Faris v. Moore

165 S.W. 311, 256 Mo. 123, 1914 Mo. LEXIS 400
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedMarch 24, 1914
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 165 S.W. 311 (Faris v. Moore) 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
Faris v. Moore, 165 S.W. 311, 256 Mo. 123, 1914 Mo. LEXIS 400 (Mo. 1914).

Opinion

BROWN, J.

— Action in equity to redeem from sale under deed of trust, to set aside deeds and recover real estate, with the rents thereof. From a .judgment for defendants plaintiffs appeal.

This action was originally prosecuted by one William J. Faris, an alleged insane person, through his guardian, against defendants Moore, Ball and one Anton G. Orf. Since the trial below the plaintiff and Anton G. Orf, the principal defendant, have died, and [127]*127the cause has been revived at the instance and in the name of heirs of the original appellant against the heirs and devisees of Anton G. Orf, the deceased defendant.

The petition filed by the guardian of the original plaintiff, William J. Faris, alleges that on and before January 18, 1876, said Faris was a person of unsound mind and incapable of managing his affairs. That on said January 18, 1876, the defendant S. M. Ball, well knowing that William J. Faris was a person of unsound mind, fraudulently induced him to execute and deliver a deed of trust to defendant A. G. Moore, purporting to convey to said Moore a tract of 'land in St. Charles county, Missouri, containing eighty-five acres, in trust to secure to defendant Ball the payment of promissory notes aggregating $800.

That on February 27, 1878, and before all the indebtedness recited in said deed of trust became due, the said A. G. Moore, pretending to act under a power of sale contained in the deed of trust, sold the land described therein to defendant S. M. Ball, and executed a trustee’s deed purporting to convey the legal title of the aforesaid land to said Ball, which deed of trust and trustee’s deed were duly recorded in the land records of St. Charles county.

Said petition further recites that on April 6, 1896, defendant S. M. Ball executed and delivered to one Anton G. Orf (one of the original defendants herein) a deed purporting to convey to said Orf the aforesaid real estate. In said petition it is further alleged that said defendants S. M. Bali and Anton G. Orf have been in the possession of the real estate in controversy since March 1, 1878, and have unlawfully received and retained the rents and profits thereof during all that time. Wherefore, a judgment was prayed permitting the said William J. Faris to redeem the aforesaid land from the indebtedness secured by the deed of trust; that said [128]*128trustee’s deed and the deed from Ball to Orf be set aside, and that plaintiff recover the rental value of the property in controversy during all the time it has been in the possession of defendants, amounting to the alleged sum of $10,672, less the indebtedness secured by the aforesaid deed of trust. Said petitioner also demanded that the possession of said real estate be restored to William J. Paris.

The answers of defendants admit the execution and delivery of the aforesaid deed of trust and trustee’s deed, likewise the deed from Ball to Orf, and allege that said deeds were each made and received for a valuable consideration and in good faith without any knowledge of tbe alleged insanity of William J. Paris.

Said defendants further aver that they have been in open, notorious, adverse and continuous possession of the real estate in controversy since February 27, 1878, a period of thirty years, and six months, and interpose the twenty-four-year Statute of Limitation (Sec. 1881, R. S. 1909) as a bar to plaintiffs’ alleged right to recover in this case.

The reply of plaintiffs re-asserts the insanity and mental incapacity of said William J. Paris at the time his cause of action accrued, and alleges that said insanity continued up to the date when this action was instituted.

Por a further reply it is also asserted that section 1881, Revised Statutes 1909 (the twenty-four-year Statute of Limitation) is in conflict with section 30, article 2, Constitution of Missouri, and section 1, of article 14 of the Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, in that said statute deprives tbe plaintiff of his property without due process of law.

Such other facts as. are necessary to a full understanding of the case will be noted in our opinion.

[129]*129OPINION.

Equity: Remedy at Law. I. The briefs filed by plaintiffs assert that on account of certain defects in the execution and acknowledgment of the trustee’s deed from Moore to Ball, said deed is void orL its face. This contention is untenable. If the trustee’s deed be void, then the plaintiff cannot recover in this equitable action, because of the existence of a complete remedy at law by ejectment. [Benton County v. Morgan, 163 Mo. 661, l. c. 678; McKee v. Allen, 204 Mo. 655, l. c. 674.]

Limitation II. The plaintiffs’ petition alleges that the deed of trust and trustee’s. deed purport to pass the legal title, and the case seems to have been tried on theory that defendants are invested with the legal title, but that said legal title is voidable, because of the alleged mental incapacity of "William J. Faris to make the deed of trust, and the further alleged fact that the sale under such deed of trust was prematurely made.

We do not think a detailed statement of the evidence is necessary to a full understanding of the issues upon which the case must be decided. Such evidence satisfactorily proves the mental incapacity of plaintiff on January 18, 1876, and continuously thereafter up to the date this suit was instituted. It also proves that defendants have been in open, notorious, continuous and adverse possession of the property in controversy since February 27,1878 (the date of the trustee’s sale). This possession is practically admitted by the allegations contained in plaintiffs’ petition.

William J. Faris had not been adjudged insane when he executed the deed of trust, and he was not under the active guardianship of anyone until he was sixty-six years of age, or until about a year before this suit was instituted, though it is claimed he was adjudged insane at an earlier date.

[130]*130Conceding the full force of plaintiffs’ contention that William J. Paris was mentally incapable of managing his affairs in 1876 when he executed the deed of trust, and that such mental incapacity continued until the commencement of this action, and conceding the further fact that the deed of trust was prematurely foreclosed, his right to recover the land sued for turns squarely upon the twenty-four-year Statute of Limitation, which reads as follows:

“If any person entitled to commence any action in this article specified or to make any entry be, at the time such right or title shall first descend or accrue, either within the age of twenty-one years, or insane, or imprisoned on any criminal charge or in execution upon some conviction of a criminal offense' for any time less than life, or a married woman, the time during which such disability shall continue shall not be deemed any portion of the time in this article limited for the commencement of such action or the making such entry; but such person may bring such action or make such entry after the time so limited, and within three years after such disability is removed: Provided, that no such action shall be commenced, had or maintained or entry made by any person laboring under the disabilities specified in this section, after twenty-four years after the cause of such action or right of entry shall have accrued.” [Sec. 1881, R. S. 1909.]

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Bluebook (online)
165 S.W. 311, 256 Mo. 123, 1914 Mo. LEXIS 400, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/faris-v-moore-mo-1914.