Barton v. Lovejoy
| Decision Date | 01 February 1894 |
| Docket Number | 8546 |
| Citation | 57 N.W. 935,56 Minn. 380 |
| Parties | A. B. Barton et al. v. Frank Lovejoy et al |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Argued January 16, 1894.
Appeal by defendants, Frank Lovejoy, Lorin K. Lovejoy, Arthur Lovejoy and Mary E. Winston, from a judgment of the District Court of Crow Wing County, G. W. Holland, J., entered September 9, 1893.
On January 29, 1886, Jeremiah J. Howe and the firm of Farnham & Lovejoy were partners at Brainard in lumber business under the firm name of J. J. Howe & Co. Howe owned one fourth and the firm of Farnham & Lovejoy owned three fourths interest in its assets. The firm of J. J. Howe & Co. owned four thousand one hundred acres of pine timber land situated in Cass Itasca, and Aitkin counties, and a sawmill and lots in Brainard. The firm of Farnham & Lovejoy was in lumber business at Minneapolis and was composed of Sumner W. Farnham and James A. Lovejoy, each owning a half interest in the assets of that firm. The title to said real estate stood, two eighths in the name of Howe, three eighths in the name of Farnham, and the remaining three eighths in the name of Lovejoy. The firm of Farnham & Lovejoy was insolvent and so was each of the partners. The firm of J. J. Howe & Co. was largely indebted, but was solvent and so was Howe. On that day Lovejoy died testate and his will was duly proved in the Probate Court of Hennepin County and on March 8, 1886 letters testamentary were issued to Winthrop Young, Jeremiah J. Howe and O. C. Merriman, the executors named in the will. They accepted the trust. The will empowered them to sell the testator's real estate, and devised his property, real and personal, to his four children, the defendants above named in equal shares.
Farnham the surviving partner of the firm of Farnham & Lovejoy, in settling the partnership affairs of that firm, sold to A. B Barton and Jeremiah J. Howe its interest in the firm of J. J. Howe & Co. for $ 38,000 and used the proceeds to pay the partnership debts of Farnham & Lovejoy. With intent to transfer the property, he and wife and the said three executors on May 13, 1887, made deeds to them of all the interest of Farnham & Lovejoy in the above mentioned real estate. Doubts having arisen as to this title, the plaintiffs, A. B. Barton and Jeremiah J. Howe commenced this action under 1878 G. S. ch. 75, § 2, against the devisees and heirs of Lovejoy, to determine their adverse claims therein. They appeared and claimed under the will, three eighths undivided in all said real estate. The Court on June 19, 1893, made findings of fact and ordered judgment for plaintiffs, saying:
The sale was one which Farnham, as such surviving partner, had the right and authority to make. The same was fair and reasonable. No relation of trust or confidence between either Farnham or Howe, and the defendants was thereby violated. Defendants neither have nor had any interest in said property which can now entitle them to overturn or annul said sale and transfer. In any event their right to question or attack the sale has been lost by their long delay and by the effect of the settlement of the accounts of the executors in the Probate Court and their discharge. Plaintiffs are entitled to the judgment and decree of this court, that defendants have no right, title or interest in, or lien upon the lands so sold. The plaintiffs are the owners of the same as against the defendants and as against any one claiming under them.
Judgment was entered accordingly and the defendants appeal.
Little & Nunn, and Hale & Morgan, for appellants.
Leon E. Lum, and Jackson & Atwater, for respondents.
The plaintiffs brought this action to determine the adverse claims of the defendants to certain vacant premises situated in the counties of Cass, Itasca, and Crow Wing, in this state. It is alleged in the complaint that plaintiffs are the owners in fee of such vacant premises, and they ask that the title be determined to be in them, and forever quieted, and that the defendants, and each of them, be enjoined and barred from asserting any claim whatever in or to said lands. The defendants Frank L. Lovejoy, Lorin K. Lovejoy, Arthur Lovejoy, and Mary E. Winston answered, and the other defendants were in default.
Mary E. Winston, in her separate answer, alleges that she is the owner of three thirty-seconds of said premises, and the other three defendants, in their answer, each claims to be the owner in fee of three thirty-seconds of the premises.
On and prior to January 29, 1886, the premises in question were part of the partnership property and assets of the firm of J. J Howe & Co., but at said time the legal title to said land was held as follows: An undivided three-eighths by Sumner W. Farnham, an undivided three-eighths by James A. Lovejoy, and an undivided two-eighths by Jeremiah J. Howe, one of these plaintiffs. The firm of J. J. Howe & Co. then consisted of the partnership firms of Farnham & Lovejoy, owning a six eighths interest in its property and business, and said J. J. Howe, who owned a two-eighths interest in its said...
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