Singer Manufacturing Co. v. Stephens

68 S.W. 903, 169 Mo. 1, 1902 Mo. LEXIS 249
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedMay 21, 1902
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 68 S.W. 903 (Singer Manufacturing Co. v. Stephens) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Singer Manufacturing Co. v. Stephens, 68 S.W. 903, 169 Mo. 1, 1902 Mo. LEXIS 249 (Mo. 1902).

Opinion

EOBINSON, J.

— This suit was begun by the filing of a petition in two counts. The first count was in ejectment for the possession of eighty acres of land in Chariton county, described as the north half' of the northwest quarter of section 21, township 55, of range 18. The second count was in equity to set aside a deed made by the defendant Charles C. Clifton, to the defendant Isabel Stephens, to the eighty acres of land described in the first count, on the alleged ground that the deed was made without consideration and for the fraudulent purpose of hindering, delaying and defrauding the plaintiff, a creditor of said defendant Clifton, in the collection of its deht. In this count of the petition it is also alleged that the above-named land had been levied upon and sold as the property of the defendant Clifton to satisfy a judgment against said Clifton and others in favor of this plaintiff, and that 'plaintiff had become the purchaser of same at that sale. To plaintiff’s petition the defendant Isabel Stephens filed her separate answer as follows:

“Isabel Stephens, one of the defendants, for her separate answer to the petition, says she is, now and was at all times mentioned in the petition, the real and beneficial owner of the land in controversy, and as such owner was and is in possession [6]*6thereof, claiming the same as her own absolute property. This defendant says that whatever title her father, Charles 0. Clifton, had to said land was held for her benefit, and denies that the deed from him to her was made to or accepted by her for the purpose of hindering, delaying^ or defrauding the creditors of said Clifton or any of them, and says that she accepted said deed in good faith, and denies each and every other allegation contained in plaintiff’s petition.”

Upon the issues thus joined of record the case was tried by the court, resulting in the following decree, with the court’s finding of facts incorporated therein:

“Now on this eighteenth day of April, 1899, come again the parties plaintiff and defendant and upon the evidence heretofore submitted as well for the defendant as for the plaintiff, the court finds as follows, to-wit:

“Eirst. Upon the second [first] count of the petition the court finds for the defendants. It is therefore considered and adjudged by the court here that as to said second [first] count, plaintiff’s petition be dismissed, that it take nothing by its writ and that the defendants and each of them go hence without delay, and that they have and recover of and from the plaintiff their costs in this behalf, taxed at the sum of $ ... as hereinafter specified.

“Second. Upon the second count of the petition the court finds that the land in controversy, viz., the north half northwest quarter, section twenty-one, township 55, range 18, in Chariton county, Missouri, was owned by one James Guthridge, who is the stepfather-in-law of the defendant, Isabel Stephens, and that the defendant, Isabel Stephens, is the daughter of her co-defendant, Charles 0. Clifton, and that on or about the year 1888, the said James Guthridge agreed to sell the land to the defendant, Isabel Stephens, for which she was to pay $500, a sum much less than the real value thereof; that the deed thereto was made to defendant, Charles 0. Clifton; that said purchase money was in part paid by borrowing [7]*7from the county school fund of Chariton county, Missouri, in the name of Olifton, the sum of $400, which"was paid to Guthridge; that the remaining $100 was paid by the defendant,. Olifton, and by reason of that fact the deed was made from Guthridge to him. That on the eighth day of December, 1893, and while defendant Olifton was holding the title to said land, the defendant executed to J. E. Campbell, for the Singer Sewing Machine Company, a note for the sum of $153, due and payable one year after date, at eight per cent interest from date. ' The court further finds that at or about the time of the execution of the deed from Guthridge to Olifton, the defendant Isabel Stephens, and her husband,' Charles E. Stephens, took possession of said land, and have made valuable and lasting improvements thereon, and that said land is now worth about the sum of $1,200. The court further finds that on or about November 5, 1894, defendant Charles E. Stephens, husband of Isabel, paid to defendant Charles O. Clifton, $105, in payment of the money paid by Olifton to Guthridge, as part of the purchase money of said land, and on last said date said Clifton made a deed conveying the legal title to said land in controversy to the said Isabel Stephens, which said deed was recorded in the recorder’s office of Chariton county, Missouri, November 13, 1894, in book 58, at page 626. The court further finds that the plaintiff, as the assignee and legal holder of the note ’which Clifton and others, other than Isabel Stephens, had previously executed, brought suit thereon and recovered judgment in the Chariton Circuit Court, for the sum of $169.65, together with costs taxed at the sum of $15.85, on April 15, 1895. That an execution issued on this judgment, under which the sheriff sold and the.plaintiff purchased the land in controversy, as the property of defendant Charles O. Olifton, at said sheriff’s sale, on October 31, 1895, and received a sheriff’s deed therefor, and after receiving said.sheriff’s deed the plaintiff brought this suit to recover possession thereof. The court further finds that at the time of [8]*8the execution of the note to Campbell for plaintiff, that the apparent title to the land in controversy was in said Clifton. The court further finds that the defendant, Charles C. Clifton, at the time of the execution of the note to Campbell for .plaintiff, resided with his daughter, the defendant Isabel Stephens, and her husband, Charles R. Stephens, and that at the time Campbell took said note said Clifton represented himself to be the owner, and that Campbell relying upon such representations and upon the fact that the record showed .said Clifton to be the owner as he claimed’ to be, accepted the note from said Clifton and others in discharge of the obligations of one Lloyd for whom said Clifton and others, other than Isabel Stephens, were at the time securities to the plaintiff. The 'court further finds, that the conveyance to defendant Isabel Stephens, was made to and accepted by her in good faith and without fraud on her part.

“The court therefore orders and adjudges and decrees as follows:

“1. It is ordered, adjudged and decreed by the court here as to the second count of plaintiff’s petition that the same be dismissed, that the plaintiff take nothing by his writ in that behalf and that the defendants recover of and from the plaintiff their costs in this behalf, taxed at the sum of $ ... in manner and form as hereinafter specified.

“2. As to the relief prayed by the plaintiff under the first count of its petition it is ordered, adjudged and decreed by the court here that the plaintiff have and recover against the defendants, to be paid and satisfied only out of the proceeds of the sale of said land to be made under the execution issued herein and not otherwise, the sum of $225, with interest at the rate of six per cent per annum from this date, which is hereby adjudged to be a first and prior lien upon the north half of the northwest quarter of section twenty-one, in township fifty-five, in range eighteen, in Chariton county, and that said land be ordered sold to satisfy said judgment and interest and the [9]*9•costs as herein specified, unless the defendant shall within ninety days from this date pay said judgment, interest and costs.

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Bluebook (online)
68 S.W. 903, 169 Mo. 1, 1902 Mo. LEXIS 249, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/singer-manufacturing-co-v-stephens-mo-1902.