Keck v. Noble

86 Ind. 1
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 15, 1882
DocketNo. 9577
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 86 Ind. 1 (Keck v. Noble) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Keck v. Noble, 86 Ind. 1 (Ind. 1882).

Opinion

Woods, C. J.

Under the act of March 11th, 1875, the appellee Rachel Noble claimed the one-third in fee of certain real estate, and obtained a judgment in partition that it be set off to her. The appellant insists that the law of 1875 does not apply, because her husband, who had gone into voluntary bankruptcy, and whose interest in the land had been transferred to his assignee in 'bankruptcy, and by him sold and conveyed to the appellant, did not own, and never had owned, the legal title, but held only a certificate of purchase thereof issued by the school commissioner of Hamilton county, where the land is situate.

The proposition asserted by the appellant is, that the act of 1875 does not apply unless there has been a transfer, by means of a judicial sale, of the legal title from the husband to the purchaser; that, unless the husband has the legal estate, the wife can have no inchoate right by virtue of the marriage.

In the case of Ketchum v. Schicketanz, 73 Ind. 137, the husband had never had the legal estate, but had purchased the land at a sheriff’s sale, and had received a certificate of the purchase, and, after assigning the certificate to his son, had gone into voluntary bankruptcy; and the assignment to the son having been set aside as fraudulent at the suit of the assignee, and the land conveyed, under the order of the court, by a commissioner to the assignee, the wife claimed and was-allowed under the statute to take one-third, as if her husband had died seized. In the opinion in that case it is said: When, therefore, the equitable interest of a husband in a tract of land is sold and conveyed away, under a judicial proceeding, his wife becomes immediately and absolutely entitled to one-[3]*3third of such land as against the purchaser, provided the-value of the land does not exceed ten thousand dollars.”

In this case it is shown that the assignee, under the order-of the bankrupt court, paid the remainder due upon the land’ to the school fund, and took a deed therefor in his own name r; and in accordance with the decisions in Ketchum v. Schicketanz, supra, and Roberts v. Shroyer, 68 Ind. 64, it may well be said that the title of the bankrupt became a perfect legal title, and at the same instant was transferred to the assignee.

In his second paragraph of answer to the appellee’s petition for partition, the appellant, after stating the facts already rehearsed in this opinion, alleged further, that, “After procuring the title as aforesaid the assignee presented his petition to the district court, asking an order for the sale of the land,, which order was granted, and in pursuance thereof the assignee advertised the same for sale at public auction, and on. the day and at the place fixed for the sale the defendant (appellant) was present to compete witli other bidders, and to-purchase the tract of land; and the plaintiff Rachel, when the same was offered for sale, notified all persons intending to bid that she was by law, as the wife of William F. Noble, entitled to a one-third interest therein, which would accrue to and become vested in her whenever a sale should be made by said assignee; and that she would assert her claim, and demand her said interest against any person who might become the purchaser; in consequence of which notice there was no-sale upon said day for want of bidders.

“ Thereupon the assignee, as this defendant (appellant) at. the time well knew, immediately filed in said district court', his bill in chancery, making said Rachel Noble a party defendant; in which bill all the facts hereinbefore set forth were-stated, and the pretended interest of said Rachel in the lands, then existing or that might accrue after a sale by the assignee, was therein and thereby controverted and denied, and an issue as to the validity of such title and claim of said Rachel was thereby tendered; and a part of the relief prayed for in the [4]*4bill was an injunction forever restraining and enjoining said Eachel from in any manner asserting any claim or interest in .and to said tract of land, either against the assignee or the purchaser from him.

“ That said Eachel, on the 25th day of September, 1878, appeared to the bill and filed her demurrer thereto, and after- ■ wards filed her answer reasserting her claim to an interest in said land; whereupon the cause was, by the district court, upon the issues aforesaid, referred to a master in chancery, who, after hearing and considering all the allegations, proofs and arguments, made and filed his report sustaining the bill, and finding that the assignee was entitled to the relief prayed for. Afterwards, on the 23d day of May, 1879, said Eachel filed in said court her exceptions to the report of said master, which exceptions were afterwards, on the 12th day of July, 1879, overruled, and a decree was then duly entered by the court in accordance with the report and findings of the master and the allegations and prayer of the bill. After the entry of this judgment and decree, and while the same was in full force and effect, unappealed from and unreversed, and before any steps had been taken by said Eachel, as by law and the rules in equity required, indicating her purpose to appeal from the decree, and after the ten days allowed by law in which to appeal had expired, to wit, on the 31st day of July, 1879, the assignee presented a petition again asking authority to sell said real estate,which petition was granted; and in pursuance of the order of sale then entered, the assignee, on the 25th day of August, 1879, again offered said real estate for sale at public auction, and this defendant (appellant) well'knowing of all the facts and proceedings heretofore mentioned, relying upon the fact that the judgment and decree in said injunction suit was in full force and unappealed from, and further relying upon the verity and eonclusiveness of the same as to the rights of said Eachel, purchased, and in good faith paid to the assignee the full value of said land, to wit, the sum of $4,600; and the sale having been duly confirmed, the assignee exe[5]*5cuted to him a deed for the land, which he still holds; wherefore he asks that his title be quieted, and for such other and further relief as he may be entitled to,” etc.

To this answer the appellee replied in substance, that on the 2d day of August, 1879, at the term at which the master’s report was filed, she filed a motion to modify the decree of the District Court in the cause; and afterwards, on the 31st day of October, 1879, and at the same term of the court, she filed her petition asking a rehearing and reargument of the action of the court in overruling her exceptions to the master’s report, and thereupon the court granted her a rehearing ; that afterwards, on the 23d day of December, A. D. 1879, the court overruled her exceptions to the report and or-' dered that the master’s report stand as the final order and decree of the court, saving her right to appeal; and she thereupon at the time excepted to the action of the court and prayed an appeal to the Circuit Court of the United States, which was thereupon duly granted and perfected on the 26th day of December, and afterwards, on the 30th day of March, 1880, the cause coming on for hearing in the circuit court, that court rendered the following judgment, to wit:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
86 Ind. 1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/keck-v-noble-ind-1882.