Case v. Goodman

• Decision Date: 10 May 1913
• Parties: CASE et al. v. GOODMAN et al.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

156 S.W. 698

250 Mo. 112

CASE et al. v. GOODMAN et al.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

May 10, 1913.

1. REMAINDERS (§ 9) — MERGER OF LIFE ESTATES.

Where land was conveyed in trust for a married woman and the heirs of her body without words creating an active trust, and she thereafter conveyed to her children, there was no merger of the remainder with the legal estate of the life tenant, since the statute does not execute a use in a married woman, and she, being alive at the time of the conveyance, had no heirs.

2. LIMITATION OF ACTIONS (§ 102) — COMPUTATION — TRUSTEE EX MALEFICIO.

Where land was conveyed in trust for a married woman and the heirs of her body, a purchaser from the trustee, with constructive notice of the trust, was a trustee ex maleficio for the woman, with remainder to her bodily heirs, and limitations did not run in his favor as against the cestui que trust, and hence upon her death her bodily heirs could recover the possession from those claiming under such grantee.

3. VENDOR AND PURCHASER (§ 231) — BONA FIDE PURCHASERS — CONSTRUCTIVE NOTICE.

A purchaser of land was charged with constructive notice that the recorded deed to his grantor conveyed the land to him in trust.

In Banc. Appeal from Circuit Court, Andrew County; A. D. Burns, Judge.

Ejectment by William H. Case and others against William J. Goodman and others. Judgment for defendants, and plaintiffs appeal. Reversed and remanded, with directions.

This is an ejectment for 40 acres of land in Andrew county. There was judgment for defendants, and the plaintiffs appeal.

On July 15, 1843, Harrison McGlothling, the then owner, conveyed the land to John Terrell, as trustee, by deed which was recorded on the same day "in trust for the use and benefit of her the said Frances Case, and the heirs of her body." There was no power of sale given to the trustee, and no words creating an active trust. Frances Case was married at the date of the above deed, and her husband died in 1887. She died in November, 1907. The plaintiffs are the heirs of her body.

On June 25, 1855, John Terrell, as trustee for Frances Case, for the expressed consideration of $400, conveyed the land to William Brown. The defendants put in evidence a chain of title from William Brown to them, and the defendants and their predecessors in the title have been in the open, notorious, exclusive, and adverse possession since the date of the deed from Terrell, trustee to Brown, and defendants now claim title by adverse possession.

Defendants read in evidence a quitclaim deed from William Case and wife to William H. Case, Belle Case, Samuel Case, and Cornelia Elliott, dated August 22, 1868, which deed does not appear to have been recorded. The plaintiffs objected to this deed on the ground that it had never been delivered or recorded and was made without the knowledge of these plaintiffs and could not bind them in this case. The objection was overruled, and plaintiffs excepted.

The defendant put in evidence the record of an ejectment suit for the land, brought by the grantees in the above quitclaim deed on August 31, 1868, against W. P. Hobson, who was then in possession under title from William Brown; said Hobson being in defendant's chain of title. The plaintiffs herein are the above-named William H. Case, Belle Case, and Samuel Case, and the heirs of Cornelia Elliott. The above case was dismissed, but the record does not show the date of the dismissal. The answer in that case admitted possession but was otherwise a general denial, and then set up title from William Brown.

Mytton & Parkinson, of St. Joseph, for appellants. P. C. Breit and Booher & Williams, all of Savannah, for respondents.

ROY, C.

1. It was held in Walton v. Ketchum, 147 Mo. loc. cit. 218, 48 S. W. 924, that the statute does not execute a use in a married woman, citing ...