Gordon v. English

71 Tenn. 634
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 15, 1879
StatusPublished

This text of 71 Tenn. 634 (Gordon v. English) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gordon v. English, 71 Tenn. 634 (Tenn. 1879).

Opinion

Cooper, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

On the 21st of August, 1872, Jacob F. English bought, at a chancery sale of the lands of his father’s estate, a tract of land containing one hundred and [635]*635sixty-five acres, at the price of $10,316.40, for which he gave his notes on time, and the sale was confirmed.

On the 18th of August, 1873, he was appointed guardian of his sister, Martha A., then and at the commencement of this suit a minor, who afterwards intermarried with T. A. Gordon. On the special bond given to cover the share of Martha A. in the proceeds of the sale of her father’s land, the guardian-gave as his sureties Samuel Yorkley, Jacob Yorkley, and M. E. Alexander. This share amounted to $2,-276.99, which the guardian received and had the sum placed as a credit upon his notes for the land bought as above. He borrowed from UST. Hays, at one time, $400, which he paid on the land, and afterwards $1,300, with which he made the last payment. "When this last loan was made, on the 6th of January, 1876, he and his wife joined in a conveyance of the remaining one hundred and twenty-five acres of the land bought, he having previously sold off forty acres, in. mortgage to Hays, to secure a note at two years with interest, for $2,033.44, given for the money thus borrowed and used, and for about $300 based on other considerations. On the 15th of August, 1877, this-bill was filed by Gordon and wife and the sureties , of English on his guardian bond, against English and'. Hays, seeking, upon the ground of the insolvency of English, to follow the funds of Gordon’s wife into the-land. Pending the litigation, the land was sold by consent and brought $4,033.35.

On the final hearing, the Chancellor was of opinion that complainants, by the frame of their bill, had [636]*636elected to take the land, and were entitled to share therein, and consequently in the proceeds of sale, in the proportion her money so invested bore to the residue of the purchase money, and it being agreed that this was one-fifth, he gave Gordon and wife a •decree accordingly.

The Chancellor ordered Hays’ debt to be paid in full, and the remainder of the proceeds of sale to be invested in a homestead for English and his family, he being the head of a family, and an actual occupant of the land before suit was brought. The complainants appealed.

The Chancellor’s decree on the rights of complainants rests upon the conclusion that Gordon and wife, by the frame of their bill, had elected to take the land. In that view, the decree fixing the proportion of their interest was probably correct. Gannaway v. Tarpley, 1 Col., 572, 580. But he was clearly in error in his conclusion. The bill says that the complainants “are advised that they have the right to follow the funds of the said Martha A. Gordon into the land, which was paid for with those funds, and to subject it to sale for the payment of the amount due from him as guardian, at least to the extent that her estate was used in paying for it.” They charge that the note given to Hays, and secured by mortgage of the land, was for a pre-existing debt in whole or in part, and say they are advised that they have the right to priority of satisfaction out of the land, or in any event that they are entitled to be paid ratably out of the proceeds of the land. The [637]*637sureties claim that, as their principal is insolvent, they may subject the property purchased with the-assets of the ward to the payment of the liability incurred. The prayer of the bill is, that the court tc decree a sale of said land for the satisfaction of the amount due complainants, Gordon and wife, and declare their right to priority of satisfaction over Hays; or if this cannot be done, that a decree be made allowing them to share ratably with him in the proceeds of sale.” There is not only no election to take the land, but a distinct election to have satisfaction of “the amount due” them from the guardian out of the proceeds of the sale of the land, or, at any rate, such ratable part of the debt as they may be entitled to as between Gordon and wife and Hays. The bill states that the amount due from the guardian had been ascertained by a settlement of the guardianship, and asks that this amount, to the extent of the ward’s funds invested in the land, be made a charge upon the land, and the land sold in satisfaction thereof. The decree in its main feature is, therefore, erroneous.

It is elaborately argued by the learned counsel of the defendants, and perhaps the Chancellor may have-been misled by this view of the law, that the right •of election of the ward was to take the land or the money; if the land, then the interest would be as tenant in common with the guardian in the proportion of the fund invested; if the money, then the demand would be personal against the guardian, and the land would belong to the guardian free from all claim of the ward. But this is a misconception of the rights [638]*638•of the parties. No doubt; where the funds of a beneficiary have been used by the trustee in the purchase of land, if the beneficiary actually accept the money, with full knowledge of the facts, the land becomes the property of the trustee free from the trust. Caplinger v. Stokes, Meigs, 179. So, if the beneficiary take the land, the trust debt is extinguished. Phillipps v. Terrell, 10 Heis., 417. But if the beneficiary do not choose to take the land, and the money has not been paid, he may follow the money into the land by having it declared a charge thereon, and sold for its satisfaction.

The old cases actually limited the relief to this form, where the property was only partially paid for by the trust fund. Where a husband had invested the funds of his wife, together with his own funds, in land, and the contest was between the wife and the heir of the husband, Lord Eldon said: “ One great question is, whether this estate belongs to the heir or the wife. The claim of the wife is put in. this way: that personal property bound by the trust or obligation, whatever it is called, of this bond, is traced into the purchase of real estate, which estate must, therefore, be hers. But I do not know any case, in its circumstances sufficiently like this, to authorize me to hold that doctrine. I am prepared to say, that the personal estate bound by this obligation, and which has been laid out in this real estate, is personal property, that may be demanded out of the real estate, and that the estate is chargeable with it. But it was not so purchased with it, that the estate [639]*639should be declared to belong, not to the heirs, but to the wife.” Lewis v. Madocks, 17 Ves., 48, 57. To the same effect are Lane v. Dighton, Amb., 409; Lench v. Lench, 10 Ves., 511; Savage v. Carroll, 1 Ball & B., 265, 285. Some of the American cases are in accord. Wallace v. McCullough, 1 Rich. Ch., 426; Wallace v. Duffield, 2 Ser. & R., 521. And no doubt the principle would yet be applied in proper cases. But the beneficiary may, as a general rule, elect to take the land or the money, and use his hold on the land as a means of getting his money; or, in other words, the beneficiary has a lien on the land, with a right to a decree for a sale to reimburse the trust fund, and may hold the trustee responsible if there is a loss on the sale. Perry on Trusts, sec. 128; W. & T. Lead. Cases Eq., 841, 342, (4th Amer. ed.)

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Bluebook (online)
71 Tenn. 634, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gordon-v-english-tenn-1879.