Cook v. Katiba
| Decision Date | 13 January 1966 |
| Docket Number | No. G-384,G-384 |
| Parties | Mariam V. Katiba COOK and Audrey M Katiba, Appellants, v. J. J. KATIBA et al., Appellees. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Greene, Ayres, Swigert & Cluster, Ocala, for appellants.
Sturgis & Ritter, ocala, for appellees.
Appellants, who were plaintiffs in the trial court, have appealed a final decree rendered in a suit to quiet title by which it is adjudged that appellee, J. J. Katiba, is the owner of an undivided one-half interest in a parcel of real estate lying in Marion County, appellants being adjudged to be the owner of the remaining undivided one-half interest therein. It is contended by appellants that the chancellor applied to the evidence an incorrect principle relating to the law of equitable estoppel and legal estoppel by deed.
The evidence, when construed in a light most favorable to appellees, establishes the following facts. In the year 1921 Assid J. Katiba, brother of appellee, purchased an undivided one-half interest in the property involved in this proceeding. In order to avoid his interest being subjected to the claim of a creditor, he arranged for title to the property to be conveyed to his sister, Wardie Katiba, who was then a citizen and resident of Syria. In the year 1923 Assid J. Katiba purchased the remaining undivided one-half interest in the subject property, and in furtherance of his plan to avoid subjecting his property to the claims of his creditors, he arranged for this interest to be conveyed to his brother, the appellee herein. This plan was consummated with the full knowledge and pursuant to the agreement of both brothers. Although both Assid J. Katiba and appellee resided upon and farmed the parcel in question, appellee left the land in 1926 and never thereafter returned to live upon it or assist in its development.
Assid J. Katiba remained on the property and in 1929 married one of the appellants, Audrey M. Katiba. As a result of this marriage there was born the remaining appellant, Mariam V. Katiba Cook. Although the evidence is conflicting with respect to the extent to which appellee made financial contributions to the development of the property and retirement of the purchase money mortgage thereon, the evidence indicates that such participation, at best, was slight compared to the contributions made by Assid J. Katiba and the appellant members of his family.
In October of 1942 Assid Katiba requested of and received from appellee a deed of conveyance. This deed described several parcels of land in which appellee owned the entire interest as well as the parcel involved in this proceeding, title to which he held only an undivided one-half interest under the circumstances hereinabove related. The deed was one of bargain and sale containing no limitations as to the estate conveyed, no covenants, warranties claim of title or restrictions. This deed was duly recorded in the records of Marion County. Thereafter, Assid Katiba and his family continued to live upon and farm the land in question, paying taxes assessed thereon, paying the outstanding purchase money mortgage, claiming and receiving homestead tax exemption on an allowable portion thereof.
Assid Katiba's sister, Wardie Katiba, to whom an undivided one-half interest to the land was conveyed in 1921, subsequently moved with her family to South America where she died. Several years prior to his death Assid J. Katiba made a trip to South America for the purpose, among others, of procuring from the heirs of his deceased sister a deed conveying to him whatever interest they claimed in the subject lands, but was unsuccessful in this mission.
Assid Katiba died in 1956 and his brother, Abdullah Katiba who served as executor of his estate, urged the appellant Mariam V. Katiba Cook to go to South America for the purpose of acquiring the interest of Wardie Katiba's heirs in the property involved herein. Such suggestion was rejected by appellant.
On January 27, 1959, this action was commenced by complaint in chancery in which it was prayed that appellants' title to the entire interest in the land involved in this proceeding be quieted and confirmed as against any claim or demand which may be asserted by the heirs of Wardie Katiba to whom the undivided one-half interest had been conveyed in 1921. Shortly after commencement of this action appellee was successful in procuring from the defendant heirs of Wardie Katiba a deed conveying to him the undivided one-half interest which they held in the farm property. The complaint was then amended by dismissing the Wardie Katiba heirs as parties defendant and joining appellee as defendant with respect to the issues drawn by the complaint.
In the action we now review the chancellor granted appellees' motion to dismiss the complaint. On appeal to this court that order was reversed and the cause remanded for further proceedings. 1 Upon remand of the cause appellee answered the complaint, following which extensive testimony was taken and evidence adduced by the parties. After final hearing the decree appealed was rendered.
As noted above, in 1942 appellee, J. J. Katiba, reconveyed to his brother, Assid, whatever title he acquired in the subject property by virtue of the 1923 conveyance to him of an undivided one-half interest therein. The deed executed by appellee contained no covenants, warranties or limitations as to the estate conveyed. It is appellants' contention that under the doctrine of after-acquired title, the principle of legal estoppel or estoppel by deed precludes appellee from asserting any interest in the land by virtue of the deed he received from the Wardie Katiba heirs conveying to him the undivided one-half interest inherited by them from their deceased mother. In support of this position appellants rely upon the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Trustees of Internal Improvement Fund v. Lobean 2 in which the doctrine of legal estoppel was defined as follows:
'Legal estoppel or estoppel by deed is defined as a bar which precludes a party to a deed and his privies from asserting as against others and their privies any right or title in derogation of the deed, or from denying the truth of any material fact asserted therein. In other words, legal estoppel contemplates that if I execute a deed purporting to convey an estate or land which I do not own or one that is larger than I own and I later acquire such estate or land, then the subsequently acquired land or estate will by estoppel pass to my grantee.
'Legal estoppel or estoppel by deed is determined by the intention of the parties as expressed in the deed, whether or not legal estoppel may be applied in a given case is dependent entirely on the language used in the deed or which appears on the face of the instrument.'
Appellants insist that according to the clear provisions of the 1942 deed it was the intention of the parties that appellee convey to appellants' predecessor in title, Assid Katiba, full title to the land in question, and because of this appellee is now estopped to claim an interest in derogation of the title he previously alienated . Admittedly the broad sweeping language employed by the court in the Lobean decision, when literally construed, lends strength to appellants' position. Our task is to determine whether the general rule set forth in Lobean is applicable under the facts shown by the record in the case sub judice.
Appellants strenuously contend that according to Lobean the parties to a deed of conveyance are unalterably bound by the recitals appearing on the face of the instrument and are estopped to assert a contrary position regardless of their relationship or the circumstances under which he conveyance is made. Such a theory of law renders immaterial the good faith or fraudulent intent of a...
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Cook v. Katiba, 35137
...sole remaining heirs at law of A. J. Katiba, deceased, to review a decision of the District Court of Appeal, First District, in Cook v. Katiba, 182 So.2d 454, where in a suit to quiet title it was adjudged that Respondent J. J. Katiba was the owner of an undivided one-half interest in a par......