Management, Inc. v. Crosby

186 So. 2d 466, 1966 Miss. LEXIS 1313
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMay 16, 1966
DocketNo. 43940
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 186 So. 2d 466 (Management, Inc. v. Crosby) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Management, Inc. v. Crosby, 186 So. 2d 466, 1966 Miss. LEXIS 1313 (Mich. 1966).

Opinion

PATTERSON, Justice:

This is an interlocutory appeal from the Chancery Court of Washington County. The suit is for judicial construction of the terms of a contract, for specific performance thereof, and for an accounting as to the receipt and disbursement of monies received by the defendants.

The complainant is the predecessor in title to the lands now used and operated as a perpetual care cemetery. This suit stems from the rights retained by the complainant at the time the lands were sold for cemetery [467]*467purposes. The defendants are: Management, Inc., a perpetual care cemetery corporation, with its domicile and principal place of business in Washington County, Steve Ragland, individually, a resident of Washington County, Novell J. Brickell, Davis S. Gilleylen, and Glen E. Gilleylen, all nonresidents of the state. The suit is also against Management, Inc. and Steve Ragland as resident defendant garnishees, having, as it is alleged, in their possession, property belonging to the nonresident defendants, which complainant seeks to attach.

Management, Inc., Ragland, and Brickell in their answer denied the rights asserted by the complainant, and Management, Inc. and Ragland filed a cross bill praying cancellation of any right of complainant as a cloud upon their title to the perpetual care cemetery. The cross bill specifically alleges, among other things, that the provisions of the covenants within the deed of trust, as well as a letter agreement of March 9, 1960, are void as a restraint upon alienation and unenforceable as neither was supported by lawful consideration. The Gilleylens filed no answer.

After hearing, an interlocutory decree was entered on June 5, 1965, finding the Gilleylens to be nonresident defaulting defendants with property effects in this state under the control of Ragland and Management, Inc., and this property was seized by chancery attachment. This decree also overruled defendant’s motion to exclude certain evidence, and reopened the case for further hearing on June 28, 1965. On this date the defendants, without further testimony, rested their case. The court, disregarding the motion of the complainant for special findings of fact and separate conclusions of law, then entered a decree referring the cause to a master for an accounting between the parties. From this decree Management, Inc., Ragland, and Brickell obtained leave of court for this interlocutory appeal to settle the controlling legal principles of the case.

The appellant argues on this appeal virtually the same points of law raised by complainant’s motion for specific findings of fact and conclusions of law. We are thus requested to determine issues which the trial court has not ruled upon. For this reason we are of the opinion that the appeal was improvidently granted and that it is our duty as an appellate court to raise the point as it involves jurisdiction. Farrar v. Phares, 232 Miss. 391, 99 So.2d 594 (1958).

We are reluctant to postpone a hearing of the cause, as we feel that delay seldom promotes justice, and interlocutory appeals, with rare exception, countenance delay without compensating advantages. Griffith, Mississippi Chancery Practice § 682 at 755 (2d ed. 1950). However, the posture of this case is such that we must do so. As illustrative of this point, we quote in full complainant’s motion, as well as the points argued by appellants on this appeal.

MOTION FOR SPECIAL FINDING OF FACTS AND SEPARATE CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

Comes Now HENRY T. CROSBY, Complainant in the above styled and numbered cause, by his Solicitors of record herein, and, pursuant to Section 1390, Mississippi Code of 1942, Recompiled, moves the Court in this cause for the making of special findings of fact and separate conclusions of law thereon, with respect to the following issues:

(1) What was the real or actual purchase price and consideration for which Complainant sold the fifteen acres of land in question to Greenlawn Memorial Gardens, a corporation, on or about July 9, 1952?

(2) How was said purchase price to be paid?

(3) Did Defendants Ragland, Brickell, and Management, Inc., at the time of their purchase of the cemetery property in March, 1960, have knowledge of the obligations im> posed upon the cemetery property by the aforesaid Deed of Trust?

[468]*468(4) When Ragland and Brickell purchased the cemetery property from the Gilleylens, and when Management, Inc., purchased same from Ragland and Brickell, did each of said purchasers, as a matter of law, take subject to the covenants of said Deed of Trust and assume the obligations contained therein?

(5) Was Complainant’s promise to forebear enforcing said covenants against Rag-land and Brickell as to amounts due by the Gilleylens thereunder and delinquent as of March 9, 1960, adequate and lawful consideration for the agreement dated March 9, 1960, signed by Complainant and by Rag-land and Brickell?

(6) Did said written agreement dated March 9, 1960, as a matter of law, put Rag-land and Brickell on notice of the terms and provisions of said Deed of Trust referred to therein?

(7) Is Management, Inc., as a matter of law, charged with notice of the provisions of said Deed of Trust to the same extent that Ragland and Brickell, its shareholders, directors, officers and managing agents are charged with notice of same?

(8) Does the language of the covenants contained in the aforesaid Deed of Trust, “6% of the gross sale of burial lots and * * * memorial markers and such accessories to such markers,” by intention of the parties and as a matter of law, include six percent (6%) of amounts collected from lot customers for perpetual care deposits, “service charges” and amounts paid the cemetery by customers who later default and allow lots purchased to revert to the cemetery ?

(9) Under the covenants contained in said Deed of Trust, how often must Defendant Management, Inc., remit required payments to Complainant, and exactly what information must said Defendant set out and disclose by the statements or account-ings required to accompany such payments?

(10) Has there ever been any foreclosure of the Deed of Trust in favor of Complainant dated July 9, 1952, recorded in Book 488, page 403 of the Land Records of Washington County, Mississippi, covering the ten-acre tract of land in question?

(11) Is this action barred as to Defendants Ragland and Management, Inc., by the limitation period contained in Section 720 of the Mississippi Code of 1942, Recompiled?

(12) Are the covenants and conditions contained in said Deed of Trust void as restraints on alienation?

(13) Is Complainant entitled to a full accounting from Defendants covering the period from July 9, 1952 to date?

POINTS ARGUED BY APPELLANTS ON APPEAL

POINT 1.

The deed from Greenlawn Memorial Gardens to the Gilleylens was a general warranty deed conveying the lands to the Gil-leylens but the Gilleylens did not assume the indebtedness secured by the deed of trust and did not become personally liable for the payment of the debt secured by same and the trial court committed reversible error in not so holding.

POINT 2.

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

Related

Wolgin v. Experian Information Solutions, Inc.
101 So. 3d 1160 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 2012)
Beckwith v. State
615 So. 2d 1134 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1992)
City of Mound Bayou v. Johnson
562 So. 2d 1212 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1990)
Southern Farm Bureau Cas. Ins. v. Holland
469 So. 2d 55 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1984)
Nelson v. Ethridge
271 So. 2d 730 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1973)
Management, Inc. v. Crosby
197 So. 2d 247 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1967)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
186 So. 2d 466, 1966 Miss. LEXIS 1313, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/management-inc-v-crosby-miss-1966.