Mowry v. Davenport

74 Tenn. 80
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 15, 1880
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 74 Tenn. 80 (Mowry v. Davenport) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mowry v. Davenport, 74 Tenn. 80 (Tenn. 1880).

Opinion

Cooper, J.,

delivered the opinion of the - court.

A number of cases pending in the chancery court • at Winchester were heard together on the 1st of July, 1879,' and one decree rendered disposing of all of them ■on the merits. From this decree Samuel Mowry, who was the complainant in one of the suits to which ■all the other parties were defendants and the principal •defendant in the other suits, prayed an appeal, and it was granted upon his giving bond with security within .a given time as required by law. Finding himself unable to give the bond demanded by the clerk, Mowry took the oath prescribed for poor persons. The form in which the appeal was granted was, however, not changed, and the oath was treated as insufficient to perfect the appeal: Henly v. Claiborne, 1 Lea, 224. Mowry then presented his petition to one ■of the judges of this court, asking for writs of error • and supersedeas. The judge directed the clerk, upon [83]*83'the petitioner giving bond with security as required by law or otherwise complying with the law, to issue writs of error and supersedeas as prayed, “said writs ’not to include the amount decreed to L. M. Coover ■ or Marks & Fitzpatrick.” The petitioner took the oath 'prescribed for poor persons before the clerk, the record was filed, and a writ of supersedeas issued, superseding ’ the execution of the decree as to all the parties except ' the three named. The case has been submitted upon a motion of the appellees to dismiss the writ of error and discharge the supersedeas, and, if the motion should not be sustained, by consent of parties for hearing on the merits.

The motion to dismiss is rested upon the want of notice of the application, and the failure of the petition to point out any error in the decree below. A writ of error is in the nature of a new suit, and may be obtained, as of right, by any person entitled to it without notice of the application: Spurgin v. Spurgin, 3 Head, 23; Caldwell v. Hodsden, 1 Lea, 305; Code, secs. 3183, 4515. The writ of error in this case was within the time allowed by law, and the pauper oath could not be refused: Morris v. Smith, 11 Hum., 134. The motion to dismiss the writ of error is therefore not well taken.

To sustain a supersedeas ordered by one of the .judges of this court under the Code, sec. 3178, notice to the “ adverse party ” of the application has been held to be necessary under the Code, . sec. 3133: Campbell v. Boulton, 3 Baxt., 354. The “adverse parties in this case would be the parties in whose [84]*84favor judgments were rendered in the court below, and there apjaears, filed with the record, the necessary notice acknowledged by the solicitors, of the judgment creditors, or duly executed. The statute is, moreover, merely directory: Legale v. Ward, 5 Cold., 451. And the supersedeas might now be granted upon the appearance of the parties, if the plaintiff in error be entitled to it: Combs v. Vogeli, 7 Baxt., 271. The petition is only required by rule of court to guide the judge in the performance of his duty, and the super-sedeas if granted would be good without a petition. The petition does, however, point out the same errors as are relied on to reverse the decree, and must necessarily be considered in disposing of the case upon its merits.

On the 8th of February, 1870, L. E. Davenport,, by deed with covenant of general warranty, conveyed to Samuel Mowry in fee a large tract of land in. Franklin county, for the recited consideration of $40,-500, of which $25,000 were to be paid in a farm of 309 acres in Saline Township, Wayne county, State of Ohio, $5,000 in cash, and the residue secured by-notes of even date, one due 1 January, 1871, for $1,000, three due respectively on the same day of the next succeeding three years for $2,500 each, and the last due 1 January, 1875, for $2,000. At the time-of this sale, several suits for large amounts were pending against Davenport in the courts of the county, in which suits the land conveyed had been attached to. secure the recovery. The notes of Mowry were, by agreement between him and Davenport, deposited with. [85]*85Marks & Fitzpatrick, the counsel of Davenport in the 'pending suit, to be held as security for the payment ■ of their fees, and to indemnify Mowry against any liens which might exist on the land. Some of these suits were afterwards settled by Davenport, and others decided in his favor. Two of them, not thus settled • or determined, were not disposed of until after the filing of the attachment bills in this cause. One of these was a suit at law brought by Lethia M. Coover, and the other a suit in chancery brought by the McMinnville & Manchester Railroad Company, the first claiming $50,000 damages, and the other $25,000.

On March 24, 1870, Mowry and wife joined in a deed conveying to Davenport in fee,, with covenants of seizin and general warranty, the land in Wayne county, Ohio, received in the foregoing trade at $25,-000. This deed, after reciting that the consideration of this land' was the tract of land in Franklin county, conveyed by Davenport to Mowry by the deed of February 8, 1870, and that there were encumbrances on this latter tract, expressly provided that if Daven■port failed to remove “any of the said encumbrances which now exist,” then Mowry might advertize as required by the laws of Ohio, and sell for cash so much of the land as might be necessary to remove and discharge the encumbrance or encumbrances enforced upon said Franklin county land, and make a deed therefor.

On September 3, 1870, Davenport, by deed with covenants of general warranty, conveyed to Samuel Mowry certain lots in the town of Decherd, in Frank[86]*86lin county, Tennessee, for a full and valuable consideration in hand paid.” Five of these lots had previously, on August 2, 1870, been seized by the revenue collector of the United States, as the property of Davenport, for the income tax of Davenport for the year 1869, and were, on September 2, 1870, sold and formally conveyed to the United States for $640.62, the amount of taxes and costs. These lots were not redeemed either by Davenport or Mowry.

On February 21, 1871, Jos. A. Mabry, as a creditor of Davenport, filed his bill in the chancery court of Franklin county against Davenport as a non-resident of the State, and attached the notes of Mowry in the hands of Marks & Fitzpatrick as the property of Davenport, and sought to subject Mowry’s indebtedness to the satisfaction of his, Mabry’s, demand. In his answer to this bill, Mowry stated that early in February, 1870, Davenport sold to him in gross, for the consideration of $40,500 paid and to be paid as above set out, the land embraced in the deed of the 8th of February, 1870, with the crops, stock, farming implements, vehicles and household furniture thereon, and the lots in Decherd afterward conveyed by the deed of September 3, 1870. He also stated that Davenport had failed to deliver, and had carried off, in violation of the contract of sale, certain specified articles of persona] property, had fraudulently overestimated the number of stock and quantity of produce on the place, and his right to certain chattels subsequently claimed and taken away by third persons. The answer further mentioned the facts • touching the sale of the Decherd [87]*87lots by the United States, revenue collector. Upon-these facts, Mowry claimed that there had been a-failure of the consideration of his notes to the extent of the value of the personalty and lots thus lost.

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74 Tenn. 80, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mowry-v-davenport-tenn-1880.