Jenkins v. Salmen Brick & Lumber Co.

45 So. 435, 120 La. 549, 1908 La. LEXIS 538
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedJanuary 9, 1908
DocketNo. 16,612
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 45 So. 435 (Jenkins v. Salmen Brick & Lumber Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jenkins v. Salmen Brick & Lumber Co., 45 So. 435, 120 La. 549, 1908 La. LEXIS 538 (La. 1908).

Opinion

BREAUX, C. J.

This is a petitory action, brought by plaintiff for a tract of land measuring 847 acres in the parish of Washington.

Plaintiff claims that her mother'inherited the land from her mother (plaintiff’s grandmother), who was Mrs. M. Cockern, wife of Isaac Cockern, and who died in 1879.

At her death Mrs. Mary Cockern left eight children, and the land claimed by plaintiff, as well as some movable property belonging to the community which had existed between Mrs. Mary Cockern and her surviving husband, Isaac Cockern.

The eight heirs met some time in the year 18S1 and entered into an amicable partition of the property. Plaintiff avers that her mother became the owner of the land before mentioned in that partition, and that all of the parties in interest, including the surviving husband, Isaac Cockern, signed and executed the act of sale to her (plaintiff’s mother), which was duly recorded, but was destroyed in 1897 in a fire which destroyed the courthouse of that parish.

Plaintiff not only gave her chain of title, but she alleged the deeds under which the defendant claims to hold. The latter, she [551]*551urged, are illegal and confer no right on the defendant.

The defendant admitted all that was undeniable in plaintiff’s petition, and pleaded the general issud in answer to the averments not admitted.

There was an error committed in plaintiff’s petition. The papers in the conveyance office had been destroyed or were badly disfigured. This error consisted in that plaintiff alleged that the land for which she was suing had been owned by her mother, Mrs. Ferriday Felts. The deed offered in evidence proves that the land was sold originally by the heirs of Isaac Cockern, the grandfather of plaintiff, to S. E. Felts, his son-in-law, and father of plaintiff. In view of this fact it was error to have alleged .that the land had been sold to Mrs. Ferriday Felts, plaintiff’s mother.

As the land had been sold to S. E. Felts, 'father of plaintiff (husband of Mrs. Ferriday Felts) and as it was in his name, he had the right to dispose of it as he did, subject to whatever rights in the property plaintiff may have had as an heir.

In the act of sale of 1881 above referred to (by which a partition of the property was effected after the death of Mrs. M. Cockern, plaintiff’s grandmother) seven heirs recognized an amount of $109 as due to plaintiff’s mother, Mrs. Ferriday Felts.

When the deed was offered in evidence, defendant objected on the ground that it was not admissible, because it contradicted the allegations of plaintiff’s petition.

The offered deed was admitted in evidence over defendant’s objection.

To the ruling admitting it the defendant reserved a bill of .exception, which is now before us.

Before passing upon the objection, we insert a copy of this deed in its mutilated condition:

“Is made for and in .ation of the sum and price of.hundred dollars, paid as follows: .undred and nine dollars cash, .he interest of Pheruba Rebecca Cockern, .of said S. E. Felts, and a full acquittance, .nted therefor, said of two hundred .ety-one dollars to be paid as follows: . note for the sum of one hundred and thirty-five dollars, to be paid January 1, 1884; second not.., for the sum of seventy-two dollars, to be paid on the first day of January, 1884; third note, for the sum of sixty-five dollars and twenty cents, to be paid on the first day of January, 1884; fourth note, for the sum of eighteen dollars and ninety cents, to be paid on the first day of January, 1884, for which the purchaser has this day furnished his four promissory notes payable to Isaac Cockern or bearer, all of said notes drawing eight per cent, per annum interest from the first day of January, 1884, until paid.” ■

The foregoing is a copy of the deed to the admissibility of which objection was urged. In our opinion it was admissible in matter of the right claimed by plaintiff. She had claimed the whole property. The deed was admissible to the extent that it proved that she had a right to a part of the property, particularly under the circumstances; for, whatever good ground there may have been for the objection, it is answered by the fact that defendant, in order to set up his own chain of title, was driven to the necessity of introducing this very deed in evidence. It disposes of whatever force there may have been in the objection.

The petition did not allege that there were two heirs- — one, the plaintiff; and the other, a brother, who died some time ago in Texas; but the fact is admitted by counsel on appeal.

Plaintiff inherited - from her deceased brother, together with her father; her father inheriting one-fourth, and she (plaintiff) three-fourths.

The question before us for decision is whether there remains a right of inheritance to the plaintiff, and its extent?

There are two theories advanced- — one by plaintiff, and the other by defendant.

The theory of the former is that she has a fractional interest in the land; that is, 109/400. That theory cannot be sustained under the pleadings, in which no such claim was ever alleged. The heirs seem to have [553]*553fixed the amount to which plaintiff’s mother (Mrs. Ferriday Felts) was entitled at $109. To that amount no significance can he given. It was stated on the hypothesis that it represented plaintiff’s interest (inherited from her mother) in the succession of her grandmother. There is no good reason why she should not he held to prove that she had a right to that amount by inheritance and not by reference to deed of sale, supra.

The other theory, that of the defendant, is that the declaration of the deed copied above shows that plaintiff was paid.

We do not agree with that theory. Plaintiff was not paid, but in settling for the cash portion of the price the amount coming to plaintiff’s mother was declared satisfied. The wife’s interest — that is, the interest of the grandmother of plaintiff — was utilized by the husband by imputing it to the cash portion of the price.

While we are of opinion that it should not be considered paid, to return to the first theory, we will state that the husband’s agreement, as evidenced by the deed above, could not 'have the effect of perpetuating in the property a right corresponding to the wife’s claim. It was an unauthorized declaration in this z'espect,' to which sanction will not be given by approving the agreement made without obtaining the consent of the wife, plaintiff’s mother. Whatever right of property she had was by inheritance, and not by any declaration in the deed. The sale will not be taken as a basis of the extent of plaintiff’s right. Nor will it, on the other hand, in answer to defendant’s prayer, be taken as showing satisfaction of the claim, as the deed does not show that cash was paid, but, on the contrary, that the cash portion consisted of the paraphernal right of the wife.

Having disposed of these two theories, one of plaintiff and the other of defendant, we take up for decision the extent of plaintiff’s interest in the succession of her grand-' mother, without reference to any declaration.

It is not disputed by the defendant that one-sixteenth, as fixed by the district judge in his judgment, is correct Nor do we think that plaintiff disputes the correctness of this fraction from the point of view before expressed.

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Bluebook (online)
45 So. 435, 120 La. 549, 1908 La. LEXIS 538, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jenkins-v-salmen-brick-lumber-co-la-1908.