Scharman v. Scharman

56 N.W. 704, 38 Neb. 39, 1893 Neb. LEXIS 304
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 17, 1893
DocketNo. 5093
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 56 N.W. 704 (Scharman v. Scharman) 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
Scharman v. Scharman, 56 N.W. 704, 38 Neb. 39, 1893 Neb. LEXIS 304 (Neb. 1893).

Opinion

Ragan, C.

A. Margaret Scharman sued Conrad A. Scharman, Rector & Wilhelmy Company, and D. A. Baker, sheriff of Lincoln county, Nebraska, in the district court of that county, and in her petition alleged that on the 12th day of June, 1889, she was the owner of certain Union Pacific land •contracts, calling for three quarter sections of land in Lincoln county, Nebraska; some of the lands represented by these contracts she had purchased from the Union Pacific Railway company direct, and others she had purchased from purchasers from the Union Pacific Railway Company; that on the 12th day of June, 1889, she borrowed of the North Platte National Bank $550, and gave a note therefor, signed by her husband and her sou, Conrad A. Scharman, and that on said date, for the purpose of securing the payment of said note to said bank, she made an absolute formal assignment, in writing, of all of said land contracts to her son, Conrad A. Scharman, and that he deposited said ■contracts with said bank to secure the payment of said note; that the assignment of said land contracts to her said son was for the purpose only of securing the payment of the note given to said bank, and not for the purpose or with the intent of placing the title or ownership of said lands, or any of them, in her said son, Conrad A. Scharman; and that he agreed, when she repaid him the money borrowed, that he would reassign to her said contracts; that during the year 1889 her son, Conrad A. Scharman, was a member of the copartnership of Stewart & Scharman, a firm doing a hardware business in North Platte, Nebraska that she had paid all the money borrowed by her and for which she had pledged or assigned said land contracts, and that her son, Conrad A. Scharman, had neglected and refused to reassign to her said contracts; that the defendants Rector & Wilhelmy Company had brought a suit against the copartnership of Stewart & Scharman, and-had caused [44]*44an attachment fo be levied upon all the lands represented by said contracts, claiming said lauds were the individual property of said Conrad A. Scharman; that the lands were in fact hers, and hers only; that Conrad A. Scharman had no interest in them, nor any lien upon them ; that the proceedings in attachment were a cloud upon the title to the same, and she prayed that Conrad A. Scharman should be decreed to reassign to her said land contracts; that Rector & Wilhelmy Company should be perpetually enjoined from proceeding any further with the attachments levied on said land; that the title to the same might be quieted and confirmed in her.

Conrad A. Scharman did not answer the petition. The sheriff answered, justifying under the attachment. Rector & Wilhelmy Company defended on two grounds:

1. That the assignment of the land contracts by Mrs. Scharman to her son, Conrad A. Scharman, was not intended as security, but made in pursuance of an actual sale of the lands represented by them to Conrad.

2. That Rector & Wilhelmy Company, by reason of the assignment of said land contracts, being in the name of Conrad A. Scharman, were led to believe him the owner of the lands, and, relying on such assignment, they sold the copartnership of which he was a member merchandise on credit, and that Mrs. Scharman was estopped from now claiming the ownership of the lands as against them.

The court found all the issues in favor of Mrs. Scharman, and decreed that Conrad A. Scharman should reassign to her 'the land contracts; quieted and confirmed the title to the lands in her, and perpetually enjoined their sale under the attachment levied thereon by Rector & Wilhelmy Company, and from this decree the latter parties appeal.

The pleadings, and appellants’ argumentas well, present two questions, which we notice in their order.

Did Mrs. Scharman assign the land contracts to her son Conrad as security for the payment of money, or in pur[45]*45suance of an absolute sale of the lands to him? The court found that the contracts were assigned by Mrs. Scharman to her son Conrad to secure the payment of $500 in money loaned by Conrad to his mother June 12, 1889. The evidence supports this finding. Any other finding would be unsupported by the testimony. This $500 was borrowed from the North PlatteNational Bank. Conrad and his father gave the bank their note for it, and Conrad deposited with the bank, to secure the payment of the note, these land contracts assigned to him by his mother on that day, June 12, 1889, for that very purpose, and Mrs. Scharman received this money. When this note matured Conrad borrowed the amount of it and interest, $561, from the First National Bank of North Platte, and with this money paid off the first note, and deposited the land contracts with the First National Bank to secure the $561 note. Finally, Mrs. Scharman and her husband mortgaged their homestead, and with the money borrowed, paid off the $561 note, during all this time Mrs. Scharman remained in possession of these lands, on which she had horses and cattle, and other property. She kept up the payments to the Union Pacific Railway Company, the owners of the legal title, and there is no evidence in the record to sustain the contention of appellants that Mrs. Scharman sold or intended to sell these lands to her son on June 12, 1889, or at any other time. It is true the contracts were absolutely and formally assigned to the son, but it was competent to show by parol that they were intended as security in the nature of a mort■gage for money loaned. (McHugh v. Smiley, 17 Neb., 620; Eiseman v. Gallagher, 24 Neb., 79; Lipp v. South Omaha Land Syndicate, 24 Neb., 692; Tower v. Fetz, 26 Neb., 707; Thompson v. Thompson, 30 Neb., 489; Kemp v. Small, 32 Neb., 318.)

We come now to the second question in this case, put by the able and ingenious counsel for appellants in their brief as follows: “Even if there was not a bona fide sale from the [46]*46plaintiff to the defendant Scharman of the lands described in the land contracts in controversy, still the plaintiffs by her conduct in clothing the defendant Scharman with theindicia of ownership of the lands in controversy, and in permitting him to hold himself out to the world as the-owner of the lands, and thus gaining a credit in the commercial world, and particularly with the defendants Rector <& Wilhelmy Company, which he would not otherwise have had, and the defendants Rector & Wilhelmy Company having relied upon the truthfulness of this claim of ownership and given credit upon the strength of the same, the-plaintiff is now estopped to assert any claim, right, title,, or ownership to the lands in controversy as against the-defendants Rector & Wilhelmy Company.”

What conduct of Mrs. Scharman is it claimed by appellants estops her? Is it the assignment and delivery to-Conrad of the land contracts as security? She did this, but §he retained possession of the lands. This was, of itself, notice to all the world of her equities. See Uhl v. May, 5 Neb., 157, where this court say: “Possession of' land is notice to all the world, not only of the possession itself, but of the right, title, and interest, whatever it may be, of the possessor.” To the same effect see Filley v. Duncan, 1 Neb., 134; Lipp v. Hunt, 25 Neb., 91; Smith v. Gibson, 25 Neb., 511; Hansen v. Berthelsen, 19 Neb., 433.

The legal title to the lands was in the Union Pacific-Railway Company, and the assigned contracts were not recorded in the office of the register of deeds of Lincoln county.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
56 N.W. 704, 38 Neb. 39, 1893 Neb. LEXIS 304, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/scharman-v-scharman-neb-1893.