Keller v. Kunkel

46 Md. 565, 1877 Md. LEXIS 69
CourtCourt of Appeals of Maryland
DecidedJune 13, 1877
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 46 Md. 565 (Keller v. Kunkel) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Keller v. Kunkel, 46 Md. 565, 1877 Md. LEXIS 69 (Md. 1877).

Opinion

Bowie, J.,

delivered the opinion of the Court.

The appellant filed his hill of complaint in the Circuit Court for Frederick County, Md., sitting in equity, against the appellee, to compel him to account for certain moneys alleged to have been collected and received for the appellant’s use, and to execute and deliver to appellant a deed for certain real estate, purchased by appellant (and paid for by him with money borrowed of the appellee,) and conveyed to said appellee in secret trust for appellant. The allegations of the hill, as far as they relate to the questions raised by this appeal, are substantially as follows :

About the 22d of October 1864, William C. Hoffman and others, as trustees, sold at auction, a parcel of land lying in Frederick County, described in complainant’s Exhibit A, for the sum of $580, to the complainant, who not having the ready money to pay for the same, agreed with the appellee, “if he would advance the same for the appellant, the appellant would deliver the appellee sundry collateral securities thereinafter specifically set forth, as an indemnity for such advance, and that the appellant would procure the conveyance of the land to he made to the appellee, to he held by him until the advance should he repaid, or the amount realized from said collateral securities, by the appellee; in pursuance of said agreement, and to prevent appellant’s wife (with whom he was then on had terms) from acquiring a potential right of dower in the premises, a deed of conveyance was made by the said Hoffman and others, to the appellee, of said land on the 26th of October 1864, which is duly recorded ; the appellee furnished the purchase money, and the appellant ■thereupon delivered to him the securities as indemnity therefor, with full power by endorsements and assign[567]*567ments to collect the same.” On payment hy the appellant to the appellee, er the realization of the same, hy the latter, from the security, it was agreed that the latter should convey to the former the premises described in Exhibit A.

The bill charged a similar agreement between the appellant and appellee, in respect to an undivided interest in a tract of land described in Exhibit B, in payment for which the appellee advanced $400, and agreed to convey the same to appellant upon payment of the same; but afterwards sold the same at a great advance, and retained the proceeds.

The hill cha’rged that the appellee had collected large sums from the collateral securities endorsed and assigned to him, whereby he was fully reimbursed the sums loaned to him, and prayed relief as above. The appellee, by his answer, denied the truth of the charges contained in the hill, as therein charged, but averred that whilst he purchased the two premises mentioned in the hill, to all intents and purposes, as his own property, he was willing to sell and convey the same to appellant, on payment of the amount of the purchase money, which appellee had paid therefor, with interest from the date of purchase, and that after he became purchaser he endeavored to aid the appellant in raising the purchase money which he was to pay the respondent; he denied the endorsement and assignment of the securities as indemnity on collateral security, or any agreement to accept them as such, or any agreement to convey the premises described in Exhibit A, as alleged, etc.

The appellee averred that the appellant never in fact paid one dollar on account of said purchase money; and that all the understandings and arrangements were by parol, and failed of execution because of the failure of the appellant to execute the same on his part, and to pay the purchase money, and he is advised that all the arrange[568]*568ments, etc., were absolutely without effect in law and equity, and the appellee also relied on the Statute of Limitations.

To the defendant’s answer a general replication was filed. Evidence was taken under commission duly issued, executed and returned, in support of the bill and answer. Exceptions were filed to portions of the evidence on each side.

After argument, the Court below decreed the complainant’s bill should be dismissed, with costs. The grounds of the Court’s decision, as indicated by its opinion, and which are relied on by the appellee for its affirmance, are, 1st. That the averments of the bill do not show a resulting trust, which arises where one person buys an estate, and pays the purchase money, but takes the deed in the name of another person, then the trust results by construction in favor of the person who paid the money.

“The agreements, or facts relied on in this case, are not manifested or proved by any writing, but rests wholly on parol. They set out a trust (or as the books call it, a conventional trust) in relation to lands, and being denied by the answer, the complainant alleging the agreement, must, to sustain it, produce such proof as will satisfy the requirements of the Statue of Frauds.”

The bill and all the testimony in this case, (even if admissible) show only a parol agreement, between parties in relation to lands, and tend to create a trust in relation thereto. This cannot be shown by parol evidence, because it would be contrary to the 7th section of the Statute of Frauds and Perjuries, which provides that “ all declarations or creation of trust and confidence of any lands, etc., shall be manifested and proved by some writing by the party who is by law enabled to declare such trust.”

In other words, the complainant’s bill does not show a case of a trust arising by operation of law, otherwise called a “resulting trust,” but it does show in connection [569]*569with the testimony, a verbal agreement in relation to lands, tending to create a trust in relation thereto, contrary to the 7th section of the Statute of Frauds.

There is no question as to the correctness of the general principles announced by the Court below, as governing trusts arising from operation of law, known as resulting trusts,” and trusts arising from the agreement of the parties, known as conventional trusts.” The Court below, in their opinion above cited, admit the distinction, and the appellants concede it, but they contend that the allegations of the hill clearly constitute a case of resulting trust, and the evidence as clearly establishes the case made by the bill.

It is of the first importance, therefore, to determine to which of these classes the case made by the hill belongs, as the competency, as well as sufficiency of the testimony, to maintain the allegations will be governed by the result.

The Court below have very correctly defined a resulting trust to be that which arises where one person buys an estate and pays the purchase money, but takes the deed in the name of another person, then a trust results, by construction, in favor of the person who pays the money.”

The same definition is substantially given in Hays vs. Hollis, 8 Gill, 357 ; 1 Md. Ch. Dec., 479 ; McElderry vs. Shipley, et al., 2 Md., 36, 37.

Divested of all superfluous words, the bill charges that the appellant bought of a certain William O. Hoffman and others, as trustees, at public auction, a tract of land at and for the sum of $580 ; that, not having the money to pay for it, he borrowed the amount of the appellee upon certain collateral security ; which, having been paid by appellee, or advanced for him, he caused the deed, for certain other considerations, to be made to the appellee instead of himself.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Spinoso v. Heilman (In Re Heilman)
241 B.R. 137 (D. Maryland, 1999)
Levin v. Levin
405 A.2d 770 (Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, 1979)
Schwarz v. United States
191 F.2d 618 (Fourth Circuit, 1951)
Ottaviano v. Lorenzo
179 A. 530 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 1935)
Vogel v. Vogel
145 A. 370 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 1929)
Rosenthal v. Miller
129 A. 28 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 1925)
Jackson v. Jackson
104 S.E. 236 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1920)
Shelton v. Harrison
167 S.W. 634 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1914)
Euler v. Schroeder
76 A. 164 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 1910)
Shaffer v. Cowden
41 A. 786 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 1898)
Smithsonian Institution v. Meech
169 U.S. 398 (Supreme Court, 1898)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
46 Md. 565, 1877 Md. LEXIS 69, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/keller-v-kunkel-md-1877.