Madeira's Heirs v. Hopkins

51 Ky. 595, 12 B. Mon. 595, 1851 Ky. LEXIS 116
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedJanuary 7, 1851
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 51 Ky. 595 (Madeira's Heirs v. Hopkins) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Madeira's Heirs v. Hopkins, 51 Ky. 595, 12 B. Mon. 595, 1851 Ky. LEXIS 116 (Ky. Ct. App. 1851).

Opinion

Judge IIise

delivered the opinion oí the Court;

J.VC03 Madeira was the owner of a number of town lots in Covington, including those designated in the plan of the town by the numbers 234, 235, 236, and 237, situate between Sanford and Greenup streets, and north of Fifth street:'he also owned the ground lying between Greenup street and Sanford street extended, and- having Ffth street on the north, and the town boundary on the south. In the latter part of the year' 1823 he died in the city of Cincinnati, leaving a wife- and three infant children-, to wit: George, Addison D., and Aston Madeira. George Madeira died shortly afterwards without issne.

Mary Medaira, the widow, E. S. Haines,-and O. M. Spencer, were appointed and qualified as administrators of Jacob Madeira’s estate in the city of Cincinnati, where they and the family of the deceased resided at' the time. O. M. Spencer did not long survive his appointment.

In May, 1831, William Hopkins filed his Bill in chancery in the Campbell Circuit Court against Addison, • George, and Aston Madeira as the heirs, and against Spencer and Haines as the administrators of-Jacob Madeira, deceased. Who were all charged to be nonresidents, and alleging in substance that he hád purchased from Madeira, in his lifetime, the lots and block of ground above described on the 15th of July, 1828,-for the sum of $600; $200 of which he charged was paid in cash at the date of the contract, and the bal-lance to be paid in six, twelve, and eighteen months, with [596]*596interest until paid, that Madeira then executed and de-bvered his bond to him, to convey the said lots which Hopkins professes to exhibit in the bill, (although no such bond is now produced, nor is it shown that any such was ever in fact lodged with the papers, or filed in the cause.) He alleges further, that of the ballance of the purchase money he paid to Jacob Madeira, deceased, on the 11th day of May, 1829, $106.50 for which Madeira gave a receipt in writing on the bond— that on the 5th December, 1828, he paid to Madeira’s administrator fifty dollars, as shown by his receipt on the bond, and that he paid also to the administrator on -day of-seventy-five dollars in a note on Thos. D. Carneal, that there was yet due of the purchase money $175 as claimed by the administrator, which he professes to tender in Court as being the balance of the purchase money, and interest due on the contract. On the same day this bill was filed, and at the same term an order of warning was entered, and publication thereof directed. But it does not appear that publication was ever actually made, or that there had been any service whatever, either actual or constructive, upon the heirs or administrators of Jacob Madeira, deceased, or either of them. Nevertheless, at the next ensuing term of the Court, on the 6th of August, 1829, a guardian ad litem was appointed to answer and defend for Madeira’s infant heirs, who forthwith, on the day of his appointment, filed their answer, in which they profess to be ignorant of the matter alleged, and claim that their rights and intérests may be protected by the Court, and thereupon at the same term, and on the same day, in the absence of any proof whatever to sustain the allegations of the bill, a decree is rendered which, after reciting that the cause was heard by consent, orders and decrees that “unless the defendants shall, on or before the 15th day of the present month of August, execute to the complainant, William Hopkins, a deed of conveyance, relinquishing all their right, title, and interest in and to the lots of land mentioned [597]*597and described in the complainants bill, thatin- that event Thomas N* Lindsey, who is hereby appointed commissioner for that purpose, convey, by proper deed of relinquishment, all the estate, right, title, and interest in and to the lots of land mentioned and described in complainant’s bill, and report, &c. And it is further ordered that upon the execution of the deed aforesaid, the Clerk of this Court pay over to the defendants, Haynes and Spencer, the administrators, the sum of money now in Court.”

Lindsey, the commissioner, by authority of this decree, executed a deed to Hopkins, dated 21stof August,. 1831, conveying to him all the right, title, and interest, of Aston, Addison D„ and George Madeira, as heirs of Jacob Madeira, deceased, in and to the lots numbered 234, 235, 23.6, and 237, but the commissioner omitted and failed to include in this deed the bfock of ground between the said lots and the town boundary.

This deed was reported by the commissioner at the October term of the Court in 1831, and ordered to be recorded. The omission to include the block of ground above named in the deed referred to, having been discovered, doubtless the same commissioner, after more than two years had elapsed, executed a second deed to Hopkins, dated the 4th November, 1833, including therein the block of ground, as well as the lots which had been previously conveyed, and on the same day reports this last named deed to the Court which, upon his acknowledgment, was ordered to be recorded.

Hopkins, about the time or shortly before he instituted this suit, took possession of the lots and the adjacent land, and continued in possession until he sold .the same in different lots and parcels to Thomas Green, John W. Clayton, .James Hopkins, and James M. Gaines, all of whom, (holding under the complainant, Hopkins, by executory contracts and deeds of conveyance,) .or their vendees, are now in possession of the said lots and block of ground since laid off into lots, and upon which considerable improvements have been [598]*598made. Wm. Hopkins doubtless apprehending that he had not secured the title by the proceedings begun and terminated in the Campbell Circuit Court, as above recited, after the county of Renton had been formed, so as to include the city of Covington, which before had been embraced in the. county of Campbell, on the 23th June, 18-48, files his bill in chancery, in the Kenton Circuit Court, against Addison D, and Aston Madeira as the heirs at law of Jacob Madeira, deceased, alledg-ing that they were non-residents, and that the title-bo nd of their ancestor (which he had professed to exhibit in his bill ol'ISbl,) lor the lots and block of ground in controversy liad been either mislaid or ¡improperly takeu out of the papers of the former suit, and had been lost, so that after dilligent. search and inquiry he was uot able to find it. He alledges that he had paid to Madeira, in his lifetime, and to his administrator since his death, and by the tender and deposit in Court, when his first suit was pending in the Campbell Circuit Court, $175 in cash, the whole of the purchase money due, and asks for a decree to establish the lost bond, for a surrender of the title of Madeira’s heirs, and for a conveyance of the property to him by them, or by a commissioner.

Second suit of Hopkins ns :lie 'heirs, i\c., and I-rjceetliugs Imd. ■Answer of A. D. Madeira made a .cross b. 11.

A. D. Madeira, no doubt, hearing of the institution of this suit, though a non-resident, without service of process, and having in the mean time attained the age of twenty-one years, answers the bill of Hopkins, denies the allegations of complainant made therein, sets up claim to the property as one of the heirs of Jacob Madeira, deceased, and by cross pleading demands to have the possession delivered to him and his brother, (who^also appeared and plead,) and that an account be taken of rents, and for general relief.

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Bluebook (online)
51 Ky. 595, 12 B. Mon. 595, 1851 Ky. LEXIS 116, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/madeiras-heirs-v-hopkins-kyctapp-1851.