Wilson v. Wilson

92 S.W. 145, 115 Mo. App. 641, 1906 Mo. App. LEXIS 13
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 8, 1906
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 92 S.W. 145 (Wilson v. Wilson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wilson v. Wilson, 92 S.W. 145, 115 Mo. App. 641, 1906 Mo. App. LEXIS 13 (Mo. Ct. App. 1906).

Opinion

JOHNSON, J.

— The cause of action pleaded in the petition is in the nature of assumpsit and is for the recovery of an alleged unpaid portion of the purchase price of a stock of merchandise sold by plaintiff to defendant. The case was here once before and is reported in 106 Mo. App. 501. It was reversed and remanded for reasons that do not concern us. Following its disposition under the former appeal, defendant filed an amended answer containing several affirmative defenses, none of which needs be stated, as no question touching the sufficiency of that pleading is before us and the averments furnish a sufficient foundation to support the evidence offered. A statement of the facts in evidence will disclose the nature of the issues tendered by the pleadings.

Plaintiff owned a stock of goods in a town in Worth county and defendant owned a farm of three hundred and fifteen acres in M'acon county. The parties met in Bucklin and, with the assistance of an agent (whose name is not made clear, nor is it important); entered into a written contract prepared by the agent and which is as follows:

[645]*645“Bucklin, Mo., October 21,1901.

“This agreement made and entered into this day by and between Emmet L. Wilson, of Albany, Mo., party of the first part, and G-. B. Wilson, of Worth, Worth county, Mo., party of the second part, Witnesset-h: That the party of the first part has this day sold to the party of the second part, his farm of about 315 acres known as the Cherry farm, in sections 34 and 35 in Walnut Creek township, No. 59, of range 16, Macon county, Mo'., and for the consideration of ten thousand five hundred dollars and is to furnish clear abstract of title excepting an incumbrance of $4,000 to be assumed by the said second party. The party of the first part is to1 take in exchange therefor from the party of the second part, a stock of general merchandise, consisting of dry goods, groceries, boots, shoes, hardware, furniture and such other goods as may now be in stock, situated in large storerooms, size 50x80 in Worth, Mo. Said stock to be invoiced at first cost. Said goods bought from Mr. Mc-Rennels at the same price bought for. Also the fixtures at the same price taken for when bought by the said second party. Said first party to give possession of farm January 1,1902, or sooner if, also to pay interest on debt to that date. The stock of goods to be invoiced, commencing October 31, 1901, or sooner. (Signed)

(Seal) “E. L. Wilson,

(Seal) “G-. B. Wilson.”

Pursuant to this contract, the goods were inventoried and found to be of the value of $7,266.77. Under the supposition that the amount of the incumbrance upon the land was $4,000, the value of defendant’s interest therein was fixed by the contract at $6,500, which was $766.77 less than the agreed value of the goods. Upon the completion of the valuation of the merchandise, delivery thereof was made by plaintiff to defendant and accepted, and defendant continued the business of a retail merchant, to that time conducted by plaintiff. Defendant, [646]*646at different times, made payments to plaintiff of different sums for application upon the amount due plaintiff on account of the excess in the value of the goods over that of defendant’s interest in the land, and thereby extinguished that liability to plaintiff save as to two items, one of which is the real subject of dispute.

The first item relates to the unpaid interest that accrued on the real estate loan January 1,1902, and which it is conceded defendant, under the contract, was to pay. Defendant testified that this item was included in a settlement made by the parties and paid, but plaintiff testified that no settlement was made and the item was not paid, and the issue of fact thus raised was properly presented to the jury in the instructions given, decided adversely to defendant, and therefore may be dismissed from further consideration.

The real controversy between the parties developed from a commission loan of $366.67, secured by a deed of trust covering the land involved in the trade. The incumbrance upon the land, in fact, consisted of two trust deeds. The first secured a loan of $3,500, that would not mature until some time in 1907, and bore interest at the rate of five per cent per annum, and the second secured another loan of $500 and, in addition, a commission loan that represented the compensation of the loan agents for services in the procurement of the first loan of $3,500. Defendant contends that, as this commission loan in fact represents interest on the first loan at the rate of two per cent per annum during its maturing period, it should be treated as interest and, as the sum in dispute represents interest on the loan that had not accrued on January 1,1902, it should be assumed and paid by plaintiff.

Defendant conceded that the contract would not sustain him in this position and sought to overcome this obstacle by pleading and attempting to prove that the contract did not express the real intention of the parties and was signed by him under mistake. This issue [647]*647also was properly sent to the jury as one of fact, determined in favor of plaintiff and, therefore, is now out of the case.

With the real facts known to both parties, defendant, sometime after he received possession of the goods, tendered a warranty deed to plaintiff conveying the land. Following the description of the property and preceding the habendum clause, the following provision was inserted: “This deed is made subject to an incumbrance of four thousand dollars and unpaid commission on said loan.” Plaintiff for a long time refused to accept this deed on account of the reference made therein to the commission loan, claiming that it was at variance with the agreement expressed in the contract; and an animated dispute ensued, that continued for some months, each party contending that the duty of clearing the land of the lien of the commission loan devolved upon the other, or to state it in another way, defendant claimed that plaintiff should assume the payment of the commission loan and receive the equity of redemption in the land as a payment of $6,500 upon the purchase price of the goods, while plaintiff insisted that, if he assumed the payment of that loan, the amount thereof should be deducted from the value of the equity of redemption. Finally, plaintiff feeling compelled to take what he could get, in order to avoid the risk of greater loss, accepted the deed under protest and with the assertion that he did not accept it in full satisfaction of the remainder due him upon the purchase price of the goods. Afterwards, plaintiff paid the loan. These are facts in evidence bearing the approval of the verdict rendered and that serve to elucidate the question of law presented for our solution. A statement of other evidence and issues would be extraneous to the case as it now stands. Plaintiff recovered judgment for the full amount prayed.

Defendant’s position here, in some respects, is hardly consistent with that' occupied by him in the trial court, but in the view we have of the case, we will pass [648]*648by tbat point and deal with him upon the ground he now chooses. The reasons urged in his argument for a reversal of the judgment may thus be stated:

(1) The action is in fact, though not in form, for the recovery of the amount paid by plaintiff in satisfaction of the commission loan and not for the recovery of a. part of the purchase price of the merchandise.

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Bluebook (online)
92 S.W. 145, 115 Mo. App. 641, 1906 Mo. App. LEXIS 13, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wilson-v-wilson-moctapp-1906.