Piper v. Hoard

65 How. Pr. 228
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 15, 1882
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 65 How. Pr. 228 (Piper v. Hoard) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Piper v. Hoard, 65 How. Pr. 228 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1882).

Opinion

Vann, J.

— The findings of the jury are adopted as the findings of the court. The only question that now remains to be considered is whether the statute of limitations is a defense to the action.

It is alleged in the amended answer that the cause of action set forth in the complaint did not accrue within the period of six years before the commencement of the action; and, also, by a separate answer, that said cause of action did not accrue within the period of ten years before the action was commenced.

The deed from Frederick Piper to the defendant was dated March 26, 1859, and was recorded September 20, 1859. The plaintiff was born on the 6th of February, 1860. The instrument providing for an arrangement and settlement of all differences and difficulties bears the date of October 11, 1860. Frederick died on the 9th of March, 1876. The plaintiff became twenty-one years of age on the 6th of February, 1881. This action was commenced on the 19th of February, 1881.

There was a period of sixteen years, therefore, during any part of which Frederick could have commenced an action for the same relief in substance that the plaintiff demands in her complaint.

That relief is purely equitable in its nature, for a court of equity alone has power to entertain actions to set aside or annul conveyances and agreements on the ground of fraud. Whatever right the plaintiff has to maintain this action came to her by inheritance from her father. She took such right of action in the precise condition that it was in when her father died. His death did not create the cause of action, nor [234]*234add to it, nor affect it, except that the right to commence suit upon it descended from him to her. Therefore, if the statute had run as to him, when he died, it has run as to her; or, in' other words, she inherited a cause of action that had outlawed. The effect of success in an action brought by the father in his lifetime would have been to reinvest him with the title to the farm, as of the date when he parted with it. The effect of success by the plaintiff in this action would be to reinvest her father with the same title as of the same date, and hence enable her to inherit the land from him, as his sole heir at law. It is upon this ground that the right of action descended to her, instead of going to her father’s administrator. But she has no other or better right of action, so far at least as the theory and compass of her complaint is concerned, than her father would have had on the day that he died. The statute of limitations then in force was a part of the Code of Procedure, and the section applicable to such an a'ction as this, had it been commenced by her father, was obviously either number ninety-one or number ninety-six.

Section 91, after fixing the period -of limitation for many classes of actions at six years, enacts the same limitation for “ an action for relief on the ground of fraud, in cases which heretofore were solely cognizable by the court of chancery ” and adds these words : The cause of action in such cases not to be deemed to have accrued until the discovery by the aggrieved party of the facts constituting the fraud. This section clearly embraces and specifically defines the cause of action that Frederick Piper had (Fort agt. Farrington, 41 N. Y., 164; Mayer agt. Griswold, 3 Sand. Supr. Ct., 464). But if it does not, then it must be covered by section 97, which provides that an action for relief, not hereinbefore provided for, must be commenced within ten years after the cause of action shall have accrued.” According to the Code of Procedure there was no action that did not have its period of limitation (Sec. 74, Code of Procedure). Section 97 prescribed the longest period of all, except in the case of actions [235]*235for the recovery of real property and upon judgments and sealed instruments. But whether the period that applied to the cause of action that accrued to Frederick in his lifetime was six or ten years, is not important, as sixteen years elapsed after he had the right to sue, before he died.

Moreover, the rule as to disabilities is that when the statute begins to run it is not arrested by any subsequent disability, unless expressly as provided in the statute, and a person who claims the benefit of the general exceptions in the statute can only avail himself of such disabilities as existed when the right of action first accrued (Code of Civil Pro., sec. 106; Wood on limitation of Actions, 10), so that when the statute has begun to run against the ancestor it is not suspended by any statutory disability in the heir at the time of the descent cast (Rogers agt. Brown, 61 Mo., 187; Swearingen agt. Robertson, 39 Wis., 462). Therefore the time that elapsed from the date of Frederick Piper’s death to the date when this action was commenced should be added to the period that the statute had run before his death, making more than twenty years. Hence, even if this were an action for the recovery of real property it would fall within the statute (Code, sec. 78; Miner agt. Beckman, 50 N. Y., 337).

The learned counsel for the plaintiff, in the exhaustive brief that he submitted, seeks to avoid the effect of the statute by contending: 1st. That Frederick never actually discovered the facts constituting the fraud practiced upon him by the defendant; and, 2d. That as he continued in the same situation and under the same undue influence as long as he lived, he was under a disability that is presumed to have prevented him from making discovery of the fraud.

As to the first position the evidence does not sustain it. The facts shown by the plaintiff compel the inference that Frederick in fact knew of the fraud as early as 1860.

The second position, even assuming that the facts upon which it is based existed, does not help the plaintiff. While, as already appears, the Code of Procedure fixed a period of [236]*236limitation for every action, it also provided that if the person entitled to sne at the time the cause of action accrued was within the age of twenty-one years, or insane, or imprisoned on a criminal charge, or in execution under the sentence of a criminal court for a term less than his natural life, the time of such disability should not be a part of the time limited for the commencement of the action (Sec. 101).

Provision is also made for the case of aliens, and where judgment has been reversed on appeal, and where the commencement of an action has been stayed by injunction, appropriate to the several subjects (Secs. 103, 104 and 105).

But no such disability as long continued undue influence was provided for by the statute, yet as certain disabilities are specified it is presumed that no others can exist, or at least that the legislature intended to prevent all others from delaying the statute. Until the undue influence ripens into a cause of action the statute does not begin to run; but when it has so ripened and the right of action is complete, the continued exercise of the same influence over the person defrauded, in order to prevent him from suing, does not affect the operation of the statute.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
65 How. Pr. 228, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/piper-v-hoard-nysupct-1882.