R. D. Johnson Milling Co. v. Read

85 S.E. 726, 76 W. Va. 557, 1915 W. Va. LEXIS 151
CourtWest Virginia Supreme Court
DecidedJune 22, 1915
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 85 S.E. 726 (R. D. Johnson Milling Co. v. Read) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering West Virginia Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
R. D. Johnson Milling Co. v. Read, 85 S.E. 726, 76 W. Va. 557, 1915 W. Va. LEXIS 151 (W. Va. 1915).

Opinion

Williams, Judge:

Plaintiff filed its bill at April rules, 1899, to enforce the lien of a judgment recovered against the defendant W. J. Read, and in the caption thereof named Nora S. Read, his ■wife, and a number of other lien creditors besides itself as defendants. The bill avers that some of the judgments, naming them, were recovered against W. J. Read and his wife jointly. No other averment shows why Nora S. Read was made a party to the suit, or that she owned any land against which the judgments were liens; and no relief was prayed for against her. It is necessary to determine whether the bill presented a suit against her, inasmuch as many of the assignments of error depend upon a decision of that question. Plaintiff itself was certainly not seeking relief against her land, because its judgment was against her husband only, and it prayed for no relief against her. Merely naming her in the caption of the bill as a party defendant and serving her with process was not enough to constitute the suit one against her. It was indispensable to aver facts, showing her relation to the cause of action, her connection with the subject matter thereof, and to pray for relief against her or her land. The only prayer of the bill is,- that all the real estate owned by W. J. Read; the condition of his title thereto; the liens thereon and their priorities, be ascertained; and that the cause be referred to a commissioner for that purpose; and that, upon the coming in and confirmation of the report, a decree be entered directing a sale of said land to satisfy the liens thereon. There is no averment whatever entitling plain[560]*560tiff to a decree against Mrs. Read, and no prayer for a sale of her land. The bill contains nothing she is called upon to answer and nothing in fact she could answer; and the court could not adjudicate her rights without giving her an opportunity to defend. McCoy v. Allen, 16 W. Va. 724; Chapman v. P. & S. R. R. Co., 18 W. Va. 184; and Bank v. Wilson, 35 W. Va. 36. See. 37, Ch. 125, Code, prescribing the form of a bill in chancery, does not dispense with the necessity for proper averments and prayer for relief in respect of a party proceeded against. Preston v. West, 55 W. Va. 391. A prayer for general relief will not warrant the court to grant relief against a party, as to whom no averment is made and no special relief asked. General relief can be given against those only as to whom special relief is sought. A bill to enforce liens against a husband’s land would not authorize the court to grant relief against the wife’s land, simply because it contained a prayer for general relief. It follows, from these observations respecting the rules of equity pleading, that plaintiff’s bill did not present a cause of action, or suit, against Nora S. Read; and, as to her, it was not a pending suit.

The bill averred that W. J. Read owned throe tracts of land, an 80 acre tract known as the Mouse land, an 121-1/2 acre tract known as the Phares land and a 30' acre tract known as the Butcher tract. These tracts had been conyeyed to W. J. Read at different times, and he conveyed the 80 acres to his wife before this suit was brought and before any of the liens had attached; and the 30 acres and about 71 acres of the Phares tract he conveyed to her after the institution of this suit. She filed her answer in February 1905, setting up title in herself to the 80 acres, and on March 14th of the same year, by leave of court, she filed her amended and supplemental answer, claiming title to both the 80 acres and the 30 acres. These so-called answers were more in the nature of petitions; they responded to no allegation in the bill because no averment related to her. Nor did she make any one a party to those petitions, or pray for affirmative relief. Hence, the filing of them did not supply the lack of averments and prayer in the bill, so as to warrant the granting of any relief [561]*561against her. An amendment of the bill was essential to any kind of relief against her.

But plaintiff made no effort to amend its bill until March rules, 1913. The final decree from which this appeal was taken by plaintiff, pronounced on the 12th of June, 1913, sustained the demurrer thereto and rejected the amended bill, and this is one of appellant’s assignments of error, and to it we will advert later on. The cause was then heard upon the fourth report of commissioner W. E. Baker, fifteen exceptions taken thereto by W. J. Read and twelve by Nora S. R.ead, and upon the petitions of certain creditors whose liens were subsequent to the date of the suit. The court sustained W. J. Read’s fifteenth and overruled all his other exceptions; and overruled Mrs. Read’s first, eighth and ninth, and sustained all her other exceptions. This ruling, in some particulars, is assigned as error by appellant, and, in others, cross-assigned as error by appellees.

Prior to the date of plaintiff’s judgment, W. J. Read and wife had conveyed to Helen M. Nestor 31 acres and 131 poles, and to W. L. Hicks 13-1/2 acres, out of the 121-1/2 acre tract known as the Phares land. Both of these deeds were recorded before plaintiff obtained its judgment. On the 10th of October, 1899, W. J. Read conveyed the remainder of that tract to his wife: and, by deed dated May 9, 1901, she conveyed to Helen M. Nestor 6 aeres and Í00 poles more out of it, her husband joining in the deed. The two last mentioned conveyances were made after the suit was brought.

Prior to any of the aforementioned conveyances, to-wit, on April 7, 1897, Read and wife executed to L. D. Strader, trustee, a'.trust deed conveying all three tracts of land, the 30 acres, 121-3/2 acres, and the 80 acres, as additional and collateral security, to secure a note of $8,000 payable to W. C. White, which was at that timé secured by a mortgage and also by a trust deed on property in the State of Maryland. Although the 80 acres had been- conveyed to Nora S. Read by her husband, in 1895, it also was included in the trust deed to Strader, trustee. But that deed provided that the Maryland property was to be primarily liable for the White debt. White assigned the debt and mortgage to De Warren H. Reynolds on the 2nd of January, 1898. There was also a [562]*562prior mortgage on the same property, held by one George Gliek, to secure a debt to him of $6,000.00. This debt and mortgage were likewise assigned to Reynolds; and thereafter, on the 16th day of March, 1901, and pursuant to the power and authority conferred on the mortgagee by the terms of the Glick mortgage, he sold the property and became the purchaser himself, at the cash price of $15,150.00. This sum was not enough to pay the taxes, commissions and the two mortgages in full. The balance ascertained by the commissioner in this case to be due on that debt is $2,782.20, and is reported as the second lien, in favor of said Reynolds as assignee of "White, on all three tracts of land, the taxes due thereon being reported as the first lien. Thirty-six liens, in all, were reported, aggregating more than ten thousand dollars. The commissioner reported plaintiff’s judgment as the fifth lien on the Phares and Butcher tracts. But the court modified the report, and held that it was not a lien on the Butcher tract, and was a lien only on the remainder of the Phaies tract, after deducting therefrom 31 acres and 131 poles conveyed to Helen M. Nestor and 13-1/2 acres conveyed to W. L. Hicks. The balance of the debt due De Warren IT.

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Bluebook (online)
85 S.E. 726, 76 W. Va. 557, 1915 W. Va. LEXIS 151, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/r-d-johnson-milling-co-v-read-wva-1915.