English v. Beehle

• Decision Date: 31 March 1862
• Parties: JOHN W. ENGLISH et al., Appellants, v. FRANCIS BEEHLE et al., Respondents.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

32 Mo. 186

JOHN W. ENGLISH et al., Appellants,

v.FRANCIS BEEHLE et al., Respondents.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

March Term, 1862.

Appeal from St. Louis Land Court.

Morehead, for appellants.

I. The deed was made in 1810, when the Spanish law was in force, and does not seem to have been a purchase by the grantees, but a donation for considerations not expressed. (10 Mo. 262; 2 Hennen's Dig. 1066.) The entire deed should be looked to, and the subsequent acts of the parties should have great weight. (3 John. 394; 26 Mo. 49; 28 Mo. 478.)

II. The limitation to the direct line in this case excludes collaterals who might be heirs, so that the children took as purchasers. (Willes, 332; 16 Ga. 615.)

BATES, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

This is a suit to recover possession of an undivided interest in a lot of ground in the city of St. Louis. The plaintiffs claim as representatives of one of the several children of Marianne Belford ( née Guitarre). On March 31, 1810, Jean Latresse, being owner of the lot, executed a deed in the French language, which is translated as follows:

“Know all men by these presents, that I, Jean Latresse, residing in the town and district of St. Louis, and Territory of Louisiana, for the price and in consideration of the sum of one dollar, money of the United States, which has been well and duly paid me by Marianne Belford, by birth Guitarre; also, for other considerations, I have this day sold ceded, relinquished, abandoned and transferred, and by these presents I sell, cede, relinquish and transfer to the said Marianne Belford, by birth Guitarre, all the rights, titles, actions, claims and property which I have and can have in and to a lot (describing it) for the said Marianne and ( ainsique) her heirs in a direct line, to have, manage and dispose of ( enjouir, faire et disposer) at her will and pleasure, and as of property belonging to her, and so that the said lot above sold may not be pledged, obligated, aliened, encumbered and mortgaged to satisfy the engagements which Belford, the husband of the said Marianne, might enter into, it being necessary that the said lot should always remain as the property of the children, the heirs of the said Marianne, ( devant toujours le dit terrein sus vendu rester aux droits des héritiers enfans de la dite dame.)”

On the 27th September, 1830, Marianne Belford, together with Francis Lafrance and wife, and Jean Latresse and wife, by deed, conveyed the same land to James Adams, said Marianne...