Doyle v. Brundred) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Doyle v. Brundred, 41 A. 1107, 189 Pa. 113, 1899 Pa. LEXIS 609 (Pa. 1899).

Opinion

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Dean,

This is a bill for partition of certain lands in Cornplanter township, Yenango county. It appears from the evidence, that on October 27,1859, a tract containing 440 acres, and allowance was patented to C. Heydrick and J. L. Hanna, who by exchange of conveyances, divided the land equally, so that Heydrick took title to the western half and Hanna to the eastern, in severalty the dividing line running north and south. Hanna, then by deed of December 6, 1859, conveyed 200 acres of his half to Nathaniel McBride by metes and bounds; the part so conveyed, was the north of the tract, and was 197^ rods long from north to south, and 162 rods wide from east to west. McBride then conveyed the same lands to Benjamin R. Knapp, who then executed three several mortgages upon it. The first dated December 10, 1859, was to Clark and Andrews. It described a tract of land, beginning at a point on the east line of the whole tract, 180 rods south from the northeast corner thereof; thence west by a line parallel with the north line of the whole tract, 132 rods; thence south by a line parallel with the east line of the tract, eighty-one rods; thence east by a line parallel with the north line, 132 rods to the east line of the whole tract, thence north eighty-one rods to the place of beginning. The second mortgage was to Nathaniel McBride, dated December 20, 1859, and purported to describe by metes and bounds the 200 acre tract. The third mortgage also to McBride described a piece of land beginning at a point on the east line of the whole tract, sixty rods south of the northeast corner, thence by a line parallel with the north line of the whole tract, 132 rods, thence south by line parallel with the east line, 180 rods; thence by line parallel with the north line to the east line, 132 rods, and thence to place of beginning, containing 150 acres.

As to the first mortgage to Clark and Andrews, it is manifest there was misdescription either by mistake or design; for [116]*116if Knapp got by bis deed a tract of land 197 rods long from north to south, and 132 rods wide, and then placed the beginning of his description in the mortgage, 180 rods south from the northeast corner of the tract, there were but seventeen rods between that point and the southern extremity of the tract, yet the line in the description is eighty-one rods; to measure this distance, the surveyor must run south sixty-four rods over on an adjoining owner. In fact the Clark and Andrews mortgage covered only sixteen and one third acres of the land owned by Knapp, but as this was the first mortgage and duly recorded, as to this much it was undoubtedly the first lien. As to the third mortgage it is necessarily a misdescription also. The whole line was 197 rods; the description in this mortgage commences at a point sixty rods from the end of the line, and extends 180 rods south; there were but 137 rods in length left in that direction, so it must have extended forty-three rods over on an adjoining owner.

Judgment was obtained on the second and third, the two McBride mortgages, levari facias issued thereon, and the land sold at sheriff’s sale to E. C. Smith and Horace Hoyt, and deeds duly acknowledged May 3, 1866. Three years before this the mortgage to Clark and Andrews had been sued out, the land sold by the sheriff and deed acknowledged May 1, 1863, to C. W. Gilfillan. This last deed vested in the purchaser whatever land was embraced in the description of the mortgage, and which was owned by Knapp at the date of its execution; this, however, was only sixteen and one third acres of the southern end of the tract. The Clark and Andrews mortgage being a first lien, it is immaterial that the boundaries of the second and third mortgages encroached upon it; a sale upon them could not affect the title of the purchaser to this small part of the land covered by the first mortgage.

We have then a first mortgage to Andrews and Clark of sixteen and one third acres of the southern end of the original tract; then a mortgage to McBride, purporting to be on 200 acres of the original tract which was a second mortgage on the sixteen and one third acres, and a first mortgage on what was left within the boundaries outside the northern line of the sixteen and one third acre tract; then a mortgage to McBride by metes and bounds purporting to be of 150 acres, which cov[117]*117ered the whole of the sixteen and one third acres, and was a third mortgage on that much of the original tract, and a second mortgage on about 100 acres of the original tract immediately adjoining it on the north.

As before noticed, sale was made on the Clark and Andrews mortgage, May 1, 1863, to Gilfillan; this operated as a complete severance of the sixteen and one third piece from the balance of the tract; thereafter Gilfillan and those claiming under him, held by a title as independent of and as disconnected from the original grant from Hanna to McBride as any other adjoining owner. Gilfillan afterwards conveyed this small part to one J. H. Marston, which deed, before record thereof, was lost, and after a sale by Marston to Benjamin F. Brundred, Gilfillan made another conveyance direct to Brundred; thereafter the small tract became known as the “ Marston ” tract.

As noticed the land described in the second and third mortgages was sold to Smith and Hoyt. On January 12, 1864, Hoyt conveyed to A. C. Egbert an undivided half part of 150 acres, by precisely the same description as that in the third mortgage to McBride; Smith had previously conveyed to Hoyt an undivided one half of his half in the same land, and the title then stood in the three as tenants in common, Egbert the owner of the undivided half, and Smith and Hoyt each the owner of an undivided one fourth. Hoyt by deed of February 4,1869, conveyed his interest to C. E. Taft. On March 6, 1888, Egbert conveyed his interest by deed of general warranty to one J. J. Doyle the devisor of this plaintiff, by the same description as in the conveyance from Hoyt to him. Then Egbert entered upon the “ Marston ” tract claiming title under the sale on the second and third mortgages, and drilled an oil well; Brundred brought ejectment and obtained two judgments in his favor; see Brundred v. Egbert et ah, 158 Pa. 552, and same against same, 164 Pa. 615. Thus not only was Brundred’s title to the whole of the “ Marston ” tract clear by the deeds but that title was rendered indisputable by the judgments in his favor.

Taft, one of the tenants in common under the sales made on the second and third mortgages, having died, his estate descended to his heir at law, W. S. Taft, who on January 9,1893, conveyed it to Egbert, who conveyed to Brundred, thus giving [118]*118Mm a fourth M the land outside the “ Marston ” tract; he also through one David LeRoy, who had become the owner, obtarned title to another fourth thus constitutmg him the owner of an undivided one half of the land which passed by the sale on the second and third mortgages.

This bill is for a partition of this land in which plaintiff and defendant are tenants M common, each owning the undivided one half. The deed of Egbert to the plaintiff for the one half follows the description in the mortgage, and consequently overlaps the “ Marston ” tract; it contams a clause of general warranty, and is dated March 6, 1888. It was after the delivery of tMs deed, that defendant purchased and took a conveyance of the “Marston ” tract, and the two undivided one fourth mterests in the supposed 150 acre tract adjoimng it on the north.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
41 A. 1107, 189 Pa. 113, 1899 Pa. LEXIS 609, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/doyle-v-brundred-pa-1899.