Fordyce v. Rapp

33 S.W. 57, 131 Mo. 354, 1895 Mo. LEXIS 85
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedDecember 3, 1895
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 33 S.W. 57 (Fordyce v. Rapp) 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
Fordyce v. Rapp, 33 S.W. 57, 131 Mo. 354, 1895 Mo. LEXIS 85 (Mo. 1895).

Opinion

Burgess, J.

This is an action of ejectment by plaintiffs, as receivers of the St. Louis, Arkansas & Texas Railway Company, for the possession of the following described tract of land lying in Dunklin county, to wit:

“A part of the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter of section fifteen (15), in township number twenty-two (22) north, of range number ten (10) east, and by metes and bounds, as follows: Beginning at a point on Madison street, in the city of Malden, as the same appears upon the plat of said city, on file in the recorder’s office of Dunklin county, Missouri, on the west line of said street. One hundred and sixty-seven-(167) feet from the center line of the track of the St. Louis, Arkansas & Texas Railroad, measured out at right angles to same, an iron rod for corner mark, thence in a southwesterly direction, parallel to center [357]*357line of said railroad, one hundred and sixty-seven (167) feet distant from same, two hundred and thirty-four (234) feet to a stake at the fence on east line of an alley; thence south along said fence thirty-nine and one half (39 1-2) feet to a corner of said fence; thence in a northerly direction, parallel to center line of said railroad, one hundred and fifty-seven (157) feet to a stake for corner; thence in a southeasterly direction, at right angles to said railroad, thirty- two and one half (32 1-2) feet to stake for corner; thence in a northeasterly direction, parallel to said railroad, fifty-two (52) feet to stake for corner, on west line of said Madison street, eighty feet (80) to place of beginning.”

The petition is in the usual form, and the answer a general denial. From a judgment in favor of plaintiffs defendant appealed.

Both parties claim title under J. R. Beckwith, but as defendant, in his brief, contends that plaintiffs never acquired the title, it becomes necessary to set out the title claimed by the respective parties, plaintiffs and defendant, in full. Plaintiffs offered ' evidence as follows:

A deed from Jacob R. Beckwith and wife, to the Little River Valley & Arkansas Railway Company, dated August 31, 1881, and recorded September 13, 1881, reciting that grantors “grant, bargain and sell, convey and confirm,” the following land: “Beginning at a point in the west line of the highway known as the Olarkton road, one hundred and fifty feet south of the north line of section fifteen, township twenty-two, range ten east; thence southwesterly, parallel with the main track of the Little River Valley & Arkansas Railway Company, of Missouri, five hundred and eighty-five feet; thence southeasterly (at right angles with said main track, one hundred and seventeen feet; thence southwesterly), parallel with, and fifty feet from, [358]*358said main track, seventy-eight feet; thence south one hundred and twenty feet; thence northeasterly, parallel with said main track, one hundred and forty-three feet; thence southeasterly, at right angles with said main track, one hundred feet; thence northeasterly, parallel with said main track, to west .line of said highway, known as Clarkton road; thence' north, along west line of said Clarkton road, to point of beginning, containing three and sixty-three one-hundredths acres, more or less.”

A deed, in the same form, from Jacob R. Beck-with and wife to Cora A. Hill and George B. Clark, dated July 2,1881, and recorded July 7,1881, conveying the following land: “The undivided two thirds interest in, and to, fifteen acres of land off of the east part of the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter of section fifteen (15), in township twenty-two (22) north, of range number ten (10) east.”

A deed, in the same form, from Cora A. Hill and husband, E. W. Hill, to the Little River Valley & Arkansas Railway Company, dated August 17, 1881, and recorded September 13, 1881, conveying by the same description, the land described in the deed from Jacob R. Beckwith to railway company.

A deed, in the same form, from George B. Clark and wife to the Little River Valley & Arkansas Railway Company, dated August 17, 1881, and recorded September 12, 1889, in book 13, page 546, and re-recorded July 1, 1890, in book 15, page 187, conveying by the same description, the land set out in the deed from Beckwith to the railway company.

It was admitted on the trial, that on the twenty-ninth day of November, 1881, the Little River Valley & Arkansas Railroad Company, in Missouri, was consolidated with the Texas & St. Louis Railroad Company, and conveyed to it all its property, and the two [359]*359together became the Texas & St. Louis Railroad Company, in Missouri and Arkansas. It was also admitted that on January 12, 1894, Wm, R. Woodward was appointed as receiver of the property of the Texas & St. Louis Railroad Company, in Missouri and Arkansas, in a suit wherein the Central Trust Company, of New York, was plaintiff, and the Texas & St. Louis Railroad Company, defendant, which suit was pending in the United States circuit court for the eastern district of Missouri. That on the thirteenth of April, 1885, Samuel W. Fordyee was appointed receiver of the property of the Texas & St. Louis Railroad Company, in Missouri and Arkansas, and another, in a suit pending in the circuit court of the United States for the eastern district of Missouri, wherein the Central Trust Company, of New York, was complainant, and said Texas & St. Louis Railroad Company, in Missouri and Arkansas, was defendant — in place of receiver Woodward, resigned.

It was further admitted by the defendant that by decree of the United States circuit court for the eastern district of Missouri, dated December 16, 1885, in a suit wherein the Central Trust Company of New York was plaintiff, and the Texas & St. Louis Railroad Company, in Missouri and Arkansas, was defendant, the property of every kind of said railroad company was ordered to be sold by George H. Shields, special master, in accordance with the course and practice of that court, and that at such sale the complainant, or any parties, or intervenors, might become purchasers.

Plaintiffs read in evidence a deed from George H. Shields, special master, to William Mortense, George Capell, Louis S. Wolf, M. Gprsheimer and J. W. Paramore, styled, “The Bondholders’ Committee,” dated April 29, 1886, and recorded in book 12, of the land record of Dunklin county, at page 1; conveying [360]*360the following property: “All the right, title, and equity of redemption of the Texas & St. Louis Railway Company in Missouri and Arkansas, or of S. W. Fordyce, receiver, or of any of the parties to this case, in and to, all and singular, the railroad of the Texas & St.

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Bluebook (online)
33 S.W. 57, 131 Mo. 354, 1895 Mo. LEXIS 85, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fordyce-v-rapp-mo-1895.