Chapman v. Williams

• Decision Date: 14 July 1919
• Docket Number: 10238.
• Citation: 100 S.E. 360,112 S.C. 402
• Parties: CHAPMAN v. WILLIAMS ET AL.
• Court: South Carolina Supreme Court

100 S.E. 360

112 S.C. 402

CHAPMAN v. WILLIAMS ET AL.

No. 10238.

Supreme Court of South Carolina

July 14, 1919

Gage J., dissenting.

Appeal from Common Pleas Circuit Court of Abbeville County; S.W. G Shipp, Judge.

Action by Mrs. Belle Chapman against E. W. Williams, in his own right, and as Chairman of Board of Trustees of the Afro-American Presbyterian Church, and the Afro-American Presbyterian Church. Judgment for plaintiff, and the Afro-American Presbyterian Church appeals. Reversed.

J. M Nickles, of Abbeville, for appellant.

Wm. N Graydon, of Columbia, for respondent.

FRASER J.

The record shows that Rev. E. W. Williams was the president in charge of Ferguson and Williams College, for colored youths, located in the city of Abbeville, S.C. It was deemed for the best interest of all concerned to change the location of the college, and the defendant Williams secured an option on the tract of 40 acres of land then owned by the plaintiff respondent; the purchase price to be $3,000. The defendant Williams then went North to raise the money to buy the land. In Washington he met a lady who gave him the $3,000 with which to pay the purchase price of the land to be used for the college. He at once returned to Abbeville and called together the trustees and told them that he had the money to pay for the land; that the college was in need of supplies, but that he had an agreement with Mr. Chapman, the husband of the plaintiff, who was acting as her agent in the sale, by which the deed was to be made upon the payment of $2,500; and that he would arrange for the other $500. The trustees deny that they consented to the withholding of the $500. Be that as it may, the defendant Williams deposited the $3,000 in a bank in Washington and gave to Mr. Morse, the treasurer of Ferguson and Williams College, a check for $2,500, and this sum was turned over to the plaintiff, and the plaintiff delivered the deed. The deed as it now appears was to the trustees of the Afro-American Presbyterian Church. The transfer of the property and management from Ferguson and Williams College to the Afro-American Presbyterian Church is not in question. The church popularly known as the "Southern Presbyterian Church" assisted in the management and furnished some trustees who were white men. The defendant Williams gave, not to the grantor, but to her husband, his individual note for $500, and a mortgage of the land conveyed by the plaintiff to the defendant the Afro-American Presbyterian Church. Mr. Chapman died, and Mrs. Chapman, who was the sole beneficiary, found the note and mortgage among his papers. The note has not been paid. Mrs. Chapman brought this action to reform the note and mortgage, so as to substitute the Afro-American Church as the maker of the note and the mortgage, or in the mortgage in place of E. A. Williams, and to foreclose the same.

The case was tried in the court of common pleas, and a decree was made reforming the note and mortgage and ordering foreclosure. From this decree this appeal is taken, upon several exceptions. The appellant did not treat the exceptions seriatim, and we will not.

As this court views the record, only one...