Robinson v. Dix

18 W. Va. 528, 1881 W. Va. LEXIS 58
CourtWest Virginia Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 12, 1881
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 18 W. Va. 528 (Robinson v. Dix) 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
Robinson v. Dix, 18 W. Va. 528, 1881 W. Va. LEXIS 58 (W. Va. 1881).

Opinion

GebeN, Judge,

announced the opinion of the Court:

The first and most important question in this cause is: Were the necessary parties before the circuit court, so as to justify that court in rendering any decree on the merits of the cause? The bill states, that in 1860 the plaintiff, B. H. Robinson, sold to the defendant, Joseph D. Hanna, a certain tract of land but conveyed it to McClung as trustee for Clara W. Hanna, the wife of the purchaser, and that this trustee and she in 1868 conveyed this tract of land to defendant, Rachel E. Dix, wife of the defendant, James Dix. The bill further states, that Joseph D. Hanna, when said sale was made to him, as a part of the purchase-money of the land executed to the plaintiff two bonds of $200.00 each with interest from February 25, 1860, which are still due to the plaintiff, no part of them being paid; that when the plaintiff executed the deed to the trustee, McClung, for the use of Mrs. Hanna, he retained [535]*535a lien for the payment of these two bonds executed by Joseph D. Hanna to him; and when the trustee, McClung, and Mrs. Hanna conveyed this land to Mrs. Dix, they retained a lien also for the payment oí these two bonds.

The deed from the plaintiff, which reserved a lien for the the payment of these two bonds as the bill alleges, was not filed with the bill, and it nowhere appears in the record, and of its contents we know nothing except the very brief statement contained in the bill; nor do we know, whether it was signed by Joseph D. Hanna or not or by the parties, to whom it was executed, or why it was made to the grantees in the deed. These reasons may be set out in the deed, but if so, they are unknown to the court, this deed not appearing in the record. The deed from McClung, trustee, and Mrs. Hanna to the defendant, Mrs. Dix, is filed with the bill; but in it there is no reference to this deed from the plaintiff, B. H. Robinson, to McClung, trustee, for use of Mrs. Hanna, and thus it furnishes us no means of knowing its'character or contents. Of it we have thus no knowledge except the very brief allegation in the bill about its general character.

The deed to the defendant, Mrs. Dix, begins by reciting that the consideration for it was $1,250.00, of which $646.00 was in cash and the residue $604.00, was to be paid, when two bonds of Joseph D. Hanna to the plaintiff B. H. Robinson were produced. These bonds are described, and they are the two bonds for $200.00 each described in the bill; but there is no statement as to what was the origin of these bonds. The deed then conveys with general warranty this land to the defendant, Mrs. Dix, describing it but not stating how the grantors got title to it, and concludes thus : “It is expressly understood between all the parties to this deed, that a lien is retained on the lands described therein, until the two bonds set forth in said deed are paid by Rachel E. Dix, which is the residue of the purchase-money for the same.” This deed was executed by the grantors, McClung and Mrs. Hanna, only not being signed by the grantee Mrs. Dix. The bill was filed to enforce the payment of these two bonds as a lien on said land, but it did not make either McClung, trustee, or Mrs. Hanna, the grantors in this deed, parties, though they were the parties, to whom the plaintiff had conveyed this land, and [536]*536though in his deed he had reserved a lien on this land for the payment of these bonds, as the bill alleges.

The brief of the appellee shows, that this suit was based on the idea, that Mrs. Dix by the deed to her had expressly agreed to pay these two bonds, executed by Joseph B. Hanna to the plaintiff, B. H. Robinson, of $200.00 each, and that she had expressly given a lien on this land for the payment of these two bonds; that it was this lien expressly created by the deed of 1868 to Mrs. Dix, which the plaintiff was seeking to enforce, and not the lien reserved in the deed made by the plaintiff to McClung, trustee for Mrs. Hanna, in 1860, which was to secure the payment of the same two bonds ; and that therefore it was unnecessary to make either McClung, trustee, of Mrs. Hanna parties defendants to this bill. If it had been the lien reserved by the plaintiff in his deed made in 1860 to-McClung as trustee for the use of Mrs. Hanna, that the plaintiff was seeking to enforce, it is obvious, that he would have had to make them, the grantees, parties defendant in the bill. But he was not seeking to enforce this lien under the deed of 1860, and therefore he neither filed this deed with his bill nor made the grantees in it parties to the suit. What the bill really sought, the appellee’s counsel insists, was the enforcement of the lien reserved in the deed of 1868, and that this being the case Mrs. Dix, the grantee in this deed, was really the only necessary party defendant to this bill.

Are these views correct ? Is this a true construction of the deed to Mrs. Dix filed with the bill ? Is it true, that she thereby expressly agreed to pay the two bonds executed in 1860, eight years before, by Joseph D. Hanna to the plaintiff? Had she signed the deed, which she did not, it could not be so construed. All that is said in it is that a lien is retained by the grantors in the deed, McClung, trustee, and Mrs. Hanna, until these two bonds are paid by Mrs. Dix, the grantee, which is the residue of the purchase-money.” What is meant by the expression “ which is the residue of the purchase-money ?” It certainly could not mean, that these two bonds, which, the deed on its face showed, had been executed more than eight years before by a stranger to this deed and to a stranger to this deed, and which, so far as this deed showed, had no connection whatever with the land conveyed or with [537]*537the parties to this deed, were actually the residue of the purchase-money due from Mrs. Dix to the grantors in this deed ; for this would be a gross absurdity. Its obvious meaning was, which bonds are in amount the same as the residue of the purchase-money due from Mrs. Dix to the grantors in this deed. What was the lien retained by the grantors in this deed to Mrs. Dix, the deed does not in express language declare; but it states, that the unpaid purchase-money was $604.00. The obvious meaning of the deed in saying, “It is expressly understood between all the parties to this deed, that a lien is retained,” is, that the vendor’s lien for the unpaid purchase-money was expressly retained, i. e., a lien for this $604.00, which Mrs. Dix still owed to the grantors in the deed as the unpaid purchase-money. And what is the meaning of the language, this lieu “ is retained until these two bonds are paid by Rachel E. Dix?” Does it mean, as the appellee’s counsel says, that Mrs. Dix thereby agrees to pay these two bonds, which were then more than eight years old and were given, so far as the deed on its face shows, by a party having no connection with or relation to the land to another party, who had no connection with or relation to this land or to the parties to the deed?

This is certainly not the meaning of the language used. That language is clear and explicit: that the vendors’ lien was retained, till Mrs. Dix paid these bonds; and its effect is obviously to confer on Mrs. Dix the privilege of paying off these bonds and regarding such payment as a credit or discharge of the unpaid purchase-money, which she owed the grantors.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
18 W. Va. 528, 1881 W. Va. LEXIS 58, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/robinson-v-dix-wva-1881.