Carter v. Price, (No. 3769.)

• Court: Supreme Court of West Virginia
• Writing for the Court: RITZ
• Citation: 102 S.E. 685
• Parties: CARTER et al. v. PRICE et al.
• Docket Number: (No. 3769.)
• Decision Date: 16 March 1920

102 S.E. 685

CARTER et al.
v.
PRICE et al.

(No. 3769.)

Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

March 16, 1920.

(Syllabus by the Court.)[102 S.E. 686]

[Ed. Note.—For other definitions, see Words and Phrases, First and Second Series, Laches.]

Appeal from Circuit Court, Kanawha County.

Suit by Margaret E. Carter and others against James A. Price and others. Demurrer to bill sustained' and bill dismissed, and plaintiffs appeal. Affirmed.

A. M. Belcher, of Charleston, for appellants.

Brown, Jackson & Knight and M. F. Matheny, all of Charleston, for appellees.

RITZ, J. This suit is brought by a daughter and the heirs at law of two other daughters of Edmund Price, Sr., against a son of said Edmund Price, Sr., and the descendants of his remaining children, and their grantees, for the purpose of having partition of certain real estate of which it is contended said Edmund Price, Sr., died seized; to have an accounting of the rents, issues, and profits derived therefrom, as well as an accounting for waste alleged to have been committed thereon; and to have set aside a deed from said Edmund Price, Sr., to his sons Archibald Price, Edmund Price, Burdette Price, and James Price, dated the 12th day of February, 1848, and recorded in the office of the clerk of the county court of Kanawha county on said 12th of February, 1848, upon the ground that said deed is a forgery.

The bill shows that Edmund Price, Sr., departed this life intestate, leaving surviving him eleven children, one of whom, Harriett Young, and the heirs of two others, are the plaintiffs, and one of whom, to wit, James A. >ttce, and the heirs at law of the others, who are deceased, are the defendants, together with sundry of their grantees. It is alleged that at the time of the death of Edmund Price, Sr., he was seized and possessed of a tract of 859 acres of land lying in the county of Kanawha, which was the remainder of a larger tract of more than 1, 200 acres theretofore conveyed to him; he having in his lifetime conveyed away certain parcels of this 1, 200-acre tract. It is alleged further that there appears of record in the clerk's office of the county court of Kanawha county a deed of February 12, 1848, purporting to be signed by said Edmund Price, Sr., and to' be acknowledged on said 12th' of February, 1848, before A. W. Quarrier, clerk of the county court of said county, and admitted to record on said date, purporting to convey to Archibald Price, Edmund Price, Burdette Price, and James Price, four of the sons of Edmund Trice, Sr., said 859 acres of land, in consideration of one dollar and love and affection; that at the time said deed purports to have been made, to wit, on the 12th of February, 1848, Edmund Price, Sr., was dead, and had been dead for a period of about six months, and that the said deed was executed in the name of said Edmund Price, Sr., by his son, one of the grantees, Edmund Price, Jr.; and that the other grantees in said deed knew of this forgery by their brother and cograntee. The bill further alleges that Harriett Young, daughter of the said Edmund Price, Sr., and her two sisters, ancestors of the other plaintiffs, were not living at the home of their father at the time of his death; that they were uneducated and had no knowledge or information of any kind or character of the recordation of said pretended deed, and were not familiar with the fact that deeds were recorded in the office of the clerk of the county court; and that they permitted their said brothers to live...