Wheatcraft v. Wheatcraft

102 N.E. 42, 55 Ind. App. 283, 1913 Ind. App. LEXIS 275
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 6, 1913
DocketNo. 8,008
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 102 N.E. 42 (Wheatcraft v. Wheatcraft) 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
Wheatcraft v. Wheatcraft, 102 N.E. 42, 55 Ind. App. 283, 1913 Ind. App. LEXIS 275 (Ind. Ct. App. 1913).

Opinion

Hottel, P. J.

On March. 10, 1904, Eliza J. McAlpin, then the owner in fee simple of four separate tracts of real estate aggregating about eighty-one acres situated in Marion County, Indiana, conveyed and quitclaimed it to the appellant Harvey H. Wheatcraft of Johnson County, Indiana, as trustee. The provisions of the trust created by such deed are as follows:

“This indenture Witnesseth, that Henry Alexander McAlpin and Eliza J. McAlpin, his wife, of Marion County, and State of Indiana, convey and quitclaim, to Harvey H. Wheatcraft, of Johnson County and State of Indiana, as trustee, for the sum of One Dollar, the following Real Estate, in Marion County, Indiana, to wit: (Here follows description.) Said Harvey H. Wheat-craft, is to have and to hold said real estate, however, in •trust for the following purposes, to wit: Said trustee is to manage and control said real estate for and during the natural life of Fannie E. Wheatcraft, daughter of said Eliza J. McAlpin, -and is to account to and to pay over to said Fannie E. Wheatcraft during her natural life the net rents and profits of said real estate annually, said trustee to keep said property in good repair and to pay all taxes and other liens thereon. At the death of said Fannie E. Wheatcraft, said trust is to terminate and said real estate is to go to the child or children of said Fannie E. Wheatcraft then living and to the descendants of such as are dead, the descendants of any deceased child taking the same interest the parent would have taken if alive. This conveyance is made subject to a life estate in and to the above described real estate in the said Eliza J. McAlpin, which is hereby reserved from this conveyance, and she is to-have the possession and control thereof during her natural life. The said child or children above mentioned to take as purchasers under this deed.” .

Appellee Fannie E. Wheatcraft, at the time of the execution of such deed, was unmarried, and was the only child of the grantor. Appellee Grace Wheatcraft was then in life and was the only child of said Fannie. In March, 1905, [286]*286Eliza J. McAlpin died intestate leaving said Fannie as her only child and heir. On April 24, 1905, the trust deed was recorded in deed record — in Marion County, Indiana. On December 18, 1909, Grace Wheatcraft was married to David R. Tilton, and on March 23,1910, she and her mother Fannie joined in a petition filed in the Marion Circuit Court in which they, for the reasons therein set forth, asked a removal of the trustee. To this petition appellant filed a verified plea in abatement in which he alleged that he was then, and for more than twenty years prior thereto, had been, a resident of Johnson County, Indiana. To this plea a demurrer for want of facts was sustained and such ruling is assigned and relied on as error. A demurrer to the complaint and separate demurrers to each of the several grounds for removal, Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 11 and 12 were each overruled, and to each ruling appellant saved proper exceptions. These rulings are also assigned as error, and relied on for reversal. An answer in denial, three paragraphs of affirmative answer and a reply in denial closed the issues. There was a trial, and a ‘general finding for appellees and that appellant be removed. A motion for new trial was overruled and this ruling is assigned and relied on as error.

1. [287]*2872. 3. [286]*286The question presented' by the ruling on the demurrer to the plea in abatement, requires us to determine whether the place of residence of the trustee controls the ques tion of jurisdiction in such cases. The real estate in which the trust was created and over which the trustee, as such, was to exercise management and control was in Marion County. The deed creating the trust was recorded in Marion County. The petition sought the removal of the trustee and nothing more. It did not ask a personal judgment against appellant and tendered no issue that in any way affected his person or property, but sought only to relieve the trust estate of appellant’s management and control. The facts averred in the petition and the relief sought therein bring it within the general rule which [287]*287gives jurisdiction of a trust to a circuit court of the county in -which it is created. §§4023, 4039, 4040 Burns 1908, §§2980, 2996, 2997 R. S. 1881; Thiebaud v. Dufour (1876), 54 Ind. 320, 327; Tucker v. State, ex rel. (1880), 72 Ind. 242, 246; Hinds v. Hinds (1882), 85 Ind. 312, 316; Premier Steel Co. v. Yandes (1894), 139 Ind. 307, 316, 38 N. E. 849. It is urged against the complaint that it does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action iii favor of appellee G-raee Tilton, and that for this reason the demurrer thereto should have been sustained. Appellant’s contention that a complaint in which more than one plaintiff joins must state a cause of action in favor of all the parties joining therein to make it sufficient against a demurrer for want of facts is supported by authority. Darkies v. Bellows (1884), 94 Ind. 64, 66; Holzman v. Hibben (1885), 100 Ind. 338, 339, 340; McIntosh v. Zaring (1898), 150 Ind. 301, 313, 49 N. E. 164, and authorities there cited; Swales v. Grubbs (1893), 6 Ind. App. 477, 480, 33 N. E. 1124. It is insisted that the complaint shows that Fannie E. Wheatcraft was unmarried and that the words “child” or “children” as used in the deed here involved means the legitimate child or children of said Fannie, and that the complaint therefore shows upon its fact that Grace Tilton has no interest in the trust involved, and hence no cause of action was stated in her favor. “It is a rule of construction that prima facie the word child or children when used either in a statute or will, means legitimate child or children.” McDonald v. Pittsburgh, etc., R. Co. (1896), 144 Ind. 459, 461, 43 N. E. 447, 55 Am. St. 185, 32 L. R. A. 309. See, also, Jackson v. Hocke (1908), 171 Ind. 371, 373, 84 N. E. 830, and authorities there cited. In the complaint before us, however, it appears by necessary inference, that Grace Tilton was in being when Eliza J. MeAlpin made the deed in question, and was the only child of said Fannie E. Wheatcraft in being at that time. Mrs. MeAlpin having made the deed in question after the birth [288]*288of her grandchild, Grace, she will be presumed to have made it with reference to the existence of such grandchild.

4. 5. It is further insisted by appellant that by the terms of the deed in question, the appellee, Grace, at the time of the filing of the petition herein, had no vested interest in the remainder in the fee but only a contingent remainder therein, and that for this reason the complaint fails to show a cause of action in her. The law favors the vesting of remainders at the earliest possible moment; Myers v. Carney (1908), 171 Ind. 379, 84 N. E. 400, and authorities there cited; hut whether, by the provisions of the deed in question, the interest of appellee Grace in the real estate be treated as vested, or contingent only, the complaint shows that she had such an interest in the subject of the action as entitled her, under §263 Burns 1908, §262 R. S. 1881, to join as a plaintiff.

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Bluebook (online)
102 N.E. 42, 55 Ind. App. 283, 1913 Ind. App. LEXIS 275, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wheatcraft-v-wheatcraft-indctapp-1913.