Spurgeon v. Olinger

115 N.E. 680, 64 Ind. App. 176, 1917 Ind. App. LEXIS 49
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 30, 1917
DocketNo. 9,173
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 115 N.E. 680 (Spurgeon v. Olinger) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Spurgeon v. Olinger, 115 N.E. 680, 64 Ind. App. 176, 1917 Ind. App. LEXIS 49 (Ind. Ct. App. 1917).

Opinion

Hottel, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment in appellee’s- favor, based upon the second of three paragraphs of complaint filed by him in the trial court. The material averments of said second paragraph are, in substance, as follows: Prior to October, 1907, appellee was the owner of a 27%-acre farm in Tipton county and, being then old and feeble and unable to farm, sold said farm for $2,800. Maude Spurgeon, a deceased daughter of appellee, was then living and was the wife of appellant. It was then agreed between appellee and his daughter, Maude, that she should receive said $2,300, the same to be “invested by her in real estate-in Howard county, Indiana, the legal title thereto to be taken in the name of * * * Maude * * * and to be held in trust for plaintiff.” Said agreement was without fraudulent intent on the part of either appellee or his daughter. Pursuant thereto, appellee turned over and deliyered to his daughter $2,300 for the purpose of having the same invested in real estate as above alleged, which sum was thereafter, on October 28, 1907, invested in real estate in Howard county. (Here follows description of 76.75 acres.) Without the knowledge or consent of appellee, the deed for said real estate purchased by the daughter and appellant, her husband, was taken in their joint names and thus remained until December 12, 1912, when Maude died, [180]*180leaving appellant as her survivor.- Averments follow, showing a conveyance by Maude and her husband of a part of said tract, leaving in their joint names at Maude’s death fifty-two acres, upon which a mortgage had been given to the .defendant, the Kokomo Trust Company, for $2,085; and the court is asked to require such company, in case its mortgage is found to be superior and paramount to the claim of appellee in said real estate, to first exhaust appellant’s interest in said land before going to' the interest of appellee to satisfy said mortgage. Appellee also asks to have a lien declared upon said real estate for the $2,300 of his money invested therein and interest thereon from October 28, 1907, etc.

The averments of the first paragraph are substantially the same as those of the second, except that it is alleged in the first paragraph that appellee and appellant were the owners in fee simple as tenants in common of said fifty-two-acre tract, .appellee being the owner-of 23/61 thereof, and appellant of 38/61; that appellant is without right asserting title to all of said tract; that the same cannot be divided, etc.

The third paragraph is in the usual form to quiet title to 23/61 of said real estate. Appellant answered by a general denial and also filed a cross-complaint to quiet his title to said fifty-two-acre tract entire.

A demurrer addressed to each paragraph of the complaint was overruled. A trial by the court resulted in a general finding for appellee on his second paragraph of complaint in the sum of $1,674.75, which sum was declared to be a lien on said fifty-two-acre tract of land, inferior and subject to the lien of the Kokomo Trust Company. There was a finding for appellant on said first and third paragraphs of complaint and on his cross-complaint, quieting his title to said fifty-two-acre tract, subject to the lien of appellee as indicated. The [181]*181j udgment followed the finding and directed a sale of said real estate to satisfy appellee’s lien in case appellant failed to pay it, said sale being directed to be made subject to the trust company’s mortgage, and in case such real estate did not sell for sufficient to pay appellee’s judgment, costs and interests, the residue was to be levied on any property of appellant subject to execution.

A motion for new trial was overruled. This ruling and the overruling of the demurrer to the second paragraph of complaint, (hereinafter referred to as the complaint) are among the assigned errors, and are alone relied on for reversal.

It is first insisted by appellee that, because of certain suggested infirmities and irregularities appearing in the record and the assignment of errors, no question is presented by the appeal. A discussion of the questions suggested by such contention is rendered unnecessary by the conclusion reached on the merits of the appeal, and for this reason, will not be further noticed. It will be observed that among the facts alleged in said complaint, indicated supra, there is no allegation that appellant had any knowledge of the alleged trust agreement between appellee and his daughter, and it is insisted by appellant, in effect, that so far as said averments show, appellant may have been a .purchaser of said real estate for a valuable consideration without notice of said agreement between appellee and his daughter, and that, for this reason, the- complaint fails to show a right of action against appellant.

1. [182]*1822. 3. [181]*181It is true that the trust agreement relied on by appellee would be invalid as against one who in good faith purchased said real estate for a valuable consideration without notice of such agreement; and hence, to enforce a lien for the money that entered into the purchase of such real estate under such [182]*182trust agreement, it would be necessary as against such a purchaser thereof for a valuable consideration to allege and prove his knowledge of such agreement. §4013 Burns 1914, §2970 R. S. 1881; Prow v. Prow (1893), 133 Ind. 340, 32 N. E. 1121. However, whether under the averments of this complaint indicated sujjra, appellant can be said to sustain the relation of an innocent purchaser to said transaction in the sense that it was necessary to allege notice of said agreement on his part in order that appellee might enforce the lien of the purchase money invested in said real estate under said agreement, we need not and do not decide. This is so for the following reasons: Appellant is not entitled to urge in this court any objections to the complaint that were not presented to the trial court by the memorandum accompanying the demurrer thereto. The objections contained in such memorandum are as follows: (a) that it “shows on its face that the plaintiff entrusted his money to Maude Spurgeon to invest for him in her own name, and that she violated the said trust. It is not shown that anyone else violated the said trust, and there is no cause of action stated against this defendant”; (b) that it “shows on its face that Maude Spurgeon in violation of a trust, used the money entrusted to her by plaintiff in part purchase of real estate in the name of herself and husband, and does not show any other violation of said trust.”

Said complaint does not proceed upon the theory that the trust agreement relied on was had between any one other than appellee and his daughter, and hence, under such theory, there could not be a violation of such agreement by any one else, and an allegation of such violation by any one else was not only unnecessary to the sufficiency of the pleading, but, in a sense, would be inconsistent with it. Knowledge of such agreement or [183]*183the existence thereof- on appellant’s part at the time of the purchase and taking of title to said real estate is one thing; the violation of such agreement is quite another. The absence of an averment of knowledge on appellant’s part is urged in this court, while an absence of an averment of violation of said agreement by any one other than appellee’s daughter was the only ground of objection below. The grounds of the memorandum, supra,

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Bluebook (online)
115 N.E. 680, 64 Ind. App. 176, 1917 Ind. App. LEXIS 49, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/spurgeon-v-olinger-indctapp-1917.