Woodruff v. Bates, 37806
| Decision Date | 19 February 1951 |
| Docket Number | No. 37806,37806 |
| Citation | 50 So.2d 559,210 Miss. 894 |
| Parties | WOODRUFF et al. v. BATES et al. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Conner & Nobles, Jackson, for appellant.
Breed O. Mounger, Tylertown, Lotterhos & Dunn, Jackson, for appellee.
This is an appeal by J. L. Woodruff, Wanete Oil Company, and Nathan Kalvin, defendants in the court below, from a decree of the chancery court of Walthall County rendered in favor of Mrs. Jessie Kate Bates and others, complainants, for the cancellation of three mineral deeds conveying interests in and to all oil, gas and other minerals in 1350 acres of land situated in Walthall County, which was owned by H. F. Bridges, Sr., during his lifetime.
The mineral deeds cancelled by the above mentioned decree are (1) a mineral deed conveying an undivided one-half interest in and to all oil, gas and other minerals in said lands, executed by H. F. Bridges, Sr., and his wife, Mrs. Lucinda Bridges, to J. L. Woodruff, and dated March 19, 1937; (2) a mineral deed conveying an undivided one-half interest in and to all oil, gas and other minerals in said lands executed by J. L. Woodruff to the Wanete Oil Company and dated March 25, 1937; and (3) a mineral deed conveying an undivided one-fourth of one-half interest in and to all oil, gas and other minerals in said lands executed by the Wanete Oil Company to Nathan Kalvin, and dated July 14, 1937. The basis of the suit for the cancellation of the above mentioned mineral deeds was the alleged fraud perpetrated by J. L. Woodruff upon H. F. Bridges, Sr., and his wife, in the procurement of the mineral deed executed by them on March 19, 1937.
The original bill of complaint was filed by H. F. Bridges, Sr., and his wife, Mrs. Lucinda Bridges, on April 14, 1939. Nonresident summons was duly issued and publication thereof was duly made for all of the defendants in the manner required by law. The defendants did not appear in response to the summons, and at the May 1939 term of the court a decree pro confesso and a final decree were entered granting the relief prayed for in the bill of complaint. On October 24, 1940, the appellants filed a petition and bond under the provisions of sections 470 and 471, Code of 1930, asking that the decree pro confesso and the final decree be set aside and that the cause be remanded to the docket for hearing on the merits; and on November 28, 1940, the decree pro confesso and the final decree were set aside and the cause remanded to the docket for hearing on the merits. Thereafter the defendants filed their separate answers to the original bill. Woodruff, in his answer, denied the allegations of fraud and misrepresentation contained in the bill; the Wanete Oil Company, in its answer, and Nathan Kalvin, in his answer, alleged that they were bona fide purchasers for value without notice of the alleged fraud on the part of Woodruff in the procurement of the original deed by Woodruff from the complainants.
H. F. Bridges, Sr., died in 1941, and Mrs. Bridges died in 1945. Prior to the death of H. F. Bridges, Sr., H. F. Bridges, Sr., and his wife, had executed deeds of conveyance of the above mentioned lands in separate parcels to their several children. A deed of conveyance of 120 acres of land was executed by them to Linus M. Bridges in 1935, but the deed was not recorded until 1938. The deeds of conveyance to Mrs. Jessie Kate Bates and the other children were executed by H. F. Bridges, Sr., and his wife, on April 12, 1940. A tract of 80 acres had been conveyed to William F. Herrin on December 27, 1938.
Sometime after the death of Mrs. Lucinda Bridges the suit filed by H. F. Bridges, Sr., and his wife, was revived in the names of Mrs. Jessie Kate Bates and others as heirs and successors of H. F. Bridges, Sr., and Mrs. Lucinda Bridges; Linus M. Bridges and William F. Herrin were permitted to file intervening petitions setting up their claims to parts of the minerals involved; and later an amended and supplemental bill of complaint was filed by all of the complainants, including the above named intervenors, in which it was alleged that J. L. Woodruff, at the time he procured the original mineral deed on March 19, 1937, was acting as agent for and on behalf of Wanete Oil Company and Nathan Kalvin in the purchase of mineral rights, and that the Wanete Oil Company and Nathan Kalvin were chargeable with the fraud of Woodruff in the procurement of the above mentioned mineral deed.
The defendants answered the amended bill of complaint; and in their answers, J. L. Woodruff and the Wanete Oil Company admitted that the said Woodruff, at the time he procured the mineral deed from H. F. Bridges, Sr., and his wife, was acting as agent for the Wanete Oil Company. Nathan Kalvin, in his separate answer, denied that Woodruff was acting as his agent in the purchase of said mineral interest, and denied that he had any notice of the alleged fraud perpetrated by the said Woodruff in the purchase of said mineral interest, or any notice of any defect in the title of the Wanete Oil Company in the mineral interest conveyed to him on July 14, 1937, and alleged that he was an innocent purchaser for value without notice of any fraud or defects in the title to the said minerals.
The cause was heard before the chancellor in vacation in June 1949 upon the amended bill of complaint, the separate answers to the amended bill of complaint and to the intervening petitions filed by J. L. Woodruff, the Wanete Oil Company and Nathan Kalvin, the depositions taken prior to the time of the hearing and oral testimony taken in open court.
The main testimony offered on behalf of the complainants was the deposition testimony of H. F. Bridges, Sr., taken in December 1940, about four months before his death. Bridges testified that J. L. Woodruff called to see him at his home on March 19, 1937 to see him about signing a mineral lease on the 1350 acres of land; that after some discussion of the matter, he agreed to sign a mineral lease; that Woodruff prepared the instrument immediately, using Bridges' tax receipts to get a proper description of the land; and that after the instrument had been prepared Bridges and his wife executed the same, thinking that it was a mineral lease. Bridges testified further that he did not agree to sell to Woodruff any interest in the oil, gas and other minerals on the 1350 acres of land; that nothing was said to him about the execution of a mineral deed; that Woodruff told him that the instrument that he had prepared was a mineral lease; and that he and his wife signed the same, thinking that it was a mineral lease; that he did not know until two years later that the instrument that Woodruff had prepared and that he and his wife had executed was, in fact, a mineral deed conveying to Woodruff an undivided one-half interest in the oil, gas and other minerals on the 1350 acres of land.
According to the testimony of the complainants' other witnesses, Mr. Bridges was approximately 81 years of age at the time he executed the mineral...
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