Bledsoe v. Games

• Decision Date: 31 July 1860
• Citation: 30 Mo. 448
• Parties: BLEDSOE, Plaintiff in Error, v. GAMES et al., Defendants in Error.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

30 Mo. 448

BLEDSOE, Plaintiff in Error,

v.GAMES et al., Defendants in Error.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

July Term, 1860.

1. The vendor of an equitable title has a lien for the unpaid purchase money to the same extent as the vendor of the legal title.

Error to Callaway Circuit Court.

This was an action by the plaintiff Bledsoe against John Games, Gideon Games, and Jonathan C. Duvall. The petition in substance is as follows: Plaintiff states that on October 3, 1858, and long prior thereto, he was the owner in equity of a certain tract of land; that the defendant Gideon Games holds the legal title in trust for the plaintiff; that Gibeon Games, having the legal title formerly, sold said land to his son John Games and Craig Games jointly; that Craig sold his undivided half thereof to John Games; that said Gideon then executed a title to said John Games his son; that said John Games being the equitable owner, and being possessed, transferred by written agreement, dated December 26, 1856, his said equitable title to the plaintiff Bledsoe for $2,000; that having paid the purchase money due upon said agreement, he, Bledsoe, became the equitable owner of said land; that afterwards he, Bledsoe, contracted and agreed to sell said land to John Games for the sum of $2,400, for which said sum he agreed to take in payment from said John Games a note for $1,000 that had been given to said John Games by plaintiff, and for the balance of said purchase money he took the note of said John Games for $1,400, dated October 3, 1857, and payable on or before June 1, 1858; that said note is due and remains unpaid; that said Gideon Games, being possessed of the legal title and being trustee for the plaintiff and having full notice of the lien of the plaintiff for the balance of the purchase money, sold the said tract to Jonathan Duvall for $2,800; that said Duvall purchased without notice of plaintiff's lien; that there is a balance of purchase money remaining due and unpaid by said Duvall amounting to $1,400; that $1,400 has been paid by said Duvall to said Gideon Games. Plaintiff asks judgment against said John Games for $1,400, the amount of his note, with interest. He also asks that the purchase money still remaining unpaid by said Duvall and to Gideon Games be arrested in the hands of said Duvall and applied in payment of the amount due plaintiff on the note from John Games; that Gideon Games be restrained from collecting the sum due from Duvall to the prejudice of plaintiff; that Gideon Games be compelled to account for sums received from Duvall. Plaintiff also prays that after the payment of said note from John Games, the title to the land, as against said John Games and Gideon Games, be decreed to vest in said Duvall.

The court sustained a demurrer to this petition.

Jones & Hayden, for plaintiff in error.

I. The plaintiff had invested in the land an interest amounting to the sum of two thousand dollars, being the price paid by him to John Games. As against John Games, to whom he afterwards sold the land, nothing could divest that interest except the payment of the money; and so long as the purchase money remained unpaid the land was in equity a security therefor. Before he could make this security available, Gideon Games, who held the legal title in trust constructively for John Games and his assignee, Willis Bledsoe, in violation of that trust, sells to Duvall, receives part of the money, and pockets it, and is seeking to obtain the balance. Gideon Games had no interest in the land; he had sold it. If the purchase money was still due him, that would be a fact to be set up by him. He could not foreclose such an equity by a private sale to Duvall, by which the...