Morris v. Shannon

75 Ky. 89, 12 Bush 89, 1876 Ky. LEXIS 37
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedMarch 31, 1876
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 75 Ky. 89 (Morris v. Shannon) 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
Morris v. Shannon, 75 Ky. 89, 12 Bush 89, 1876 Ky. LEXIS 37 (Ky. Ct. App. 1876).

Opinion

CHIEF JUSTICE PETERS

delivered the opinion oe the court.

Albert Morris being the owner in fee of a tract of one hundred and thirty acres of land situate in Bourbon County, on the 17th of February, 1830, conveyed it to John Morris during his life, and at his death to Morris Henry Morris and Sally Ann Morris, children of the said John Morris and Elizabeth, his wife; but if said children should not live till the death of said John Morris, nor leave lawful heirs, in that event, at the death of said John Morris, the land was to go to the children of the said Elizabeth Morris by her first husband, John Payne.

Mrs. Elizabeth Morris died in 1830, and shortly thereafter her daughter, Sally Ann Morris, died in infancy, and without issue, leaving her father and brother, Morris H. Morris, surviving her.

In July, 1849, John Morris and Morris H. Morris contracted to sell said land to Perry W. Morris, and executed their joint bond to him in the penal sum of $13,000, binding themselves to put said Perry "W. Morris in possession of the land on the 1st day of November, 1849, and to convey it to him on the 1st of March, 1851, when Perry ~W. Morris was to pay them $2,166.66; the said John Morris binding himself to convey to Perry W. Morris all the right and interest he held in and to said land by virtue of the deed to himself and others from Albert Morris, bearing date 17th day of February, 1830, and the said John to be no further bound; and [92]*92Mox-ris Henry Morris binding himself to make to Perry W. Morris a, good and sufficient title to said land when he shall have made the second payment therefor.

Before any conveyance was made of the land to Perry W. Morris his equitable interest in it was attached by his creditors in suits in the Bourbon Circuit Court. Pending these attaching suits Perry W. Morris died, and they were revived against Eliza Morris, his only child and heir, and progressed to final hearing, when it was adjudged that all the interest of Eliza Morris, heir at law of Perry W. Morris, in the tract of land derived by title bond from John and Morris H. Morris, filed in said suits, and the interest of Morris H. Morris derived from the deed of Albert Morris, referred to in said bond, be sold for the payment of the debts set out in the judgment, and for which Morris H. Morris was also bound.

The land was sold by virtue of said judgment, and Charles B. Colcord purchased it at the price of $52.01 per acre.

Several years thereafter John Morris undertook to convey a part of said land to Mary Morris, wife of Morris H. Morris, in the following words (omitting the formal part of the deed): That the said John Morris, for the consideration of $1 to him paid in hand by the said Mary, and for the further consideration of love and affection for his said daughter-in-law Mary, has granted and sold, and does hereby grant, sell, and convey to said Mary Morris, all the right, title, and claim of the said John Morris, after the death of the said John Morris, in and to the one half of a certain tract of land in Bourbon County, on what is called Cane Eidge, containing one hundred and thirty acres, adjoining the lands now occupied by W. E. Col-cord, ~Wm. Buckner, James Erakes, John Frakes, and Andrew Skillman, being the same tract which was attached as the property of Perry W. Morris in suits in the Bourbon Circuit Court in the name of James Horton and Charles B. Colcord against said Perry W. Morris’s adm’r and others, and the [93]*93right of said Perry W. Morris’s heirs and representatives was sold by a commissioner to said Charles B. Colcord; which undivided half of said one hundred and thirty acres of land was derived by descent to said John Morris as heir at law of his infant child, Sarah Ann Morris; the said John having a life-estate therein, which was sold to said Perry W. Morris; the said John owning the said life-estate as tenant by the curtesy. But it is understood that said John Morris is not to be liable in any way if the said .undivided part of said land is not recovered or held by this conveyance.

That deed bears date the 15th day of October, 1860, was not acknowledged, as the clerk certifies, until the 27th of February, 1862; and by a second certificate the clerk declares that it was produced to him for record on the 15th of August, 1864, and was then recorded.

This suit was originally brought by the children of Mrs. Elizabeth Morris by her first husband, John Payne, to recover the moiety of the land conveyed by Albert Morris, to John Morris for life, remainder to Morris H. Morris and Sally Ann Morris.

To that suit Mary Morris filed her answer and cross-petition, claiming the one half of said land under said deed of John Morris to her, alleging that, by the provisions and covenants of said deed, she is the owner, and entitled to the one undivided half of said land (the said John Morris then being dead) and the rents and profits arising therefrom since the death of said John Morris, which she avers occurred on the day of 1870. She charges that the land is in the possession of Thomas Shannon and Andrew Skillman, and that they have no title thereto, legal or equitable. She made her answer a cross-petition against' them, prays for judgment for the one half of the land, for partition thereof, and the rents and profits since the death of John Morris, and for general relief.

[94]*94Skillman and Shannon, in their answer to Mary Morris’s cross-petition, controvert her right to the land, and set out their derivation of title as purchasers for a full and valuable consideration, through several conveyances back to Charles B. Colcord, claiming the fee-simple title.

And in an amended answer, after setting out the executory contract for the sale of the land by John Morris and Morris H. Morris to Perry W. Morris, and the judicial sale thereof subsequently made under the judgment rendered in the consolidated cases of McClintock and others v. Perry W. Morris and others, at which Charles B. Colcord purchased the land, as heretofore stated, and tracing their derivation of title to Charles B. Colcord, the purchaser of the land at the judicial sale, they charge that John Morris and Mary Morris are estopped from denying that Perry W. Morris was vested with a complete equitable title to the whole and every part of the tract of land embraced in and attempted to be sold by said contract; and aver that if it be true, as claimed by Mary Morris, that John Morris then owned an undivided half of said land in fee-simple, that, by the contract with Perry W. Morris, he sold to him that right and bound himself to convey the same to him, and that he and Mary Morris, his privy, are estopped from setting up any claim to the land hostile to those holding under Perry ~W. Morris, deceased, and in privity to him.

F. P. Colcord also .answered the cross-petition of Mrs. Mary Morris; and, after giving the history in detail of the several conveyances, from the judicial sale to C. B. Colcord down to the tenants now in possession, he being himself one of the intermediate vendors, and reciting the consideration for each conveyance, he alleges that Mary Morris claims by gift or voluntary conveyance from John Morris, her father-in-law, who united with his son, Morris H. Morris, in the sale to Perry W. Morris, and was a party with said Perry W. and [95]*95Morris H.

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Bluebook (online)
75 Ky. 89, 12 Bush 89, 1876 Ky. LEXIS 37, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/morris-v-shannon-kyctapp-1876.