Griffin v. Butler

• Decision Date: 30 September 1881
• Citation: 67 Ga. 134
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court
• Parties: McArthur & Griffin. vs. Matthewson & Butler.

67 Ga. 134

McArthur & Griffin. vs. Matthewson & Butler.

Supreme Court of the State of Georgia

SEPTEMBER TERM, 1881.

Equity. Injunction. Title. Jurisdiction. Judgments. Administrators and Executors. Before Judge Snead. Richmond County. At Chambers. October 5th, 1881.

Reported in the decision.

Roberts & DeLacy; L. A. Hall; Barnes & Cum-ming, for plaintiffs in error.

J. S. & W. T. Davidson; Kibbee & Martin, for defendants.

Speer, Justice.

Matthewson & Butler filed their bill for injunction, relief, etc., in Richmond superior court against Michael McDonald, administrator upon the estate of James McDonald, of Richmond county, a non-resident intestate of this state, Walter J. McArthur, of Montgomery county, and John W. Griffin, of Dodge county, in which by the bill, answer, and evidence submitted on the hearing for an injunction, etc., the following history of the case is made to appear:

In the year 1818 the state of Georgia granted to McDonald, Pope & Co., of Richmond county, Georgia, about 178 or 180 lots of land, each containing 202 ¹/₂ acres, all lying in what was then Wilkinson county. It nowhere appears who composed the firm of McDonald, Pope & Co. It appears that Pope removed from Richmond county to Jackson county, Florida, about 1820, and married there in 1823. That at the time of his marriage he had in his possession all of the original plats and grants to the lots aforesaid, and so held them till he died in 1837 in Florida. His widow had heard him say he was one of the firm of Mc- Donald, Pope & Co., and did business in Richmond county. That he always claimed to be sole owner of the lots. Tha Pope left surviving him said widow and a number of children, and they continued to hold the plats and grants until turned over to these vendees, believing, as the heirs at law of said Pope, they were the sole owners of these lots. That, by powers of attorney duly executed 6th December, 1852, and 4th January, 1858, the widow and children, then in life and all of age, authorized W. S. Pope, Jr., to sell and dispose of all of said lots, and to convey them in fee simple and give warranty titles; that under these powers Pope, Jr., for himself as an heir at law, and as attorney in fact for his mother, brothers and sisters, sold and conveyed 137 of said lots, aggregating 27, 742¹/₂ acres, by warranty deed of June 20th, 1860, for $4,110.00, to W. W. Harrell, J. J. Hamilton, Oren C. Horn and Seaborn M. Manning, then of Pulaski county, Georgia, and delivered to them the plats and grants. At that time said lots lay in Pulaski, Laurens and Telfair counties. That the price paid was all the lands were worth, and the sale was in good faith—one party believing he was conveying, and the others that they were buying, an absolute title. The deed and the powers of attorney were duly recorded. The other evidence of Hamilton and others corroborated the good faith of the purchase. These vendees sold some of the lots to persons who went into possession and are still in possession. They also went into possession of some of said lots, improved them, and still hold possession. On July 10th, 1863, Harrell and his co-vendees sold by warranty deed to G. H. McLaughlin & Co., a firm of Richmond county, Georgia, for $34,931.25, 115 lots of this land, aggregating 23, 287¹/₂ acres. The price paid was all the land was worth at the time. The sale was in good faith by each party, each supposing an absolute title passed.

McLaughlin & Co's. deed was recorded in Laurens county, in Pulaski and Telfair counties in 1866, and theyhave paid taxes on said lands since. The county of Wilkinson was sub-divided, and other counties formed of it and other counties. February 15th, 1866, McLaughlin & Co., by warranty deed, sold 18 of these lots to L. S. Dunn, of New York. In July, 1868, G. H. McLaughlin died, having devised all of his estate to his sister, Mrs Sarah V. Butler, one of the complainants. J. O. Matthewson, the other complainant, constituted the other member of the firm of G H. McLaughlin & Co. Matthewson & Butler sold sundry lots to various persons, whose names and prices paid are set forth in the bill, who went into possession, and still hold possession. They appointed Harrell their agent, who looked after said lands, who sold some and leased others.

