Bryant v. Bryant, 30098.

• Decision Date: 27 May 1932
• Docket Number: No. 30098.,30098.
• Citation: 50 S.W.2d 103
• Parties: BRYANT et al. v. BRYANT et al.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

50 S.W.2d 103

BRYANT et al. v. BRYANT et al.

No. 30098.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 1.

May 27, 1932.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Barry County; E. E. Smith, Judge.

Action by Henry Bryant and others against Harve Bryant and another. From the judgment rendered, the defendant named appeals.

Affirmed.

C. M. Landis and D. H. Kemp, both of Cassville, for appellant.

J. S. Davis, of Cassville, and J. E. Sater, of Monett, for respondents.

ATWOOD, J.

Respondents Henry Bryant, Mack Bryant, Virginia Clay, Jessie Lee, Mary Roberts, and Vance Roberts filed a petition in the circuit court of Barry county to partition about 178 acres of land in said county alleged to have been owned by Sarah E. Bryant at the time of her death, and naming Harve Bryant and Albert Bryant defendants. Henry Bryant, Mack Bryant, Harve Bryant, and Albert Bryant were the sole surviving children of W. R. Bryant and Sarah E. Bryant, both deceased, and Virginia Clay, Jessie Lee, Mary Roberts, and Vance Roberts were the sole surviving children of a predeceased daughter of the said W. R. and Sarah E. Bryant. The petition alleged that Henry Bryant, Mack Bryant, Harve Bryant, and Albert Bryant each owned one-fifth of the land, and that Virginia Clay, Jessie Lee, Mary Roberts, and Vance Roberts each owned an undivided one-twentieth interest therein.

Defendant Harve Bryant filed separate answer denying that plaintiffs and defendant Albert Bryant had any title to the real estate sought to be partitioned, alleging that he was the sole owner thereof, claiming title under a will executed by his father, W. R. Bryant, while he was sole owner thereof, and praying that title be decreed in him. Albert Bryant also filed separate answer alleging on information and belief that in the lifetime of his mother, Sarah E. Bryant, she and her husband, W. R. Bryant, "deeded the land described in plaintiffs' petition to one Ida Bryant their daughter, and that said Ida Bryant deeded said land to the said W. R. Bryant and Sarah E. Bryant who were, at the time of the execution of said deed, husband and wife; that the said Sarah E. Bryant, his mother, departed this life leaving surviving her, her husband, W. R. Bryant who lived and resided on said land from that time until his death, and that by his last will the said W. R. Bryant devised the real estate described in plaintiffs' petition to his co-defendant Harve Bryant who is now the sole and only owner thereof."

The case was tried and submitted to the court without the intervention of a jury. The court found that Sarah E. Bryant at the time of her death was seized and possessed in fee of the land in controversy and that plaintiffs and defendants, as the sole heirs of Sarah E. Bryant, acquired title to said lands jointly by inheritance from the said Sarah E. Bryant. In finding and declaring the interests of the parties in and to said land the court found that "Harve Bryant and Albert Bryant each inherited and owned One-Fifth (1-5) of said land but in as much as after the said Albert Bryant by his answer has disclaimed any interest in said land but has relinquished his right therein to his co-defendant, Harve Bryant, the Court finds that said Harve Bryant owns Two-Fifths (2-5) interest of said land." The court...