Frazer v. Clifford

94 Ind. 482, 1884 Ind. LEXIS 97
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedApril 3, 1884
DocketNo. 11,160
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 94 Ind. 482 (Frazer v. Clifford) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Frazer v. Clifford, 94 Ind. 482, 1884 Ind. LEXIS 97 (Ind. 1884).

Opinion

Howe, C. J.

The issues joined in this cause were submitted to the court for trial; and at the request of the appellant, the plaintiff below, the court m'ade a special finding [483]*483of facts, and stated its conclusions of law thereon. The appellant excepted to the court’s conclusions of law, and judgment was rendered in accordance therewith.

The only error assigned by the appellant, in this court, is that the trial court erred in its conclusions of law upon the facts specially found.

The special finding of facts was, in substance, as follows:

“On the 4th day of January, 1880, the defendant Matilda A. Clifford and Luther O. Clifford executed to the Franklin Life Insurance Company, a corporation organized and existing under the laws of Indiana, their note set out in the complaint, whereby they promised to pay said insurance company the sum of $500, with five per cent, attorneys’ fees, payable without relief from valuation or appraisement laws, with interest at eight per cent, per annum from date, payable semiannually ; and at the same time, and as part of the same transaction, said Matilda A. Clifford and Luther O. Clifford executed to said insurance company their mortgage set out in the complaint, whereby they conveyed to said insurance company the following real estate, in Hamilton county, Indiana, to wit: Eighty acres off of the south side of the northwest quarter of section 6, township 19 north, of range 5, to secure the payment of said note. It was provided in said mortgage, that ‘ in default of payment of interest when due, the principal sum shall become due.’ The interest on the note was paid June 10th, 1881, but there was no-payment of interest maturing after that date. On the 4th day of August, 1881, on the 4th day of February, 1882, and on the 4th day of August, 1882, defaults were made in the payment of interest, and no part of the principal was at any time paid-On the 6th day of May, 1882, the Franklin Life Insurance Company, being in embarrassed and failing circumstances, in pursuance of the statutes of this State providing for voluntary assignments for the benefit of creditors, made a general assignment of all its property to James S. Frazer, in trust for all its bona fide creditors, which assignment was, on the 6th [484]*484day of May, 1882, duly entered of record in the recorder’s office of Marion county, Indiana, where the home office of said insurance company was at that time, and said James S. Frazer at once entered upon the duties of his trust, and has been ever since so acting. The note aforesaid was the evidence of a loan of $500 on that day made to said Matilda A. and Luther O. Clifford. The $500 thereby represented was the cancellation of the note of $350 of said Luther O. Clifford, due to and held by said insurance company, and $150 taken by said Matilda A. Clifford and by her expended in the improvement of the real estate described in said mortgage, for which purpose such sum was borrowed at the date of said $500 note and mortgage. The said Matilda was the ■wife of her co-defendant, and he then was, and for one year prior thereto had been, indebted to the mortgagee in the sum of $350, for which sum the mortgagee then held his note; and the only consideration for the execution of the $500 note and mortgage was the payment of said $150 cash to said Matilda and the surrender to Luther O. Clifford and cancellation of his $350 note. The $500 note was taken by the mortgagee in sole reliance upon the mortgage as security, said L. O. Clifford being then and there insolvent.
“At the date of said mortgage said Matilda A. Clifford was the owner in her own right of the real estate described therein, and, with her husband, was living on and operating the same, and her title came to fyer in the following way: On the — day of-, 1859, Cary W. Harrison, the father of said Matilda A. Clifford, conveyed to her, by good and sufficient deed, the following real estate in Hamilton county, Indiana, to wit: The undivided two-thirds part of fifty acres off of the north ■end of the west half of the northeast quarter of section 30, township 19, range 5. Said conveyance was an advancement by said Cary W. to his daughter, and was purely a gift. Said Matilda A. went into full possession of said real estate, and was the owner of the same free of the claim of any person. On the 3d day of August, 1861. said Cary "W. Harrison con[485]*485veyed to his son John J. Harrison the following real estate in Hamilton county, Indiana, to w.it: The south half of the-northwest quarter of section 6, in township 19 north, of range 5 east, which conveyance was an advancement and gift by said Cary W. to John J. Harrison, the brother of said Matilda A. Clifford. Said John J. Harrison went into possession of said real estate, and was the full and perfect owner-thereof. At the dates of these conveyances said Cary W. Harrison was a widower, but he afterwards intermarried, and desired to have the land he had conveyed to said Matilda A. Clifford, to wit, the two-thirds part of fifty acres aforesaid,, for a residence. He then proposed to said Matilda A. Clifford, if she would convey to him the real estate aforesaid which he had conveyed to hér, he would cause his son John J. Harrison to convey to her the south half of the northwest quarter of section 6, township 19, range 5 east, in Hamilton county, Indiana.
“ In order to induce her to make such conveyance and exchange of property, he offered to give her personal property of the value of $200. Matilda A. Clifford accepted these-terms, and, in compliance therewith, conveyed, her husband, joining with her, the two-thirds of fifty acres aforesaid, theretofore given to her by her father, back to him; and at the same time, and as part of the same transaction, he, said Cary W. Harrison, caused said John J. Harrison to convey the following real estate to her, said Matilda, to wit: The south half of the nothwest quarter of section 6, township 19, range-5, in Hamilton county, Indiana, and, in addition thereto, said Cary W. Harrison gave said Matilda $200 worth of personal property for making said conveyance. In order to induce said John J. Harrison to make said conveyance to said Matilda, said Cary W. Harrison conveyed to him the following real estate in Hamilton county, Indiana, to wit, sixty acres of land. Afterwards, to wit, February 7th, 1.865, it appearing that the south half of the northwest quarter of section 6, township 19, range 5 aforesaid, contained more than eighty [486]*486¡acres (the parties having supposed theretofore that it contained only eighty acres), at the request of said John J. Harrison, and in consideration of his promise to convey to her eighty acres off of the south side of the northwest quarter of section 6, township 19, range 5 east, in Hamilton county, Indiana, and the further consideration of $100 by said John J. Harrison paid to her, said Matilda A. Clifford, her husband joining in the deed, conveyed the south half of the northwest quarter of section 6, township 19, range 5 aforesaid, to said •John J. Harrison, and said John J. Harrison thereupon conveyed to said Matilda A. Clifford eighty acres off of the south side of the northwest quarter of section 6, township 19, range 5 aforesaid, as he had agreed to do. Said last named real estate is the same conveyed in the mortgage set out in the complaint.”

Upon the foregoing facts the court stated its conclusions of law as follows:

“ 1st. That defendants Matilda A. Clifford and Luther O.

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Bluebook (online)
94 Ind. 482, 1884 Ind. LEXIS 97, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/frazer-v-clifford-ind-1884.