Catron v. Scarritt Collegiate Institute

• Decision Date: 02 April 1915
• Docket Number: No. 16246.,16246.
• Parties: CATRON et al. v. SCARRITT COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE et. al.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

175 S.W. 571

264 Mo. 713

CATRON et al. v. SCARRITT COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE et. al.

No. 16246.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

April 2, 1915.

In Banc. Appeal from Circuit Court, Barton County; B. G. Thurman, Judge.

Suit by C. C. Catron and others against the Scarritt Collegiate Institute and others. From a judgment for plaintiffs, defendants appeal. Reversed.

This suit was brought to the January term, 1910, of the circuit court of Jasper county. The petition alleges that the plaintiffs are the board of trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, of Carthage, Mo.; that the defendant Scarritt Collegiate Institute is a corporation of this state, organized as an institution of learning, and subject to the supervision and control of the Southwest Missouri Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South; that the other defendants are the board of curators of Scarritt Collegiate Institute; that on the 19th of September, 1892, W. E. Hall and wife executed warranty deeds conveying 1,600 acres of land, situated in the state of Texas, to the defendant Scarritt Collegiate Institute, then located at Neosho, in Newton county, Mo.

The petition further alleges that said grantee has sold the land so conveyed to it and realized therefrom the sum of about $13,500, evidenced by money and notes secured by deeds of trust; that the grant of the lands described in said deeds was expressed to be"for the use and benefit of said institution of learning, especially for the endowment of the president's chair in memory of our deceased son J. Winston Hall"; and that each of said deeds recited "said land or the proceeds thereof is to be applied by said corporation to the object hereinbefore stated."

The petition further alleges that the defendant Scarritt Collegiate Institute has ceased to exist as an institution of learning at the city of Neosho of Missouri for several years; that all its furniture and appliances have been removed to other institutions of learning, and that the church conference has directed the holders of the legal title to the collegiate grounds and buildings to sell and dispose thereof, and that said conference has further ordered and directed that the fund arising from the sale of the Texas lands donated to the Scarritt Collegiate Institute should be paid over by the curators of that corporation to the plaintiffs, trustees, to be used in the erection of a memorial church at Carthage, Mo.; that in 1907 W. E. Hall, one of the grantors of the two deeds, died, leaving his wife and two sons as his only heirs; that these have assigned and transferred to petitioners in writing all of their right, title, and interest in and to said fund on the 20th of September, 1909; that petitioners accepted said assignment and agreed to use the same in the construction of a memorial church in the city of Carthage, Mo., and have demanded the same from the defendants, who have refused and neglected to pay it over to plaintiffs. Wherefore petitioners pray that the said defendants be required to make a full and complete statement of said fund and a full accounting for the same, and be directed to turn over the money and notes representing it to the plaintiffs. Certain of the defendants, who were curators of the Scarritt Collegiate Institute, filed an answer declining to contest the right of plaintiffs as set forth in their petition denying that they had possession of the fund in controversy, and asking to be discharged free of costs. The remaining members of the board of curators filed an answer, which, so far as material on this appeal, set up in defense to the claims of plaintiffs, as set forth in their petition, the following averments in substance: That the Scarritt Collegiate Institute was incorporated in 1888 to conduct an institution of learning for students of both the male and female sex at Neosho, Mo., under the auspices, of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and not subject to any particular conference of said church. That the deed conveying the Texas lands to said corporation was an unconditional gift under the warranty of the grantors against claims of all persons. That upon sale of said lands its proceeds were safely invested and amounted, on the 27th of December, 1909, to about $13,625.20, specifying the notes making up that sum. That neither the wife nor the two surviving children of the grantors in said deed had any interest in said fund nor could assign the same to plaintiffs. Issue was taken by reply. The cause was transferred by stipulation to the Barton circuit court. On the trial, the plaintiffs introduced in evidence the two deeds conveying the Texas lands, which, though for different tracts, are exactly alike in all other terms, and, omitting descriptions, are, to wit:

