Grider v. Groff

202 F. 685, 121 C.C.A. 95, 1912 U.S. App. LEXIS 1610
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedOctober 12, 1912
DocketNos. 3,725, 3,726
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 202 F. 685 (Grider v. Groff) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Grider v. Groff, 202 F. 685, 121 C.C.A. 95, 1912 U.S. App. LEXIS 1610 (8th Cir. 1912).

Opinion

SANBORN, Circuit Judge.

On April 13, 1867, a decree was ren-. dered in a suit in partition in a court of the state of Kansas, whereby the ownership of 250 acres of land at the confluence o'f the Missouri and Kansas rivers, known as the Armstrong tract, was adjudged to be as follows: Thomas Ewing, Jr., 19.42 acres, of average value thereof; Lawrence P. Graham, 8.63 acres; Thomas H. Swope, 10 acres of average value; Union Pacific Railway Company, Eastern Division, 12.07 acres, of average value; the Calhoun heirs, 1/s thereof, less 8.63 acres; the Armstrong h^irs, 3/s thereof, less 42.50 acres; David E. James 13/éS thereof; George B. Wood, 5/hs thereof; Mary •J. Wise, 1/a thereof. Commissioners were appointed by that decree to set apart in severalty to these parties their respective shares of the land. In September, 1867, they reported that 50 acres of the tract had been washed away by the rivers, that they had allotted the remainder of the 250 acres to the respective parties as described in their report, whereby 48.09 acres, of average value, were allotted to the first four parties named above, and 151.91 acres to the last five parties there mentioned. This report and allotment was confirmed and decreed by the court in October; 1867. The first four parties named had acquired their titles >by conveyances of specified numbers of undivided acres of the tract and for convenience they will be called the “acre owners.” These conveyances created a tenancy in common between them and parties who owned fractional parts- of the land, who will be termed “fractional owners,” and the effect of their deeds and of the decree was to vest in each of them title to such a portion of the value of 'the 250 acres as the number of acres decreed to each bore to the whole number of acres in the tract. For example, the Union Pacific Railway Company, Eastern Division, which' was adjudged to be the owner of 12.07 acres, of average value, was thereby in reality decreed to be the owner of 12.07/2so of the value of the 250 acres. Grider v. Wood, 178 Fed. 908, 910, 102 C. C. A. 109, 111.

By an avulsion in the spring of 1867, 50 acres of this tract was swept away by the rivers, and the commissioners and the court in the fall of 1867 partitioned only 200 acres, then above water, in the mistaken belief that the other 50 acres were irrevocably lost. After the decree of apportionment, however, 36.5 acres' of the submerged 50 acres were restored, and the controversy in this suit involves the equities of the parties in this undivided remnant of the 250-acre tract.

The complainants in .this suit, Minnie C. Groff and others, are the successors in interest of the parties who were adjudged by the decree of April 13, 1867, to have fractional interests in the 250 acres, and they are in possession of the 36.5 acres. The defendants, Warner U. Grider and’ the Missouri Land Company, have succeeded to the interests of the parties who were adjudged by that decree to be the owners of undivided acres of average value. Grider had brought, and was prosecuting, an action of ejectment against the complainants for these 36.5 acres, a dismissal of which had been reversed by this court, with directions to try it again, when the complainants exhibited this bill to enjoin the prosecution of that action and of a similar action for the same purpose, instituted by the Missouri Land Company, to [687]*687quiet the title to the 36.5 acres in the complainants, and, if the defendants were found to have any interest therein, to partition the 36.5 acres among its owners. These fractional owners alleged in their bill that the predecessors in interest .of the defendants, -who were parties to the partition suit of 1867, had received under the decrees in that suit more than their entire shares of the 200 acres then partitioned and of the 36.5 acres now in controversy, so that they had no equitable right to or interest in the latter tract of land, and ought to be enjoined from claiming any title to or possession thereof. The' defendants answered the bill, and filed cross-bills, wherein they prayed that the 36.5 acres be partitioned between them and the complainants, and that they receive in value the same proportion of this remnant of the Armstrong tract which they were adjudged to receive of the 200 acres by the allotment decree of October, T867. Testimony was taken, a final hearing had, and the court below held (1) that the decree of April 13, 1867, which adjudged the proportionate rights of the parties in the 250 acres, was conclusive upon all the parties and their predecessors, -and that their subsequent rights and equities must be measured thereby; (2) that the subsequent decree of allotment of October, 1867, which confirmed the report of the commissioners, setting apart the specific tracts of the 200 acres pursuant to the April decree, rendered the respective rights of the parties to those allotments res adjudicata; and (3) that, where any of the parties subsequently prayed a court of equity to partition the remaining 36.5 acres, the chancellor might and should take the adjudications of the specific interests of the parties in the 250 acres as his basis and measure, and, taking into consideration what part of the value of the 250 acres adjudged to the respective parties by the decree of April 13, 1867, they had respectively received under the decree of allotment of the 200 acres in October, 1867, should so partition and decree the title to the 36.5 acres that each, party should receive, out. of the entire 236.5 acres adjudged by all the decrees, his just and equitable share as nearly as possible. All parties concede the soundness of the first two propositions, but the third is questioned by counsel.

The court below found that each acre of the 236.5 was of the same average value as every other acre; that by the decree of April 13, 1867, the acre owners were adjudged to be the owners of 50.12 acres' of average value of the 250 acres, and that the fractional owners were adjudged to be the owners of the remainder; that pursuant to that decree, and under the allotment decree of October, 1867, which followed it, the acre owners received 48.09 acres of average value, so that they were still entitled to receive only 2.03 acres more out of the remaining 50 acres, but that, as only 36.5 acres had been restored, they were entitled to only 36.5/so of the 2.03 acres, or 1.482 acres. A decree was entered to that effect, and, all the parties appealed. »

The finding of the court below that each acre of the original tract, of the 200-acre tract partitioned, and of the 36.5-acre tract restored, was of like average value with all the other acres, is questioned; but it is sustained by the evidence, and the proof is conclusive that the [688]*68848.09 acres allotted to the acre owners by the decree of October, 1867, was of the same average value as the 151.91 acres allotted to the fractional owners by that decree, so that the fact is indisputable that under the decree of April 13, 1867, the acre owners were entitled to' 50.12/26 0 of the value of the original tract, and the fractional owners to 199.88/250 of that value, that under the allotment decree the acre owners received out of the 200 acres, 48.09/25o of the value of the 250-acre tract and the fractional owners 151.91/250 thereof.- The question for determination now is what, if any, share of the 36.5 acres restored are the acre owners justly entitled to receive in view of these facts? .

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Bluebook (online)
202 F. 685, 121 C.C.A. 95, 1912 U.S. App. LEXIS 1610, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/grider-v-groff-ca8-1912.