Troughber v. Akin

109 Tenn. 451
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 15, 1902
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 109 Tenn. 451 (Troughber v. Akin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Troughber v. Akin, 109 Tenn. 451 (Tenn. 1902).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Neil

delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is a proceeding to obtain a supersedeas to restrain the execution of an order entered in the chancery court of Robertson county, appointing a receiver to take charge of and rent out the lands in controversy in the case of E. E. Troughber v. Stephen Smelser et al., pending in that court.

To properly understand the matter, it is necessary to state the following facts: On the 15th of April,. 1898, a bill was filed in the chancery court of Robertson county by E. E. Troughber against J. T. Akin and others for the purpose of setting up a will which it was [455]*455alleged that one G. W. Smelser had executed in favor of the complainant while he was of sonnd and disposing mind, and which he had subsequently been caused to destroy, while of unsound mind, by the defendant J. T. Akin and his wife, Emmaline Akin, and also for the purpose of setting aside a deed which it was alleged the said Akin and wife had induced the said G. W. ‘Smelser to make to them through undue influence, and while he was in said state or condition of unsound mind; also for the purpose of enjoining certain proceedings instituted by Stephen Smelser and Mary A. Cook, as heirs at law of G. W. Smelser, to have the said Akin deed declared void, and to have themselves adjudged entitled to a portion of the land as heirs at law of G. W. Smelser. Troughber claimed all of the land, consisting of several tracts, as devisee, to the exclusion of the heirs at law and of the said grantees under the Akin deed; also all of the personal property which was likewise bequeathed in the will, and which Akin and wife had obtained from G. W. Smelser by a hill of sale at or about the same time they obtained the deed to the land.

The prayer of the bill was that the court should set up and establish the will referred to as the last will and testament of G. W. Smelser, deceased, and that it should then be certified to the county court of Robertson county, to be legally recorded as the said last will, to the end that letters testamentary might issue, and that the provisions of the said will might be fully [456]*456carried out; also that the said Akin deed might be set aside, and the bill of sale of the personal property, and that Akin and wife might be enjoined from committing waste upon the land, and held liable for such waste as had already been committed, and for the value of the personal property appropriated and converted by them; also that Stephen Smelser and Mary A. Cook be enjoined from the further prosecution of the suit brought by them, above referred to.

Answers and other pleadings were filed, and a decree finally rendered in the chancery court. From this decree an appeal was prayed and granted to this court, and at the December term, 1901, was referred' to the court of chancery appeals for examination and decision.

That court found the facts as claimed by complainant, Troughber, but was of the opinion that a final decree could not be rendered in favor of Troughber, because he had asked for a trial by jury in the chancery court, and had been refused by the chancellor, and that the cause should be remanded to the chancery court for the said trial by jury. On appeal to this court, the decree of the court of chancery appeals was affirmed.

When the cause again reached the chancery court, a jury was impaneled, and, in response to issues made up and submitted to them, found that G. W. Smelser executed the will as claimed in the bill; that he subsequently destroyed that will, while of unsound mind; [457]*457that he was unduly influenced to destroy it; that he was unduly influenced by Akin and wife to execute to them the hill of sale of the personalty and the deed to the realty; and that he was of unsound mind when the latter papers were executed.

This verdict was rendered on December 11, 1902. Thereupon the defendant J. T. Akin moved for a new trial, and the hearing of the motion was'continued over until a future day of the term.

On January 3, 1903, the motion was determined in favor of Akin, on the ground that his wife, Mrs. Em-maline Akin, had died before the hearing of the cause, and the trial had been had without revivor as to her heirs at law, and that the latter were necessary parties.

On the same day Stephen Smelser and Mary A. Cook asked leave of the court to withdraw all of the defenses, to Trcraghber’s bill, and this was permitted, and judgment pro confesso was entered against them.

On December 12, 1902, after the verdict of the jury was rendered, and before the motion for new trial had been disposed of, complainant, Troughber, filed the bill in the present case.

In this bill he recited the substance of what has been above stated, down to the rendering of the verdict of the jury, and then alleged the following facts, viz.: That Akin had had possession of the lands devised to complainant, and had taken the rents and profits, since the death of G. W. Smelser, in January, 1896; that [458]*458the rentals were worth two hundred and fifty dollars per year, and that Akin was indebted to him in the-sum of one thousand and seventeen hundred dollars on account of these rents, and in an additional sum for the value of personal property which he had appropriated to his own use, and which had been bequeathed to complainant — in all, the sum of two thousand dollars, or over, and that J. T. Akin was wholly insolvent; and that he was about to fraudulently dispose of his crops raised on said land, and of a one-twenty-eighth interest in said lands which he had purchased from one D. O. Andrews, for the purpose of defrauding the complainant out of the said sum due to him,, and also to escape the payment of the costs of the-cause. It was alleged in the bill, on information and' belief, that, Avhen the court of chancery appeals decided the case against Akin, he had removed a portion-of his personal property into the State of Kentucky,, and had disposed of it, for the purpose of escaping the-payment of the rents and profits to complainant, and “that his son-in-law, George Miller, voluntarily paid the costs, which were adjudged against defendant Akin by the supreme court, and publicly stated that he was conducting the laAvsuit, and proposed to hold the land, and use the rents and profits from the same for the purpose of paying the expenses of the said litigation.”

It was further alleged in the bill, in positive terms,, that defendant Akin, since he had been in possession [459]*459of the land, had used it in so reckless a manner that it was washed in holes and gullies, and was worth hardly half as much as it was when he entered upon it, and that he had cut a large amount of valuable timber.

The bill also referred to the motion for a new trial above mentioned as an evidence of the fact that the defendant Akin had resolved to remain in possession of the land and use it in defiance of right and justice.

The prayer of this bill was for an attachment to issue for the purpose of seizing the crops before mentioned, and also the one-twenty-eighth interest in the land purchased from D. O. Andrews, to secure the payment of the amount claimed for rents and personal property converted, and also for a receiver to take charge of the said lands involved in the first case— that of E. E. Troughber v. Stephen Smelser et al.

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Bluebook (online)
109 Tenn. 451, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/troughber-v-akin-tenn-1902.