"Know all men by these presents: That we W. E. Hall and M. E. Hall, his wife, at city of Carthage, county of Jasper and state of Missouri, parties of the first part, for and in consideration of the love we bear for the cause of Christ and our earnest desire to promote His heritage on earth do give and grant and by these presents convey unto the Scarritt Collegiate Institute, a corporation under the laws of the state of Missouri, located at Neosho, Newton county; Mo., as party of the second part, for the use and benefit of said institution of learning especially for the endowment of the president's chair in memory of our deceased son J. Winston Hall, the following described real estate in the county of Hardeman, state of Texas, * * * all 1,600 acres of land and more or less which said land or the proceeds thereof is to be applied by said corporation to the object hereinbefore stated and the said corporation is to have and to hold the property aforesaid for the use aforesaid free from the claim or claims of the grantors herein, their heirs or assigns and free from the claims of all other persons whomsoever. In witness whereof we have hereunto fixed our seals and subscribed our names this 19th day of September, 1982.

                                    W. E. Hall. [Seal.]
                                    "M. E. Hall. [Seal.]"
                

(Italics ours.)

Some oral testimony was adduced over the objections of defendants as to the purpose of the grantors in said deeds, which, and also the documentary evidence, as far as necessary, will be referred to in the opinion.

The defendant Scarritt Collegiate Institute on January 12, 1909, some years after it had practically ceased to conduct its business at Neosho, entered into articles of association with another institution of learning, and the two were combined by decree of the circuit court of Polk county, under the `name of "Scarritt-Morrisville College," located at Morrisville, `Polk county, Mo. On April 29, 1909, the board of curators of this institution, by resolution, requested the board of curators of the Scarritt Collegiate Institute to return the funds in controversy to the Halls to be used to erect a memorial church at Carthage. Mo., in memory of their deceased son. The church conference also directed the same disposition of the fund. These requests were refused by the contesting curators of the Scarritt Collegiate Institute. Since the institution of this suit, a decree dissolving the Scarritt Collegiate Institute was rendered at its February term, 1911, by the circuit court of Newton county, in a quo warranto proceeding brought against it by the prosecuting attorney of that county, wherein a receiver was appointed of its assets, who is in charge of the fund in dispute and was admitted to be a party to this action prior to its appeal to this court.

Upon the consideration of the evidence, the earned trial court rendered a decree for plaintiffs, as prayed in that petition, and a personal judgment against the contesting curators, from which an appeal has been duly perfected to this court.

O. L. Cravens, of Neosho, for appellants and L. D. Rice, receiver. McReynolds & Halliburton, of Carthage, for respondent.

BOND, J. (after stating the facts as above).

I. The interpretation of the deed copied in the statement is the first question for review. It is insisted by appellants that the terms of that instrument did not create an estate upon condition subsequent, and hence the grantors (the Halls), and a fortiori their assignees, have no right of re-entry.

It is also urged by appellants that the terms of the deed created an irrevocable public charity for educational purposes, which could not be diverted to the building of a denominational church; therefore it cannot be awarded to the trustees of the Methodist Church at Carthage, Mo. (plaintiffs), to erect a church edifice.

The decision of these two points will necessarily involve the decision of the contrary contentions made by respondents. Taking them in turn: An inspection of the deed in the light of the applicatory law discloses from its terms that no condition subsequent was annexed to the grant of the estate. While a condition subsequent may be inserted in a conveyance of lands in fee without using express terms of reverter upon the breach of such condition, if the deed in its entirety and the circumstances attending its execution demonstrate that the object of the grantors was to cause a reversion of the estate upon the subsequent happening of a lawful condition, yet no such conclusion will be drawn, if it may be avoided by any other reasonable construction of the language of the deed. This is the settled policy of the law, the reason of which is that estates once vested in fee ought not to be uprooted, except upon proof of the happening of a lawful condition attached to the continuance of the estate by the terms of the deed, and further proof that it was the intention of the grantor in making the conveyance...