Johnson v. Sherwood

73 N.E. 180, 34 Ind. App. 490, 1905 Ind. App. LEXIS 23
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 26, 1905
DocketNo. 5,044
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 73 N.E. 180 (Johnson v. Sherwood) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Johnson v. Sherwood, 73 N.E. 180, 34 Ind. App. 490, 1905 Ind. App. LEXIS 23 (Ind. Ct. App. 1905).

Opinion

Myers, J.

This canse might, and, strictly speaking, should, be affirmed for failure of appellant to' file a brief complying with rule twenty-two' of the Supreme and this Court. Appellee insists upon an affirmance of the judgment for that cause. This rule, adopted in pursuance of law, enters into and becomes a part of the law governing litigants in the presentation of their causes of action on appeal, and should not be ignored or disregarded. Smith v. State, ex rel. (1894), 140 Ind. 340. But, as appellants have made some attempt to comply with the role, we have concluded not to invoke it, and will proceed to pass upon the merits of the case.

This was an action begun in the Elkhart Circuit Court by appellants and others to- cancel a note and mortgage on certain real estate in the city of Elkhart on account of an alleged breach of warranty in a deed from appellee to appellants’ decedents. Briefly, the complaint avers that appellee Mary S. Sherwood and her husband, Bradford D. Sherwood, conveyed by warranty deed to appellants’ decedents a parcel of land described in the deed, which deed is made an exhibit and part of the complaint; that the land consisted of a business lot in the city of Elkhart, twenty-six fet wide, fronting on Main street, and eighty-two and one-half feet long east and west, fronting on Lexington avenue, formerly Pigeon street; that there was then and is yet an encumbrance on said lot, consisting of a permanent and perpetual easement and right of way twelve and one-half .feet wide over and across the east end thereof, being a cart-way or roadway for the use and benefit of the proprietors of other lots north thereof, and to allow them ingress and' egress to and from the rear ends of their said lots; that, because of such cartway and easement, the grantees in said deed, and their successors and assigns, are and ever will be [493]*493deprived of the use and possession of twelve and one-half feet in width off of the east end of said lot, and to that extent the seizin and title to the land described in said deed was not conveyed thereby, and there was and is a breach of the warranty in said deed. Other allegations appear in the complaint as to the execution of a note and mortgage to secure the balance of unpaid purchase money; the complaint closing with a prayer for damages, and that such damages be applied to the extinguishment of the note evidencing the balance of unpaid purchase money, and that appellee be ordered to release of record the mortgage securing the same. Following the description in question in the deed appears the¡ following, to wit: “Together with the right of way for a cartway across said lot No; 12, and also lot No. 11 of said original plat eighty-two and one-half feet east of the west line of said lots No. 11 and No. 12.”

To this complaint the appellee files an answer in general denial, also two paragraphs of counterclaim. The material averments of the first being that, since the execution of the deed aforesaid, her husband, Bradford D. Sherwood, departed this life, leaving no interest or right in said real estate to any other person than this appellee. She admits the execution of the deed, a copy of which is filed with the complaint, but says: “That at the time of its execution she was the owner of a parcel of land described as follows: ‘Commencing at the southwest corner of lot No; 12 in the original plat of the town (now city) of Elkhart; * * * thence north, with the east line of Main street of said town, twenty-six feet, to the southwest corner of the brick building owned by John Dalton; * * * thence east, parallel with the south line of said lot No; 12, eighty-two and one-half feet; thence south to the south line of said lot No. 12; thence west along said south line to the place of beginning; together with the right of way across said lot No. 12 and also lot No. 11 of said original plat to an open cartway within five rods of Main street;’ that the above-described [494]*494tract of land was subject to said cartway, which extended across its east end, which cartway was an easement in favor of all the owners of said lots No. 11 and No. 12; that the aforesaid tract of land was occupied by a two-stoiy frame building, about twenty-six feet wide, north and south, extending east from Main street along Pigeon street seventy-five and one-half feet, to an open and visible cartway seven feet wide, which frame building and cartway covered eighty-two and one-half feet of land owned by appellee; that joining said eighty-two and one-half feet of land on the east there was, and still is, a two-story brick building, owned by another person; that the original plaintiffs, Guy C. Johnson and Duel M. Johnson, personally made an examination of said premises before purchasing, and saw said open cartway across the east end thereof between the two buildings, and well knew that this defendant and counter-claimant simply owned a tract of land in the southwest corner of said lot No. 12, twenty-six feet wide on Main street and eighty-two' and one-half feet long on Pigeon street, across the east end of which was said open cartway, which was an easement, as they also well knew, in favor of all the owners of said lots No. 11 and No. 12; that with that knowledge existing on the part of said original plaintiffs [appellants’ decedents] and this defendant and counter-claimant, it was agreed by and between them that she should convey to the original plaintiffs said land, subject to said easement, and should also convey to them her right to use said easement across the. other parts of said lots No. 11 and No. 12, for the sum of $6,000; that by the mutual mistake of the parties and the scrivener who wrote the deed the premises were described as follows.” Here follows a description of the land as set forth in the deed.

The appellee further avers “that all the parties supposed and believed that the description inserted in said deed properly and truly described her interest in said land and in said cartway, which it did not do. She further says that, [495]*495as a part of the same transaction in which said deed was executed, said original plaintiffs, in order to secure the payment of $4,000 of the purchase price of said premises, executed to her a note secured by a mortgage — being the same note and mortgage mentioned in the amended complaint— which note, secured by such mortgage, was due and unpaid.” Here follows a copy of the mortgage, in the ordinary statutory form, containing a description of the real estate as described in the exhibit to the complaint. Such mortgage also includes a brief description of the note, and also, of itself provides for the payment of attorneys’ fees. Then follows a copy of said $4,000 note, mentioned as an exhibit in the complaint. The note is in the ordinary form, but contains this provision: “And payees attorneys’ fees, if suit be brought on this note, at such rate for said attorneys’ fees as shall be allowed by the court.” It is further averred “that, by the same mutual mistake of the parties and the scrivener who wrote the mortgage, the same erroneous description in relation to said cartway that was put into said deed was carried into said mortgage,” and she asks, by proper averments, that the deed be reformed, and also the mortgage be reformed to speak the truth, and to cover the real estate as intended by the parties.

It is also averred that one of the grantees in said deed, “Ruel M.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
73 N.E. 180, 34 Ind. App. 490, 1905 Ind. App. LEXIS 23, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnson-v-sherwood-indctapp-1905.