Downard v. Hadley
| Decision Date | 10 November 1888 |
| Docket Number | 13,331 |
| Citation | 18 N.E. 457,116 Ind. 131 |
| Parties | Downard v. Hadley et al |
| Court | Indiana Supreme Court |
From the Hendricks Circuit Court.
The judgment is affirmed, with costs.
T. J Cofer and N. M. Taylor, for appellant.
L. M Campbell, for appellees.
James A. Downard commenced this action against Henry Hadley to recover the possession of forty acres of land in Hendricks county. After the suit had been pending for a time, and various motions, answers and demurrers had been filed Virinda Keeney and Thomas Keeney were admitted upon their own application as parties defendants. They, in conjunction with the defendant Hadley, set up facts tending to show that the appellant had obtained the title to the land in dispute by means of fraudulent representations, and in violation of his professional duty as an attorney, and they asked that the conveyance so obtained from the Keeneys should enure to the benefit of the defendant Hadley.
The court found the facts specially, and stated its conclusions of law thereon, upon which a judgment in favor of the defendant Hadley was rendered. To reverse the judgment upon the facts so found this appeal is prosecuted.
It appears that the land in dispute was inherited by Virinda Mattox from her deceased husband, Robert Mattox, who died intestate, and without children or other heirs than his widow, in the year 1865. The widow intermarried with Thomas Keeney in August, 1866, and in November of the same year, her husband joining, she conveyed the land by warranty deed to James Lewis, who paid her its full value. After several mesne conveyances, Washington Riggin acquired the title by warranty deed, and being about to sell the land in dispute, together with an eighty-acre tract which he owned adjoining, he employed the appellant and his partner, who were attorneys at law, and engaged in the business of preparing abstracts of title to real estate, to make an abstract of the title to both tracts, and to take some proceedings in court in order to perfect the title to the eighty-acre tract. An abstract was prepared accordingly, and the contemplated proceedings taken, for which service the appellant and his partner received the sum of thirty-five dollars.
Upon the abstract so prepared, Riggin bargained and sold both tracts of land to the defendant Hadley, and executed to him a warranty deed therefor, but before accepting the deed the latter submitted the abstract above mentioned to his attorney, who informed him and his grantor, Riggin, that the title to the forty-acre tract was defective, owing to the fact that it had been obtained by Virinda Keeney in virtue of her previous marriage with Robert Mattox, and that she had no power to alienate the same at the time she conveyed to James Lewis in 1866. The defendant and his grantor were, however further informed by the attorney of Hadley, that the statute had been so changed since the conveyance to Lewis that a quitclaim deed from Mrs. Keeney and her husband to Hadley would make the title perfect. Upon the assurance that he would obtain such a conveyance perfecting the title, Hadley completed the purchase, accepted Riggin's warranty deed, and went into possession. At the time the appellant prepared the abstract he observed the apparent break in the title from Robert Mattox to Virinda Keeney, and about the time the deed was delivered from Riggin to Hadley, which was on the 23d day of December, 1883, he ascertained the cause of the apparent break, and also learned that a conveyance made under the circumstances existing at the time of that made by Virinda and Thomas Keeney to James Lewis was void. He also learned that Mrs. Keeney and her husband resided in the State of Iowa, and thereupon immediately wrote and telegraphed an attorney in that State, and caused him to represent to the Keeneys that the appellant desired them to make a deed to him in order to supply an apparent omission in the title. The Keeneys...
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