Bush v. Piersol

• Decision Date: 02 July 1904
• Citation: 81 S.W. 1224,183 Mo. 500
• Parties: BUSH v. PIERSOL et al.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

81 S.W. 1224

183 Mo. 500

BUSH v. PIERSOL et al.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

July 2, 1904.

DOWER — RELINQUISHMENT — HUSBAND AND WIFE—JOINT DEED.

1. Where land of a husband was sold in bankruptcy proceedings, a deed of the husband and wife through a third person, acting as a mere conduit to the purchaser, was effective to bar the wife's right of dower in the land under Rev. St. 1899, §§ 901, 902, providing that a husband and wife may convey the wife's real estate, and the wife may relinquish her dower in the real estate of her husband, by their joint deed, acknowledged and certified in the prescribed form.

Appeal from Monroe County Circuit Court D. H. Eby, Judge.

Action by Emma J. Bush against John C. Piersol and others. From a judgment in favor of defendants, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

J. R. Reynolds and W. T. Ragland, for appellant. T. P. Bashaw, J. H. Whitecotton, and J. C. Piersol, for respondents.

GANTT, P. J.

This is an action for the assignment of dower in certain real estate in Monroe county, Mo. The plaintiff is the widow of William P. Bush, who died in 1900. Plaintiff and William P. Bush were married October 15, 1867. In 1873 William P. Bush owned large tracts of land in Monroe, Ralls, and Marion counties, of this state, and was largely indebted to various persons. On the 29th of October, 1873, William P. Bush and his wife, the plaintiff herein, executed a deed of trust to Samuel Logan, as trustee, to secure certain of his creditors, to the amount of $41,205, including all his lands, and the property in which plaintiff now seeks to have dower assigned. When this deed of trust was filed, certain unsecured creditors filed a petition in bankruptcy in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. He was adjudged a bankrupt, and William Dudley was duly appointed assignee, and all the lands, including that in controversy in this suit, were duly assigned to him by Enos Clark, register in bankruptcy. The homestead of Mr. and Mrs. Bush was duly set off to them. Afterward, on the 6th of February, 1882, the United States District Court, upon petition of said assignee, and with the consent of all the creditors of said bankrupt who had theretofore made proof of their claims against his estate as secured creditors, holding the security of liens upon the lands hereinafter and in said petition described, made an order directing the sale of all said lands at public auction, free and clear of all incumbrances except taxes for the year 1882. The assignee, having duly advertised, proceeded to sell said lands, and among other tracts on the 16th day of March, 1882, offered for sale the tract of land in which dower is claimed in this suit, containing, in all, about 320 acres, and Jacob Piersol and John C. Piersol being the highest bidders, at the price of $6,966, the same was knocked down to them, and said sale was confirmed, and, said purchasers having paid their bid, the assignee on the 7th day of April, 1882, conveyed the same to them by an assignee's deed, which was afterwards duly recorded. After purchasing the same the said Jacob and John C. Piersol subdivided that part of their purchase lying north of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway, and made an addition thereof to the town of Monroe City, known as "Piersol's Addition." After said sale William P. Bush and his wife asserted that said sale, for some reason, had not conveyed his title, and that plaintiff still had her inchoate dower therein, and, as said claim seriously impeded the sale of the lots in said addition, the said Jacob and John C. Piersol negotiated through one James M. Johnson, the agent of William P. Bush and his wife, for the purchase of...