Buckner v. Stine

• Citation: 48 Mo. 407
• Parties: SAMUEL W. BUCKNER, Plaintiff in Error, v. PAUL STINE AND ELIZABETH STINE, Defendants in Error.
• Decision Date: 31 October 1871
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Missouri

48 Mo. 407

SAMUEL W. BUCKNER, Plaintiff in Error,

v.PAUL STINE AND ELIZABETH STINE, Defendants in Error.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

October Term, 1871.

Error to Louisiana Court of Common Pleas.

D. P. Dyer, for plaintiff in error.

I. The deed of Mendenhall was fraudulent and void as to those who were his creditors at its date.

II. The sale by the administrator to the plaintiff conveyed all the interest of Amos Mendenhall, and the deed by Block to the “heirs and legal representatives of Amos Mendenhall, deceased,” inured to the benefit of the plaintiff, and vested in him the legal title, subject to the dower interest of defendant Elizabeth Stine.

III. All the equities are in favor of the plaintiff, who purchased at the administrator's sale, and it makes no difference whether the defendant Elizabeth or her former husband, Mendenhall, paid for the property.Fagg & Johnston, for defendants in error.

I. The prayer of the petition embraces two separate and distinct actions that cannot be tried together. The manner of proceeding in the assignment of dower is altogether different from, and can not be joined with, a proceeding for the decree of title.

II. Upon the facts stated in the pleadings there could be no decree of title to the plaintiff, because the proper parties were not before the court. In such a proceeding the children of Mendenhall should have been made parties to the bill and properly brought into court.

III. There is no equity whatever in the bill. All the money paid and all the improvements made on the property were at the expense of Mrs. Mendenhall. The conveyance made by Block afterward to the heirs and legal representatives of Mendenhall inured to her benefit, and invested her with a complete title to so much of the property as was sold by the trustee. The remaining part of the property, as against this plaintiff, under the conveyance from Block, passed to Mrs. Stine, late Mrs. Mendenhall, and the children of Mendenhall by her.

BLISS, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

The plaintiff purchased at administrator's sale the interest of Amos Mendenhall, deceased, in certain real estate in the town of Louisiana, and filed his petition against Elizabeth Stine, formerly the widow of said Amos, and against her present husband, for a title to said land, and for an assignment to her of her dower interest in the same.

It appears that one Block had given to said Amos, while living, a title bond to the land for the price of $250; and that his wife, the...