Farrell v. Bean

10 Md. 217
CourtCourt of Appeals of Maryland
DecidedDecember 15, 1856
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 10 Md. 217 (Farrell v. Bean) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Farrell v. Bean, 10 Md. 217 (Md. 1856).

Opinion

Eccleston, J.,

delivered the opinion of this court.

The bill in this case was filed in September 1852, by the appellant against the appellee, it alleges that, the former was indebted to the latter, in 1846, in the sum of $151, the indebtedness consisting of $50 cash lent, and a judgment for $101, due to Bean by a certain Smith Turner, which the complainant had agreed to pay; that being so indebted she agreed with Bean to give him a lien therefor upon a negro boy of her’s, she delivering possession of the boy, but retaining the right to redeem him by the payment, of the said sum of $151, when able to do so, or when demanded in a reasonable time. That when the agreement was being consummated Bean stated that he did not know how to write a mortgage, but that a receipt [220]*220would do as well, and would answer the same purpose; that the complainant placed implicit confidence in the knowledge and statement of the defendant; and in furtherance only of the agreement as stated, she signed some instrument of writing in reference to the boy, which writing was given to the defendant, and at the same time possession of the boy was delivered to him for the purpose aforesaid, and he still continues to hold him. The bill also alleges, that “the complainant believing the whole transaction had been' conducted as agreed upon, remained easy in reference thereto, and several times, either in person or by an agent, called upon the said Bean to know if he wanted the aforesaid sum of money, he replying that he did not then want money, and so the affair continued until-in the early part of the year 1852;” at which time the complainant sent an agent to pay off the lien or mortgage upon the boy and to.redeem him; that then for the first time, to the knowledge of the complainant, Bean claimed the boy as his own, and refused to allow him to be redeemed.

The bill reasserts that the bojr was delivered to the defendant to secure the payment of the aforesaid sum of $151; and alleges that if he “has any paper or instrument of writing showing that said negro belongs to him, and the said title to said negro is derived from this complainant, that it is fraud upon tlfis complainant and contrary to equity and good conscience,”

The prayer of the bill is, that the defendant may be decreed to deliver the negro boy Tom to the complainant,, upon the payment of the aforesaid lien, and that she may have such Other and further relief in the premises as her case may require.

The defendant in his answer says, that on or about the 13th of March 1846, William Turner, the brother of the complainant, professing to act as her agent, called upon the respondent, and proposed that he should buy the negro boy mentioned in the'bill of complaint,-the said Turner, either tiren or afterwards saying, Mrs. Farrell did not want to sell the negro to a trader. That after the proposition thus made tire respondent went over to see the boy, and, on the 13th of March 1846, agreed with the complainant to purchase him, at and for the sum of $225. That the complainant agreed to receive in part payment two [221]*221judgments which the respondent held against Smith Turner, a brother of the complainant, and the respondent then and there assigned them to her, the judgments then "amounting to the sum of $125.71; and also paid, in cash, $77.26. The balance, by agreement, was paid in goods from the store of the respondent, who was then a merchant.

The answer positively avers the sale was absolute and bona fide; that the whole price has long since been paid, and that the complainant gave a "receipt for the same. He denies having told the complainant lie did not know how to write a mortgage, but that a receipt would answer the same purpose.

The answer asserts that the boy was delivered, on the 13th of March 1846, to the respondent, who has held possession of him, using and claiming him as his own, ever since. And it denies that the receipt is a fraud, but, on the contrary, it insists that instrument was executed by the complainant, with a full knowledge of its force and effect as well as the contents thereof. And the respondent denies having practiced fraud or deceit upon the complainant in any manner. He also denies that from the time of the sale up to the year 1852, Mrs. Farrell, either in person or by agent, ever called upon him to redeem the boy, or to know whether he (the respondent) wanted the money. He says, that in 1852 Smith Turner called on him and asked him if he was willing to take the money he paid and give tip the boy, to which the respondent answered he was not. The inquiry was made as stated, but Turner did not actually tender or offer any money.

The answer further states, that after the sale the respondent, told the complainant if in a short time from the sale she would make out, and pay back to him the $225, she might have the boy again if she wanted him: or in other words, he would sell the boy to her for that price; but that this was a mere gratuitous promise on the part of the respondent, not constituting any part of the agreement of the sale, and was made only as a matter of favor to the complainant, after the sale had been entirely consummated. That the complainant did not, within a short or reasonable time after said promise, “either in person or by agent, call upon the respondent to fulfill said promise,”

[222]*222And the answer further states, -“that no note or memorandum in writing was made by this respondent or any agent of his of the agreement on his part to let the said complainant have the boy back again, and he therefore pleads in bar the statute of frauds to so much of the complainant’s bill as seeks relief for and on account of such parol agreement.”

The bill was filed since the act of 1852, ch. 133, and the answer not having been required under oath, or read by the complainant as evidence, at the hearing, it is not to be regarded as evidence. The decision of the cause must therefore depend upon the proof.

The receipt'given'by the complainant is as follows:

“Received, this thirteenth day of March, eighteen hundred and forty-six, of William N. Bean, two hundred and twenty-five dollars, in full for my servants. Tom, supposed to be about twelve years'of age,'which I warrant and defend to the said Bean. Elizabeth H. m Farrell.
Test, — Smith Turner, John T. Davis.”

As a witness on the part of the complainant, Smith Turner says, that in 1846, in consequence of what his brother Wm. A. Turner told him, he went to see Mr. Bean, and asked him whether he' would take a mortgage on the boy of Mrs. Farrell’s, for a judgment of $101, against him (the witness) and the loan of $50 to Mrs. Farrell. The defendant consented to do so, and said he would come over to Mrs. Farrell’s in two or three days and bring the mortgage with him. He did come as he promised, but said he had not the mortgage; he had no form to write one by, and without a form he could not draw up one properly; it was a long instrument, and a receipt would do as well. Mrs. Farrell remarked, if you should want your money, and I have not got it, I suppose the boy will have to be sold; he said yes, but I shall not push you for 1 ' am not in want of money. He then commenced drawing the receipt, and whilst writing he told Mrs. Farrell, a certain sum must be mentioned in it, and asked what it should be? should it be $225? She said she supposed that amount would do as well as any other. The receipt was drawn with that sum in it, and Mrs. Farrell signed it.

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Bluebook (online)
10 Md. 217, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/farrell-v-bean-md-1856.