Brown v. Citizens' State Bank
| Decision Date | 13 December 1939 |
| Docket Number | 36142 |
| Parties | Harry C. Brown, Appellant, v. Citizens' State Bank, a Corporation, Trenton Trust Company, a Corporation, Trenton National Bank, a Corporation, Bank of Brimson, a Corporation, Drovers' & Merchants' Bank of St. Joseph, a Corporation, First National Bank of St. Louis, a Corporation, Farmers' Bank of Trenton, a Corporation, Don C. McVay, Beatrice Bowne McVay, Joseph S. Neff, Guy A. Thompson, Nancy E. Martin, M. M. Hawley, E. G. Kathan, and W. O. Garvin |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Appeal from Livingston Circuit Court; Hon. Ira A. Beals Judge.
Affirmed.
Chas A. Miller and Henry R. Gannan for appellant.
Ernest Hubbell, Platt Hubbell, Geo. H. Hubbell and Carter & Jones for Citizens State Bank and others.
H J. Bain and Thomas J. Layson for Trenton Trust Company and others; A. L. Guitar for Drovers' & Merchants' Bank; L. A. Warden for M. M. Hawley.
Dalton, C. Hyde and Bradley, CC., concur.
This is an action in equity to quiet title to certain real estate, secure an accounting for rents and profits and for partition. In his amended petition plaintiff claims an interest (less than a 1/25 interest) in several thousand acres of particularly described real estate located in three different counties in this state, and plaintiff seeks by this proceeding to establish said interest in the real estate described. Suit was instituted May 15, 1931, and on January 5, 1938, the trial court sustained a demurrer to plaintiff's first amended petition. Plaintiff declined to plead further and a judgment was entered dismissing the cause and costs taxed against him. Plaintiff has appealed.
Respondents insist that this appeal should be dismissed because of appellant's failure to comply with our Rule 15. It is contended, first that appellant has failed to make a fair and concise statement of the facts in the case.
The statement of appellant in his brief is as follows:
As to the facts alleged in the petition appellant says,
With reference to the relief asked, appellant says, "The plaintiff asks that the right, title and interest of appellant be determined and that said right, title and interest and estate therein and thereto be, by the order, judgment and decree divested out of defendants and vested in plaintiff, assignee, and that partition be had among the parties accordingly; that the lands be sold and proper distribution made to the respective parties according to their interests; that by order, judgment and decree a lien in favor of plaintiff be declared in certain lands and for rents and profits collected by defendants and for such other orders, judgments and decrees as may be appropriate in the premises."
To appellant's statement of facts, we must add that the plaintiff's first amended petition alleged that on September 7, 1921, Columbus D. Thompson conveyed the real estate described to one A. G. Knight in trust to secure the payment of certain specified claims, in the total sum of approximately $ 150,000, to certain creditors; that said real estate was "subject to certain liens;" that thereafter, in 1922, by agreement of all of said creditors, a corporation, known as the Grundy Land Company, was formed for the purpose of purchasing the real estate held by the trustee and for the purpose of selling the same to liquidate the indebtedness of said Thompson to said creditors; that the capital stock of said Grundy Land Company was divided into 1599 7/100 shares distributed among said creditors in accordance with their respective claims; that 62 32/100 shares were owned by plaintiff's assignor (one Dee Brown) and the remaining shares of capital stock were held by the other creditors, the particular number of shares held by each creditor or for each creditor being alleged; that all of the claims of said creditors against the said Columbus D. Thompson were then assigned to the Grundy Land Company and when the said real estate was sold by the trustee it was purchased by the Grundy Land Company, with no expenditure of money other than the payment of the expense of the sales and the cost of the administration of the trust; and that the trustee received no other funds from the sale of the lands.
Said petition further alleged that during 1926 and 1928 the Grundy Land Company made conveyances of particularly described tracts of its said real estate to certain named persons, said grantees being the parties named as incorporators and stockholders of the Grundy Land Company and creditors of Columbus D. Thompson; that by said deeds the corporation conveyed all of the real estate conveyed to it by A. G. Knight, as trustee, except one tract; that said corporation further offered to convey said tract to Dee Brown, plaintiff's assignor, subject to a certain lien, and upon the condition that the said Dee Brown would execute a promissory note for $ 3000 to said corporation and secure the same by a deed of trust upon said real estate; that by reason of said facts the title offered Dee Brown was of no value and that the corporation at no time offered him anything of value.
It is further alleged as follows: "That by said conveyances made by the said Grundy Land Company to the defendants, as aforesaid, the said Grundy Land Company rendered itself insolvent; that the said conveyances made by the said Grundy Land Company to the defendants . . . constituted a fraud upon the said Dee Brown's rights as a stockholder of the said Grundy Land Company; that neither the said Dee Brown nor his assignee Harry C. Brown, plaintiff herein, have received any property whatsoever of any kind or character from the said Grundy Land Company; that the lands conveyed as aforesaid by said Grundy Land Company to the defendants herein were accepted by them and by each and all of them as being in full and complete discharge of all of their rights against said Grundy Land Company as the holder of the legal title for the benefit of all of the shareholders of said Grundy Land Company . . . that said Grundy Land Company, by conveyances aforesaid, exhausted its entire assets for the benefit of all of its shareholders except Dee Brown, whereas said Dee Brown was entitled to participate in such distribution of such assets as to consist of fractional 389/10,000ths part thereof, and, accordingly, the defendants and all and each and every one of them now hold title to the lands conveyed to them, hereinabove described, as trustee for the benefit of said Harry C. Brown to the extent of 389/10,000ths interest therein, for on the fourteenth day of May, 1931, the said Dee Brown made, executed, and delivered to the said Harry C. Brown, plaintiff herein, an instrument in writing, whereby the said Dee Brown conveyed to the said Harry C. Brown all his rights as a creditor of the said Columbus D. Thompson, all his rights as a beneficiary of the trust created by the said Columbus D. Thompson, as aforesaid, for the benefit of the said Dee Brown and other creditors, all his rights as a stockholder in the said Grundy Land Company, and all his rights against the defendants herein, and all his rights in and to the real estate hereinbefore described."
The demurrer, filed by certain defendants, charged that the amended petition failed to state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action against any of the defendants; that it showed on its face that plaintiff was entitled to no equitable relief, but had an adequate remedy at law; and that plaintiff and his assignor had been guilty of laches sufficient to bar any cause of action.
We think it is apparent that appellant's statement of facts, as hereinbefore set out, unaided by the further statement we have made, was inadequate. The statement fails to set forth some of the essential facts upon which the appellant, in his petition, bases his claim to an interest in the real estate described. In lieu thereof, appellant says that "this court may ascertain the facts from a reading of the petition."
Respondents further contend that the appellant's assignment of error is too general; that appellant has failed...
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