Norton v. Brink

106 N.W. 668, 75 Neb. 566, 1906 Neb. LEXIS 417
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 18, 1906
DocketNo. 14,093
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 106 N.W. 668 (Norton v. Brink) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Norton v. Brink, 106 N.W. 668, 75 Neb. 566, 1906 Neb. LEXIS 417 (Neb. 1906).

Opinions

Duffie, C.

The petition in this case alleges that the plaintiff, who was engaged in the real estate business, and one C. D. Brink, father of the defendant, and who deceased prior to the commencement of this action, entered into a parol agreement of partnership for the purpose of purchasing a certain half section of land in Buffalo county; that Brink was to pay the purchase money and take title in his own name, the plaintiff to reimburse him for one-half the [567]*567purchase price and 6 per. cent, interest thereon upon demand; that the purpose of said partnership was to purchase said land and share in the profits arising from the use and subsequent sale thereof; that soon after purchasing it Brink died, and the defendant, as his sole heir, sold said premises and refused to account for her share of the profits due her under said partnership agreement. The defense is, in substance, the statute of frauds, and the further plea of former adjudication arising out of the filing by the plaintiff of a claim against the estate of C. D. Brink, said claim being based on her alleged right to a share of the profits.

The plea of former adjudication inay be briefly disposed of.- After the death of C. D. Brink the plaintiff filed a claim against his estate for her alleged share of profits on the sale of this land. Before any action was taken upon the claim, the probate judge was orally notified that plaintiff did not desire to press -the claim in the probate court, and to dismiss it. Judge Hollowell, on his examination, testified as follows relating to the disposition made of the claim: “I would say there never was any héaring on the merits upon it in any way. Mr. Dryden, as attorney, filed it, and later he said he would Avithdraw it or it could be dismissed. I don’t just know the language he used, but there having been a demurrer or objection filed to it, Avhy, to make it consistent, I thought I Avould make some order upon it, as the claim and the order is labeled there ‘Order on Claims,’ I just made that order dismissing or disallowing the claim. There never was any hearing.” It is quite evident from this testimony that no hearing upon the merits was had, and that AAdiat was done does not amount to an adjudication and does not constitute a bar to this action. The evidence is undisputed that C. D. Brink, deceased, purchased the east half of section 30, tOAvnship 10 of range 15, for $4,000 from one Tomlison, through Warren Pratt, a land agent at Kearney. Pratt dealt Avith C. D. Brink alone. Mrs. Norton had no part in the negotiations for the purchase. She Avas not mentioned [568]*568in connection with the deal. Deceased paid for the land out of his own funds by a check drawn on the City National Bank, and obtained a deed from the owner. He died seized of the land, and the defendant, Jay H. Brink, as his sole heir at law, subsequently sold it for $6,400, less commission. There is no contract in writing, no memoranda or agreement of any kind relating to a partnership between them or to the purchase of this land on partnership account. It is true that this action being against the representative of a deceased person, Mrs. Norton was, under the provisions of section 329 of the code, incompetent as a witness to give full evidence in the case, and the court, upon the trial, rigidly enforced the provisions of the statute against her testifying to any transaction or conversation had between her and the deceased. To the extent that she was disqualified from relating what occurred between her and the deceased regarding any agreement between them, she was placed at a disadvantage, and had to rely entirely upon the evidence of third parties having no direct interest in the controversy. ' This is a disadvantage which the court cannot remedy or relieve, and her case must stand or fall, judged alone by the evidence which the law makes competent. If this evidence can be said to fairly and fully establish a partnership between the plaintiff and the decedent Avith reference to the purchase of this land, we have little doubt of her right to recover in this action, as the plea of the statute of frauds, as against an action brought, not for an interest in the land itself, but for her share of the profits arising from its purchase and sale, Avould have little force under the law, as we understand it. Even those courts which have held most strictly to the rule that a partnership agreement for dealing in lands must be evidenced by writing, when one of the partners seeks to assert an interest in land, the title to which rests in the other partner, have practically all agreed that a verbal contract, contemplating dealing in lands and within the statute of frauds, while executory, will be enforced where the terms under the agreement have [569]*569been completely executed before the commencement of the action. In the application of the statute of frauds the courts are now practically unanimous in recognizing a distinction in cases where a contract, void by the statute, has been fully executed, and one party seeks to retain the fruits of the dealing in defiance of his promise, and an action to enforce the agreement before full execution. Such an action is declared not to be within the purpose of the statute and not sheltered by its terms, and it has been held in a large number of decided cases that, where the parties have fully executed all parts of their agreement relating to or affecting interests in land, so that the courts are not asked to enforce anything with reference to the land itself, the rights and duties of the parties resulting from their dealings may be enforced, and each of them prevented from using that statute, not as a protection against, but as an effective means of, fraud. Rice v. Roberts, 24 Wis. 461; Niland v. Murphy, 73 Wis. 326; Pireaux v. Simon, 79 Wis. 392; Trowbridge v. Wetherbee, 11 Allen (Mass.), 361; Bowen v. Bell, 20 Johns. (N. Y.), *338; Negley v. Jeffers, 28 Ohio St. 90; Bibb v. Allen, 149 U. S. 481; Smith v. Putnam, 107 Wis. 155. The author of the notes to Bates v. Babcock, 16 L. R. A. 745 (95 Cal. 479), says in relation to the subject under discussion: “There is very little real conflict in the decisions upon this question. There are two lines of authorities each fairly consistent with itself and radically opposed to the other, which fact is caused, not by any conflict in principle, but by the different ends sought by the litigants. As a rule parol contracts for such partnerships are held valid, and all suits recognizing the existence of the partnership and seeking relief which may be legitimately sought by a partner are upheld, while on the other hand parol contracts for an interest in land are ignored, and suits brought to enforce them dismissed, although they may constitute a part of a partnership agreement.”

As we view the case, the plaintiff’s right of recovery depends entirely upon whether a partnership existed between [570]*570her and the decedent relating to this land. That no general partnership existed between them is conceded, and, if a partnership did exist, it went no further than a joint adventure in the purchase of this particular tract. The universal rule is that, where the question of partnership arises in a contest between' partners and the interests of no third persons are involved, much stronger proof is required to establish it than when the question arises between the alleged partners and third persons. Field v. Tenney, 47 N. H. 513; Smith v. Walker, 57 Mich. 456; Breckenridge’s Appeal, 127 Pa. St. 81.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
106 N.W. 668, 75 Neb. 566, 1906 Neb. LEXIS 417, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/norton-v-brink-neb-1906.