Darden v. Meadows
Decision Date | 12 November 1953 |
Docket Number | 5 Div. 555 |
Citation | 259 Ala. 676,68 So.2d 709 |
Parties | DARDEN v. MEADOWS et al. |
Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Hines & Hines, LaFayette, for appellant.
R. C. Wallace, LaFayette, for appellees.
Appellant has appealed from a decree of the Circuit Court, in Equity, of Chambers County, sustaining demurrers to the original bill and to the bill as amended.
The complainant, Mr. Darden, filed this bill against the heirs at law of his deceased wife, Sarah Carson Darden. After describing the property, the complainant alleges that he purchased it from George H. Lanier and wife on August 1, 1919, and that a deed was executed, delivered and recorded in the probate office of Chambers County.
The next two paragraphs of the bill are as follows:
(5) 'Your complainant avers that through mutual mistake and error Sarah Carson Darden's name was placed on said deed as one of the grantees, along with your complainant.'
(6)
The bill prayed that the court would decree that complainant is the owner in fee simple of the property, declare that respondents have no interest in said property, and will reform and correct the deed executed by George H. Lanier and wife, and for general relief.
The respondents filed demurrer, assigning as grounds, no equity, laches, prescription and statutes of limitation.
Judge Walton, in a sound and extended opinion and decree, sustained the demurrer on the ground that the complainant was guilty of laches.
Complainant then amended the bill as follows:
(1) 'That the deed complained of in this cause was executed on August 1st, 1919, by George H. Lanier and Marie L. Lanier but that said deed was accepted and placed in a trunk and that no examination was made of said deed until 1947 at which time it was noticed that it was not recorded, and that at said time the deed was recorded in Mortgage Record Volume 227 Page 257, Office of the Judge of Probate, Chambers County, Alabama. A photostatic copy of said deed is hereunto attached and marked
(2) 'That during the time since 1919 the complainant has been in active possession of the premises, that no one has questioned his right or title, that the property was assessed in his name alone, and that he has paid the taxes on the same since the date the property was purchased.'
Respondents filed the same demurrers and they were again sustained.
If complainant sought to set up mutual mistake as a ground for reformation of the deed, the facts in paragraph 5 are not sufficient.
The case of Lewis v. Belk, 219 Ala. 343, 122 So. 413, enunciates three principles applicable here:
(1)
(2)
(3)
If complainant intended to allege that there was a resulting trust in favor of complainant paragraph six was not sufficient. See Hooks v. Hooks, 258 Ala. 427, 63 So.2d 348. Since the parties were husband and wife, the presumption of a resulting trust will not arise when the conveyance is to the wife with purchase by the husband, as he is considered under a legal or moral obligation to make provision for her and a gift will be presumed. Roubicek v. Roubicek, 246 Ala. 442, 21 So.2d 244; Marshall v. Marshall, 243 Ala. 169, 8 So.2d 843.
In Banks v. Banks, 253 Ala. 252, 44 So.2d 10, 12, the Court said:
It is to be observed that relief is sought against a transaction occurring more than thirty years before the filing of this bill, placing the burden upon complainant by this bill to excuse so long a delay. Chambless v. Kennamer, 214 Ala. 293, 107 So. 908, and the question can be raised by demurrer. Ussery v. Darrow, 238 Ala. 67, 188 So. 885; Drummond v. Drummond, 232 Ala. 401, 168 So. 428.
The following statements, omitting cases cited, are found in Salvo v. Coursey, 220 Ala. 300, 124 So. 874, 875:
And as stated in Gayle v. Pennington, 185 Ala. 53, 64 So. 572, 577:
The Court in Hauser v. Foley & Co., 190 Ala. 437, 67 So. 252, 253, said:
The amendment to the bill attempted to excuse or explain away laches. The following quotation from the case of Scruggs v. Decatur Mineral & Land Co., 86 Ala. 173, 5 So. 440, appears in Peters Mineral Land Co. v. Hooper, 208 Ala. 324, 94 So. 606, 612:
Complainant seems to rely upon ignorance as an excuse in the instant case. But, as shown above, ignorance alone does not excuse laches. If facts were apparent to complainant so as to put him on inquiry concerning the names of the grantees in the deed, and he failed to inquire, then this lack of reasonable diligence precludes the availability of this excuse that he did not discover that his wife was a co-grantee until 1950. We regard the following circumstances in their total effect as making it apparent that complainant has not excused himself from the application of the doctrine of laches: construing the allegations most strongly against him, the deed was delivered to him in 1919, he accepted it and placed it in his trunk...
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