Farnham v. Thompson

26 N.W. 9, 34 Minn. 330, 1885 Minn. LEXIS 240
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedDecember 5, 1885
StatusPublished
Cited by44 cases

This text of 26 N.W. 9 (Farnham v. Thompson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Farnham v. Thompson, 26 N.W. 9, 34 Minn. 330, 1885 Minn. LEXIS 240 (Mich. 1885).

Opinion

Gileillan, C. J.1

This is an action of ejectment, the plaintiff, and defendant Sarah A. Thompson, respectively, and the intervenors, claiming title. The decision was in favor of the intervenors. The appeal is from an order refusing a new trial. In the record brought here are the findings and conclusions of law of the court below, (the cause having been tried without a jury,) and a bill of exceptions containing the rulings of the court on a motion for judgment against the intervenors on the pleadings, and on an objection to the intervenors’ introducing any evidence under their complaint.

We have to dispose of a preliminary question of practice. The respondents (the intervenors) move to strike the findings of the court [333]*333from the record, on the ground that as a motion for a new trial can •be made for errors in law only on a case or bill of exceptions, and the findings are not in the bill of exceptions, they could not be considered. by the court below on the motion for a new trial, and they are not properly a part of the record in this court. On being filed in the court below, they became part of the record, and there was no necessity to include them in the bill of exceptions, the only purpose of which is to make matters of record the rulings of the court and exceptions thereto which are not otherwise of record. It is necessary to have the findings here, otherwise we could not see how the case was decided, what bearing and effect the rulings had on the decision, and whether they could have operated to the prejudice of the party complaining of them. The motion is therefore denied.

Another matter incidentally argued on this motion was that a motion for a new trial cannot be made on the ground that the conclusions of law are not sustained by the facts found, and that, on appeal from an order refusing the motion, this court cannot consider that point. Strictly and logically this may be so. When it is claimed that the conclusions are not justified by the facts, the proper practice (if the party wishes the court below to consider the question) is to move that court to modify or correct them. But we understand it to be a common practice in the district courts for the party to make, and the court to pass on the point on a motion for a new trial, and in at least two cases this court, on an appeal from an order refusing a new trial, has considered the point, and directed the court, below to modify its conclusions. See Ames v. Richardson, 29 Minn. 330; Goolbaugh v. Roemer, 32 Minn. 445. The practice, though not logical, is convenient, and, as it has become to some extent settled, we sanction it. Of course the court below could not grant a new trial merely on the ground that its conclusions of law were wrong, but on a motion- for a new trial it ought, if they are wrong, to correct them.

The point made on the motion for judgment on the pleadings, and on the objection to the intervenors’ introducing any evidence under their complaint, was that their complaint is in the nature of an action to enforce a forfeiture. We do not understand the complaint as [334]*334asking the court to enforce a forfeiture, but to claim that tbe estate which passed out of their ancestor Levi Butler became revested in him by breach of condition subsequent. If the estate so revested, the court, whether of law or equity, will recognize it. That point is therefore overruled.

Coming to the merits, the facts of the case are: In 1863, John W. Davis, then owner of the land, died, leaving Hope Davis his sole heir. In March, 1866, the latter executed to Henry H. Davis a letter of attorney, in which the power granted is stated as “for me, and in my place and stead, to sell,” (here follows a description of the land,) “hereby giving and granting unto him, said attorney, my full and whole power and authority in and about the premises, and, generally, all and every act and acts, thing and things, devise and devises, in the law. whatsoever, necessary and needful to be done in and about the premises, for me and in my name to do, execute, and perform, as largely and amply, to all intents and purposes, as I might or could do if personally present.” In. April, 1866, Henry H; Davis, under this power, executed the warranty deed of Hope Davis, conveying the lands to Schuyler H. Mattison, and through this deed the land came, in 1866, to Levi Butler. In 1867 he conveyed to the trustees of the First Presbyterian Church of Minneapolis, “their successors in office and assigns, forever.” In the deed conveying it, immediately after the description of the land, was this clause, “for the purpose of erecting a church thereon only.” Then followed the habendum and tenendwm clause, thus: “To have and to hold the same, together with all the hereditaments and appurtenances thereunto in anywise appertaining.” This deed purports to be in consideration of one dollar, but the court finds that there was no actual consideration, and that the conveyance was voluntary, for the purpose expressed in it. Soon after the conveyance, the grantee constructed upon it an additition to its church,'which stood on the adjoining lot, and continued to occupy the land till 1872, when it conveyed to Bobert F. Sample, removed the church and addition, and erected a church for its use elsewhere; since which time the land has not been occupied for church purposes. Defendant Sarah A. Thompson claims under Sample. Very sobn after the removal of the [335]*335cburcb and addition, Levi Butler took possession of and enclosed the land, and occupied it till he died, in 1878, and afterwards his widow, the intervenor Sarah P. Butler, occupied it till 1882, when the defendant Sarah A. Thompson took possession. In 1883 administration was commenced in the probate court of the county on the estate of John W. Davis, and in September of that year an order of distribution was made, in which the land was assigned to Hope Davis. In November of that year he conveyed to plaintiff. The power of attorney and the various deeds were duly recorded about the time of their execution.

The first question on the merits is as to the sufficiency of the power of attorney from Hope to Henry H. Davis to enable the latter to execute a conveyance, the objection to it being that it authorizes the attorney only to make a contract to convey, to agree on terms of sale, and bind the grantor to make a sale and conveyance, but not to make the conveyance himself on behalf of the grantor. Where the terms “sale” or “to sell” are used in the ordinary sense, and the general tenor and effect of the instrument is to confer a power to dispose of real estate, the authority to execute the proper instruments required by law to carry such sale into effect is necessarily incident. It is in pursuance of a general maxim that an authority to accomplish a definite end carries with it authority, so far as the grantor can give it, to perform the usual legal and appropriate measures to accomplish that end. In this instance, if there could be a doubt as to the effect of the term “to sell,” it must be removed by reference to what may be done to accomplish a sale.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
26 N.W. 9, 34 Minn. 330, 1885 Minn. LEXIS 240, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/farnham-v-thompson-minn-1885.