Wilson v. Brookshire

9 L.R.A. 792, 25 N.E. 131, 126 Ind. 497, 1890 Ind. LEXIS 592
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 16, 1890
DocketNo. 14,295
StatusPublished
Cited by43 cases

This text of 9 L.R.A. 792 (Wilson v. Brookshire) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wilson v. Brookshire, 9 L.R.A. 792, 25 N.E. 131, 126 Ind. 497, 1890 Ind. LEXIS 592 (Ind. 1890).

Opinion

Mitchell, J.

— Elijah V. Brookshire, as receiver of the Ladoga Seminary, brought this suit against James L. Wilson and William Hughes to procure the cancellation of a deed for certain real estate which the sheriff of Montgomery county conveyed to Hughes.

A cross-complaint was filed by the latter, and upon issues made upon the complaint and cross-complaint, there was a general judgment for the plaintiff below.

The merits of the controversy may be determined by considering the facts specially found by the court. The material facts thus found are that the Ladoga Seminary, an incorporated company, owned the real estate in controversy, and had erected thereon buildings, designed for an institution of learning. In 1876 the corporation found itself involved in debt, its real estate having become encumbered with liens to the amount of $1,200. Among other liens there was one known as the “ Billingsley judgment,” rendered in 1873, and amounting to $220.25, besides costs. About this time a number of citizens subscribed various sums, amounting in all to $1,725, to the capital stock of the corporation, their purpose being to free the property from encumbrance and put the buildings in suitable repair. The subscriptions were all made on the express condition that no part of the amount subscribed should be expended in making repairs except what might remain after paying off the encumbrances on the property. The defendant James L. Wilson was mutually chosen by the officers of the corporation and the subscribers to the new stock, to collect the amount subscribed, pay off [499]*499the liens, and make the contemplated repairs. He accepted the trust, collected $1,610 of the money subscribed, which the court finds was $400 in excess of the amount required to discharge all the liens on the property. With the exception of several small items, amounting to $238, it does not appear from the finding how the amount collected was disbursed, there being in the finding only a general statement that the residue was applied to the payment of judgments and in making repairs. Of the $238 Wilson retained $90 for his services.

On the 10th day of February, 1877, while Wilson was engaged in executing the trust he had undertaken, he paid Billingsley $225, and took an assignment of the judgment theretofore rendered in favor of the latter against the Ladoga Seminary, to himself, and for more than six years prior to the commencement of this action openly asserted ownership of the judgment, and declared his purpose to enforce it against the property of the corporation, of which purpose its officers had notice.

It is not found whether the Billingsley judgment was paid by Wilson, with his individual funds, or out of the subscriptions which he was engaged in collecting. Subsequently, in December, 1884, Wilson caused the property to be sold at sheriff’s sale to satisfy the judgment assigned to him as above, he becoming the purchaser. He afterwards assigned the certificate of purchase to Hughes, to whom he was indebted, the latter giving him credit for the amount on an antecedent debt, with knowledge at the time of Wilson’s relation to the property and to the parties interested, and of the condition upon which the subscriptions to the stock were made. Hughes obtained a sheriff’s deed in December, 1885, and took possession of the property.

It is found that in the year 1883, when Wilson was about to sell the property on the Billingsley judgment, the Indiana Central Normal College being in possession as tenant of the Ladoga Seminary, instituted a suit in the Montgomery [500]*500Circuit Court for the purpose of enjoining the sale on the alleged ground that Wilson had collected, as the agent or trustee of the Ladoga Seminary and the subscribers to its stock more than a sufficient amount of money to pay off the Billingsley claim and all other liens on the property, and that according to the condition upon which the subscriptions were made, and owing to the relations of Wilson to the property, the judgment was, as to him, actually paid. It is found that such proceedings were had in that case that a judgment was rendered in favor of Wilson and against the Indiana Central Normal College. The Ladoga Seminary was not a party to that action, and did not participate in the trial; but it had knowledge that the suit had been instituted, and the president of the board of trustees, without any authority from the board, employed an attorney, who appeared for the purpose of looking after the interests of the seminary.

The plaintiff below was duly appointed receiver, at the suit of divers persons interested in the property of the corporation. Upon the facts, as above summarized, the court stated conclusions of law adverse to the appellants Wilson and Hughes. The facts found were all within the issues in the case, and whether the judgment shall be reversed or affirmed depends upon the propriety of the conclusions of law stated.

The conclusions stated by the court are assailed upon various grounds: 1. It is said the facts found show that the cause of action accrued more than six years before the suit'was commenced, and assuming that the present is an action for relief against a fraud it is, hence, contended that the suit is barred by the statute, in which it is provided that actions for relief against frauds shall be commenced within six years, and not afterwards. Section 292, R. S. 1881. The conclusion is necessarily erroneous, because the premise from which it is drawn is incorrect. The action is not for relief against fraud, within the meaning of subdivision four of the [501]*501section above. The action was not brought to rescind a contract induced by fraudulent misrepresentation or conceal- \ ment, nor to set aside a conveyance on the ground that it . was procured, or made, as the result of an actual agreed scheme to defraud ; nor does the plaintiff’s right to main-' tain his action depend upon his ability to prove that any actual fraud was either committed or contemplated. The action was brought to procure the cancellation of a sheriff’s deed, and to have an encumbrance removed from certain real estate owned by the Ladoga Seminary, of which it is alleged one of the appellants is in possession. It proceeds upon the assumption that the Billingsley judgment was actually paid and satisfied at the time the sheriff’s sale was made to Wilson, owing to the fiduciary relation which the latter occupied toward the property, and those interested in it at the time he paid the money and took an assignment of the judgment.

By accepting the trust and entering upon its performance, Wilson assumed such a relation to the property in controversy that he became disqualified from acquiring any right in it hostile to those in whose behalf he was acting, without their consent. And this was so whether he contemplated any fraud upon them or not. Having undertaken to perform a trust which required him to collect the money subscribed for stock, and. out of the first moneys collected, to pay off the encumbrances on the property, and having collected more than enough to pay off all the encumbrances, he could not, while standing in the relation of a trustee, ac-i quire title to the trust property. The purchase by him was voidable absolutely at the election of those interested, and ! in order to avoid it, nothing more was necessary than to : show the relation which the purchaser occupied to the prop- . erty and to the stockholders of the corporation.

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Bluebook (online)
9 L.R.A. 792, 25 N.E. 131, 126 Ind. 497, 1890 Ind. LEXIS 592, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wilson-v-brookshire-ind-1890.