St. L., I. M. & S. Railway Co. v. Beidler

45 Ark. 17
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedMay 15, 1885
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 45 Ark. 17 (St. L., I. M. & S. Railway Co. v. Beidler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
St. L., I. M. & S. Railway Co. v. Beidler, 45 Ark. 17 (Ark. 1885).

Opinion

Smith, J.

The Railway Company sued Beidler in ejectment for eighty acres of land. He claimed to have bought of the Company fifty-three 75-100 acres, parcel of the tract described in the complaint, paying one-fourth in cash and giving his notes for the deferred payments. He made his answer a cross-bill, tendered the residue of the purchase money and demanded a specific performance of the agreement. The cause was transferred to equity and for defenses the Company set up the Statute of Frauds and insisted that the contract upon which Beidler relied was obtained by means of false and fraudulent representations, and that as soon as the deception which had been practiced was discovered, it had offered to refund Beidler’s money and had destroyed his notes. The decree was that the Company should execute to Beidler a good and sufficient deed with covenants of warranty, for the premises mentioned in the cross-bill, upon the completion of his payments.

The following instruments were put in evidence by Beidler:

“St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co. ^ “Land Department. > “Little Rock, Ark., Dec. 26, 1877. J

“Contract No. 2,444.

“ Received of Henry M. Beidler, of Texarkana, Miller “ County, Ark., the sum of two hundred and one ®060' dollars, on “ account of purchase money of land of this company, as ex- “ pressed in his contract, numbered as above.

“ Thomas Essex,

“$201.56. Land Commissioner.

“ This receipt is given to be held by the party until the contract be transmitted to New York for signature by the Trus- “ tees, and received back at this office.”

“St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway,"] “ Arkansas Division, | “ Formerly Cairo & Fulton Railroad, ¡> “ Land Department. “Little Rock, Ark., December 26, 1877.^

“This is to certify, that H. M. Beidler, of Texarkana, Miller “ county, Arkansas, has purchased from St. Louis, Iron Moun- “ tain & Southern Railway, the following tracts of land:

“All of N. E. of S. E., Sec. 30, T. 15 S., R. 28 W., except “ 5 acres in S. W. corner of said forty, reserved for company’s “ steam pump, ’ containing an area of 35 acres; also that part “ of the N. W. of S. E., Sec. 30, T. 15 S., R. 28 W., outside of “ lands reserved for company purposes, containing an area of “18 acres, as set forth in contract between said Beidler and “ St. L., I. M. & So. Ry. Co.

“ Number 2,444.

“Thomas Essex, Land Commissioner.”

1. Statute of Frauds: Memoranda of sale of land.

These, memoranda are insufficient of themselves to satisfy the requirements of the Statute. They do not show the terms and conditions of the sale, the price to be paid' and the time within which payment is to be made. They refer, however, to a certain contract numbered 2,444, which was produced by the Company and which proved to be nothing more than a printed form of articles of agreement in use by the Company for sales of land, signed by Beidler alone, and with none of the blanks filled; so that it amounts to no more than a sheet of blank paper with Beidler’s signature at the end. But attached to this blank form was the following memorandum in pencil:

“ Sale suspended.

“ H. M. Beidler, Texarkana, Ark. Con. No. 2,444. Part of N. 1-2 of S. E., Sec. 30-15-28; 53.75$ at 15, outside of reservation, Miller county; 1-4 cash, balance in 1, 2 and 3 years. Reserve perpetual right-of-way for pipe from pump to tank.”

And the company also produced and filed with said blank form the following, which we take to be an excerpt from its book of sales:

ST. LOUIS, IRON MOUNTAIN & SOUTHERN R’Y.

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eral ^¡¡Stingsev" formance.

The mutual relation of these several writings appears on their face. Manifestly, all of them were made in the course of one and the same transaction. They will be read together, therefore, and if, with the aid of the light thrown by each upon the other, a court can, without resorting to extrinsic evidence, ascertain and identify the parties to the. contract, the subject matter and the terms and conditions of the sale, specific execution will be decreed. It matters not what may have been the immediate purpose for which some of the writings may have been prepared, or that one of them may be unsigned. All that the statute requires is written evidence from which the whole contract can be made out. Pomeroy on Specific Performance, Secs. 82-4; Browne on the Statute of Frauds, Secs. 346, 349; 1 Reed, do, Secs. 340, 351; 1 Gr. Ev., Sec. 268; Allen v. Bennett, 3 Taunton, 168; Johnson v. Dorgson, 2 M. & W., 653; Sarl v. Bourdillon, 1 C. B. N. S., 188, (87 E. C. L. R.); Newell v. Radford, L. R., 3 C., p. 52; Long v. Millan, 4 C. P. Div., 450; S. C. 30, Moak Eng. Rep., 659; Barry v. Coombe, 1 Peters, 640; Salmon Fall Manf’g Co. v. Goddard, 14 How, 446; Beckwith v. Talbot, 95 U. S., 289; Raubitschek v. Black, 80 N. Y., 478.

JceConvey" ancie.scnpUon of

^ *s> however, urged that the lands are not sufficiently described.' The description of the first tract is complete in itself. It calls for a block of forty acres, described according to the legal subdivisions upon the public surveys, except five acres in the southwest corner. The exception means five acres laid off in a square. Walsh v. Ringen, 2 Hammond, (Ohio), 328; S. C. 19 Am. Dec., 555; Cunningham’s Lessee v. Harper, Wright (Ohio), 366; Hay's Lessee v. Storrs, Ib. 711; Baybee v. Hageman, 66 Ill., 519.

The description of the other tract presents the case of a latent ambiguity which is capable of being removed by parol proof. The land intended was fully identified, the sale having been made with reference to a previous survey and plat, in which the boundaries were established. Cate v. Stewart, 28 Ark., 146; Swayne v. Vance, Ib., 282; Dorr v. School District, 40 Id., 237.

Upon the other branch of the case—the alleged fraud of Beidler in procuring this sale—the evidence tended to show that he saw the president of the road, at Texarkana, in November, 1877, told him that he wished to buy this land, which lay near the Company’s depot at Texarkana, on the south side of the track. The president inquired of an official connected with the operating department ol the railway service, whether he had sent up the maps showing what lands the Company desired to reserve from sale at that point; and receiving an answer in the affirmative, intimated that the land was in the market and referred Beidler to the land commissioner.

Shortly afterwards Beidler came to Little Rock and in company with a friend called at the commissioner’s office and applied to purchase the land. The commissioner says he explained to Beidler that he could not sell any part of this tract until the operating department had fixed the amount of the reservation that was required for railroad purposes.

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Bluebook (online)
45 Ark. 17, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/st-l-i-m-s-railway-co-v-beidler-ark-1885.