Moss v. Ardrey

169 S.W. 6, 260 Mo. 595, 1914 Mo. LEXIS 133
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJuly 14, 1914
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 169 S.W. 6 (Moss v. Ardrey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Moss v. Ardrey, 169 S.W. 6, 260 Mo. 595, 1914 Mo. LEXIS 133 (Mo. 1914).

Opinion

GRAVES, J.

— The petition in this case is in two counts. By the first count the plaintiff Elzena Moss seeks to set aside for fraud and undue influence a certain deed executed by her and others to her father, conveying the land.in dispute. This count, in addition, asks that the court ascertain and determine the title of the several parties in and to the lands. The second count is an action for the partition of the land. The case is fully stated by the trial court in a finding of facts incorporated with its judgment. Many of these findings of facts stand admitted in the briefs, but where there is dispute such dispute can be considered in the course of the opinion. The findings nisi will serve well for a statement of the case. Such findings are as follows:

“The court finds, under count number one, that Noah Turley died intestate about the year 1859, leaving surviving him his widow, Christiana Turley, and their only child, Charity C. Turley, and seized in fee of tbe following described lands, to-wit [lands in controversy described]; that at the death of said Noah Turley all of said lands descended to said Charity Turley, subject to 'the dower right therein of her [598]*598mother, the said widow of said Noah Turley, deceased; that thereafter there was duly assigned and set out to said widow, Christiana Turley, as and for her dower in said lands, sixty-three acres thereof; that after the death of Noah Turley his said widow married one Benjamin Milam; that in the year 1870 or 1871, said Charity C. Turley married one William C. Ardrey; that thereafter in the year 1873 the said Christiana Milam and .Benjamin R. Milam, her husband, by their general warranty deed of date March 20, 1873, and duly acknowledged by .the grantors in said deed and duly filed for record, June 2, 1891, in the office of the recorder of deeds in and for Pike county, Missouri, granted and conveyed to the said Charity C. Ardrey all of said sixty-three-acre tract; that by reason of such conveyance the said dower interest in said sixty-three-acre tract and the said remainder interest therein of the said Charity C. Ardrey merged, and she became and was the owner in fee of both the said sixty-three-acre tract and the seventy-three-acre tract, constituting together said 136-acre tract; there were born to said William G. Ardrey and Charity C. Ardrey his wife, four children, James T. Ardrey, Evelene Ardrey, Elzena Ardrey and William S. Ardrey; that Sophia Ardrey, a defendant herein, is the wife of said James T. Ardrey; that Nora Ardrey, a defendant here, is the wife of William S. Ardrey; that said Evelena Ardrey married George Burch, a defendant herein; that said Elzena Ardrey married .one Charles Liter, from whom on the - day of May, 1907, she was lawfully divorced; that thereafter and prior to the death of her father, the said Elzena Liter married and is now the wife of Joseph Moss, her co-plaintiff herein; that in the year 1884, said Charity C. Ardrey died intestate, leaving surviving her widower, the said William G. Ardrey, and the said four children born to the said William G. Ardrey and his wife Charity C. as afbresaid; that [599]*599after the death of their mother, the said children by means not clearly appearing in the evidence, sought to dispossess their' father of said lands, which by reason of the death of their mother had descended to said four children as tenants in common subject to their father’s curtesy estate therein. Failing, in their attempt to dispossess the said William G. Ardrey, the said heirs sought either to buy the interest of their father in said lands or sell their interest therein to him. Several propositions tending to that result were made by the respective parties; and thereafter on the 27th day of September, 1901, by their quitclaim deed of that date, the said James T. Ardrey and his wife Sophia, Evelena Burch and George Burch her husband, Elzena Liter and her then husband, Charles Liter, William S. Ardrey, and his said wife Nora, remised, released and quitclaimed to the said William G. Ardrey and his then wife, Margaret V. Ardrey, for the expressed consideration in said deed of the sum of $1300, all of said 136-acre tract; that of said consideration the sum of $325 was in fact paid to each of said four heirs of Charity C. Ardrey, deceased; that after the death of Charity C. Ardrey and prior to the execution of said mentioned deed, said William G. Ardrey married Margaret V., who as the surviving widow of said William G., is one of the defendants herein; that on the 3-lst day of December, 1901, said quitclaim deed was duly acknowledged by all of the grantors therein and was duly recorded in the office of the recorder of deeds; that at the date of the execution by them of said quitclaim deed, each of the four children of William G. Ardrey was of age, married and not living with their father, and each of them had a separate home and domestic establishment; that they sold their said interest in said lands with full knowledge of the interest their father had in the same, having previously consulted a lawyer and bv him been informed as to the nature [600]*600and extent of such interest; that in the matter of the execution of said deed, the said William G. Ardrey did not exercise any influence over his children, nor ' were their interests in said lands sacrificed, nor did they suffer any loss by reason of such conveyance. On the contrary, they received a fair and full consideration for the interest they conveyed; their father then being fifty-six years of age, and the value of tho courtesy estate being in excess of the value of the remainder interest; and said lands were at the date of said quitclaim deed not worth over ten dollars per acre; the said transaction was characterized by fairness and was without any fraud or semblance thereof on the part of the said William G. Ardrey.
“The court further finds that of said consideration paid to said heirs for said lands, six-thirteenths , thereof, to-wit, the sum $600, the separate money and ' means of said Margaret V. Ardrey, was by her said husband, he having the same in possession at the time, paid to said heirs as part of the purchase price and not with the written consent of the said Margaret V. Ardrey.
“The fact of such payment was testified to by the defendant, Margaret V. Ardrey, as a witness in the case, testifying therein in behalf of plaintiffs and was conceded by counsel for defendants in their briefs furnished the court. The fact of such payment prevented said quitclaim deed from' creating an estate by the entirety in said William G. Ardrey and his wife. If after such conveyance Margaret Y. Ardrey had died before her husband, it clearly appears that neither he nor his heirs after him could be heard to claim that he took the entire estate as surviving tenant by the entirety. If it were' such estate as to one, it was as to the other. It would be an estate by the entirety as to both, or as to neither. The court finds and declares as a proposition of law that under and by virtue of said quitclaim deed, the grantees [601]*601therein took title in and to said lands as. tenants in common; the said William G. Ardrey thereby becoming the owner in fee of an undivided seven-thirteenths interest in said 136-acre tract; and his wife'Margaret V. Ardrey thereby becoming the owner of an undivided six-thirteenths interest in said 136-acre tract, subject to the said courtesy estate therein of the said William Gr. Ardrey.”

The court further finds, that there were born to the said William G. Ardrey and his wife Margaret V., two children, defendants herein, viz., Pansy L.

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

Related

Stouse v. Stouse
270 S.W.2d 822 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1954)
STONE, CHAIRMAN v. Sample
62 So. 2d 307 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1953)
Herzog v. Ross
213 S.W.2d 921 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1948)
Thrift Realty Co. v. Commissioner
29 B.T.A. 545 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1933)
Wilhite v. Wilhite
224 S.W. 448 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1920)
Funk v. Funk
223 S.W. 780 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1920)
Crump v. Hart
176 S.W. 1089 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1915)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
169 S.W. 6, 260 Mo. 595, 1914 Mo. LEXIS 133, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moss-v-ardrey-mo-1914.