Vick v. Beverly

112 Ala. 458
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedNovember 15, 1895
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 112 Ala. 458 (Vick v. Beverly) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Vick v. Beverly, 112 Ala. 458 (Ala. 1895).

Opinion

HARALSON, J.

1. Jt is made very plainly to appear in evidence, that Thomas Vick, the husband of Harriet E. Vick, the appellant, was the agent of his wife, so far as she"was related to it, in this whole transaction, and was cognizant of all facts connected with the case, and acted for her and in her behalf in acquiring whatever rights or interests she claims in the property in question, or growing out of it. Having acquired a title to lots 8 and 9 from his vendor, Beverly, the appellee, on the 18th of September, 1888, conveyed a half interest in lots 9 and 10 to Mrs. Graham. The deed under which Beverly held the lots is alleged by appellant to have been fraudulently procured to be taken in his own name, when it should have been taken in his own name and in the name of Thomas Vick. A mistake was made by Beverly in conveying to Mrs. Graham lot 10, instead of lot 8. This mistake was corrected by a subsequent conveyance executed for the purpose by him to Mrs. Graham, of date October 18, 1889, and duly recorded December 23, 1889. By these transactions, on face of the titles, Mrs. Graham and Beverly were owners, each of an undivided half interest in said lots, with Thomas Vick claiming that he was the equitable owner of an undivided half interest in them, of the legal title to which he had been deprived by said Beverly. He also claimed compensation for the improvements that had been put upon said lots by his labor, and materials furnished by him. This whole controversy between Beverly and Thomas Vick was submitted to arbitration, and on the 24th of April, 1889, the arbitrators awarded said Vick a judgment for $438.53 against Beverly, which was to be in full for his interest in the land, and all labor, materials and improvements made by him thereon. This award not having been paid by Beverly, was returned into the • circuit court of the county of Clarke, on the 15th June, 1889, and entered of record, on which an execution was issued by the clerk, on the 13th November, 1889, after the deed from Beverly to Mrs. Graham had been corrected, and was ]evied on said lots ; and on December 23d, 1889, Mrs. Harriet Vick, the appellant, became the purchaser for the sum of $500, and received a deed from the sheriff, conveying to her all the right, title and interest of complainant in said lots. On the date of this purchase — December 23d, 1889 — the deed of October [462]*46218tli, 1889, correcting the mistake in said former conveyance by Beverly to Mrs. Graham as to lot 8, was filed for record in the probate court. Mrs. Vick’s contention is, that the deed to Mrs. Graham was not founded on a present consideration, was not recorded until Vick obtained his' award ; that he was a judgment creditor without notice, and that said deed was in fact made as a mortgage to secure the payment of a debt, which was afterwards paid. The chancellor very correctly held, that under the facts of the case, Mrs. Vick -became the pwner under her deed from the sheriff of an undivided half interest only in said lots, with Mrs. Graham as the owner of the other undivided half interest, as will more fully appear.

On the 7th October, 1889, Mrs. Graham and her husband sold and conveyed her interest in said lots 8 and 9 to W. W. Cammack, for the recited consideration of $375, which the evidence tends to show was real and for cash, and that on the 20th May, 1890, Cammack and wife conveyed their half interest to Beverly, the complainant. There was proof introduced, tending to show that Cammack made the purchase from Mrs. Graham for Beverly, but this Beverly deposed was not true, and the other proof is not sufficient to establish it as a fact over his denial.

On December 9, 1889, Win. Johnson recovered a judgment against Beverly in a justice’s court for $41.96 and costs. On June 9th, 1890, an execution was issued on this judgment and levied on the lots in question, which levy was returned to the circuit court; and on the 15th April, 1891, an order of sale of said lots was made in said court, under which order, on June 15th, 1891, the lots were sold as the property of Beverly, and the plaintiff in execution, Johnson, became the purchaser for the sum of $13.30, and on the same day the lands were conveyed to him. The proof shows, that Thos. Vick and his wife were then, and continued thereafter to remain, in possession of the property, and on November 21, 1891, Johnson and wife conveyed his interest in the lots to Mrs. Vick for $65. There was no occasion to demand possession of complainant and for him to have yielded it to Johnson, in order to assert his right of redemption — for he was not in possession ; but Mrs. Vick was. The defendants, Mr. and Mrs. Vick, say in their [463]*463answer, that they were in possession of the lots, when they were sold under the Johnson execution, and that the latter bought Johnson’s judgment, not because she knew or believed he acquired any interest in said lots by his purchase at said sale under venditioni exponas, but to relieve herself from annoyance or any cloud on title ; and she denies that Johnson acquired anything by his said purchase. She denies also, that complainant, Beverly, has any interest in the property sought to be sold for partition,, and admits that the lots cannot be partitioned in kind between the joint owners. She does not set up or claim in her answer, that she held or claimed the Johnson judgment of $65 as a lawful charge on the lots, necessary to be paid by the complainant in his offer to redeem the property.

It is proper to add just here, that Beverly swore, that in the earlier part of 1889, he notified Thos. E. Vick that he had sold a half.interest in the lots to Mrs. Graham, who afterwards conveyed to Cammack; and said Vick, in his testimony, shows that in 1890, and up to February 1st, 1891, he was in possession of a half interest in said property as agent for his wife, and claimed no greater interest than that for her ; that Beverly at’ that time, was in possession of the other half interest, by his tenant, Jones, and not till Jones left, about the 1st of February, 1891, did he, Vick, take and hold exclusive possession of the entire property. He also states, that in 1890, as agent for his wife, he rented a half interest in the property to one Tabb, and he thought at the time, that Cammack owned the other half interest, and recognized his ownership of it, though, as he states, he found out afterwards that Cammack did not own such interest. This evidence is satisfactory to show, that at neither of his wife’s purchases — the one on the 23d December, 1889, under the judgment of award against Beverly in favor of her husband, and the other under the Johnson judgment, June 15th, 1889 — was Mrs. Vick and her husband ignorant and had no notice of the Graham and Cammack purchases, but it tends to show, without conflict, that they knew the source and current of the title, and that Mrs. Vick claimed only a half interest in the property, up to February 1st, 1891. And, as for the acquisition of any title, or right of possession since then, other than under the Johnson pur[464]*464chase, she has submitted no evidence. The interest she purchased under that judgment is subject, certainly, to redemption ; and she was not a bona fide purchaser without notice of the rights of Cammack, and of complainant under him.

2. The bill alleges that on the 29th February, 1892, complainant through his agent, Thos. W. Davis, tendered to Mrs. Vick the sum of $13.30, the amount of the purchase money paid by said Johnson at the sheriff’s sale for said property, with 10 per cent, per annum

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Bluebook (online)
112 Ala. 458, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vick-v-beverly-ala-1895.