Higbee v. Billick

148 S.W. 879, 244 Mo. 411, 1912 Mo. LEXIS 327
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJune 29, 1912
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 148 S.W. 879 (Higbee v. Billick) 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
Higbee v. Billick, 148 S.W. 879, 244 Mo. 411, 1912 Mo. LEXIS 327 (Mo. 1912).

Opinion

LAMM, J.

From a decree for plaintiff clearing up and quieting the title to two lots, defendant Mary E. Billick appeals. The case is this:

[417]*417William MaGee died intestate in January, 1906., a resident of Schuyler county, seized of lots three and four in block twenty-nine in the village of Glenwood, leaving three children, one, the defendant Mary E., intermarried with Martin L. Billick. Plaintiff contends that the MaGee estate was insolvent; the record does not disclose so much as that, but does disclose that it was indebted-the extent is left dark. The Billicks live in Iowa. The value of the lots was small. At the death of her father, Mary E. Billick held a small note .against him dated in the November prior to his death and secured by a deed of trust on the lots.

In August, 1906, the MaGee heirs sold and conveyed these lots to Martha E. Lasley by a warranty deed, put of record, covenanting against incumbrances and with other usual covenants. At that time there had been no administration on the MaGee estate and no administrator in charge. The plan of consummating this sale was as follows:

A deed was executed by the MaGee heirs to Mrs. Lasley, and Martin L. Billick appeared on the scene, as we understand it, with this deed and with his wife’s said note duly indorsed over to him by a general indorsement, to close the transaction. He did so by satisfying the record of the deed of trust on the margin as assignee of the note — the entry reading: “The debt mentioned in the within deed of trust, having been fully paid and discharged, I hereby acknowledge satisfaction in full and release the property herein conveyed from the lien and encumbrance therein, this 29th day of August, 1906. (Signed.) M. L. Billick, assignee of beneficiary. Attest: Thos. L. Buford, Recorder, by Florence Dobbins, Deputy.”

At the same time on the margin of the same record the following entry was placed. “The note secured by the within deed of trust was produced and cancelled [418]*418in my presence this 29th day of August, 1906. (Signed.) Thos. L. Buford, Recorder,' by Florence Dobbins, Deputy.”

Mrs. Lasley paid Billick $175 in cash and executed a deed of trust, in which her husband joined, to secure $325, evidenced by three notes signed .by them, all bearing date August 30, 1906; one, for $100' due in one year; another, for $100' due in two years; another, for $125 due in three years — all payable to Mary E. Billick at Logan’s Bank, Grlenwood, and bearing seven per cent interest after date. Referring to the deed of trust securing said notes, it bore date August 291, 1906, and conveyed the two lots to Spencer, trustee of Mary E. Billick, and the same was spread of record. The notes were put in Logan’s Bank, Grlenwood, together with the following contract:

This contract witnesseth:
That M. E. La-sley has this day bought of the heirs of Wm. MaGee, deceased, lots 3 and 4’ and in block 29 in Glenwood. Mo., paying' one hundred and seventy-five dollars ($175) down and executing notes and mortgage for the balance of $325, and it is agreed and understood by and between M. L. Billick on the part of the heirs and said M. E. Lasley that the notes for the deferred payments as above stated are to he placed in the hands of cashier of bank in Glenwood and to remain in his possession until it is ascertained and- determined that all debts against the estate of Wm. MaGee have been paid and if the said Lasley shall he obliged to;6ay .any debts on the MaGee estate, same may he' deducted from- the balance or amount of the purchase money notes to be left in said bank. a
Dated this 29th day of August, 1906.
M. L. BILLICK,
M. E. LASLEY,
By W. N. LASLEY.

[419]*419Afterwards, in 1908, the estate of William MaGee was pnt in charge of the public administrator of Schuyler county. It does not appear directly at whose instance the administration was had, whether of creditors or of heirs or whether the public administrator moved, or the probate court ex mero motu. It does appear that the Lasleys ineffectually objected to an order of sale, and that Mr. Fogle, of counsel at present for Mrs. Billiot, represented either the administrator or the creditors or the heirs in supporting a sale. Some stress is laid upon the appearance of plaintiff as attorney- for the Lasleys in opposition to the order of sale, on one side, and on the fact that Mr. Fogle, who got the order of sale for the administrator, is now contending that the administrator’s sale did not pass a title clear of MaGee’s deed of trust, on the other. But we will not pursue the matter, for the respective contentions pro and con on that head smack of being makeweights, therefore beside the merits. Such debts were allowed against the estate and such proceedings taken in the probate court as resulted in an administrator’s sale of the lots to Mr. Mills at public sale. Mills then and there turned his bid over to Mr. Higbee. Thereafter the administrator made due report of sale to pay debts, which was approved by the probate court, and in June, 1908, an administrator’s deed, in due form, with apt narrations, was executed to Higbee, on the payment of the Mills bid of sixty dollars.

Thereafter Higbee lodged his bill in equity in the Schuyler Circuit Court in two counts. The object and general nature of the first was to clear away the cloud of the deed of the MaGee heirs to Lasley and of Lasley’s deed of trust and to cancel the notes secured thereby, plaintiff claiming a fee simple title. The second was under old section 650 to ascertain and determine the title and interest of parties litigant in and to said lots. The Lasleys, Logan’s Bank and Mary E. Billick were made defendants. The form or [420]*420substance of tbe bill is not assailed, hence need receive no further attention.

We take it the Lasleys and the bank made no defense, but Mary E. Billick filed an answer. It admitted that MaG-ee died seized in fee of the lots, leaving as his only heirs the children named in the bill; admitted they conveyed to Mrs. Lasley, and that the Lasleys “executed to Mary E. Billick” the three notes described, and denied all the averments of the bill “except ás above stated.” It then averred that the Lasleys executed the deed of trust to Spencer, trustee, referred to in the bill; that the Lasley notes were not delivered to defendant, but were deposited in Logan’s Bank in G-lenwood on conditions and terms agreed to by Martin L. Billick. At this point the escrow contract, heretofore set forth (we use the word “escrow” for want of a better) is pleaded in terms. The authority of Martin L. Billick to receive the cash payment and to deliver the deed of the Lasleys is not denied or referred to in the answer, but it does deny his authority to make the escrow contract depositing the notes with the bank until MaG-ee’s debts were ascertained. It next alleges the execution of a note by MaGee to defendant, secured by a deed of trust on the lots duly put of record the November before the January MaGee died; that Martin L. Billick was trustee in that deed of trust and that “as trustee” he, without authority, satisfied the same on August 29,1906.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
148 S.W. 879, 244 Mo. 411, 1912 Mo. LEXIS 327, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/higbee-v-billick-mo-1912.