With full knowledge of all these facts, McArthur & Griffin, a firm doing a lumber and real estate business at Eastman, in Dodge county, and composed of respondents, W. T. McArthur, of Montgomery county, and John W. Griffin, of Dodge county, conceiving that they had discovered a flaw in the title conveyed by the Popes, sent John W. Griffin, in 1879, to Augusta to work up the case. He went first to Mr. John McDonald, a cotton merchant, and a member of an old family in Augusta, but finding he would have nothing to do with it, he hunted further and finally found Michæl McDonald, an Irishman, who came to Augusta in 1857 as a barrel maker, and who is now about 47 years old. After questioning him, and being told that he had several brothers, one named James, none of whom he ever saw but once, and that was in New York, and that he only saw them then for about ten minutes, and had never even heard of them since. Griffin informed him that he had struck the right man, and invited him to go with him to the hotel where he (Griffin) was stopping. When there, Griffin told McDonald that he knew where there was some land belonging to his brother James, and offered him $400.00 for his interest. Upon condition that it was all right and would get him into noscrape, McDonald accepted. A formal contract was then drawn up, dated February 10th, 1879, and signed by McDonald and Griffin, whereby the former agreed to take out letters of administration upon the estate of James McDonald and then to sell "whatever title the court of ordinary would authorize him to convey" to John W. Griffin, or to such person as he might designate, and for such sale to receive $400.00, and John W. Griffin to pay all the costs of administration. In pursuance of this conspiracy, McDonald, on April 5th, 1879, with $15.00 sent him by McArthur & Griffin, went to Dodge county, and was then by McArthur & Griffin taken to Montgomery county, where only five of the lots lay, and on April 7th, 1879, letters of administration were granted to him, and McArthur & Griffin became sureties on his administrator\'s bond in the sum of $1,000.00. The petition alleges that James McDonald died intestate about 1872. a non-resident of Georgia, and possessed of about $400.00 in real estate. Appraisers were appointed, McArthur\'s brother being one of them, and they appraised the estate April 10th, 1879, as consisting of 176 lots of 202 ¹/₂ acres, aggregating 35, 640 acres at $25.00 per lot, estimating one-half interest at $2,200.00. McDonald, McArthur and Griffin returned to the latter\'s office at Eastman, Dodge county, where McDonald, on April 8th, 1879, signed a deed as administrator on its face, dated May 6th, 1879, and Pur-porting to be for the consideration of $2,212.50, whereby he undertook, in pursuance of an alleged order of the court allowing him to sell at private sale, to convey to McArthur & Griffin an undivided one-half interest in 172 of said lots of the Pope land as the property of James McDonald, the alleged intestate, and lying in Laurens, Pulaski and Dodge counties. W. B. Whiden, the attesting notary public to this deed, being a clerk of McArthur & Griffin, and the other witness being Y. R. Griffin. McDonald then received a check from McArthur & Griffin for $400.00, as agreed upon in the contract of Febru-ary10th, 1879, and came home. On June 10th, 1879, Griffin came to Augusta and succeeded in getting McDonald, as administrator, to sign three other deeds, one covering 120 lots in Laurens, Dodge and Telfair counties, and purporting to be for $2,212.50 consideration, and one for 7 lots in Dodge county, purporting to be for $56.00 consideration, and the third for 48 lots in Laurens, Dodge and Pulaski counties, and purporting to be for $1,000.00 consideration. Four hundred dollars, however, and expenses of administration, amounting, so far as shown, to about $60.00, is all that ever was paid. The deed purporting to be dated May 6th, 1879, was recorded in Dodge county only April 1st, 1880, and the $56.00 deed of Jun-10th, 1879, was recorded in Dodge county March 25th, 1880. The second deed for $2,212.50, of June 10th, 1879, and the $1,000.00 deed or June 10th, 1879, were both recorded in Dodge county only September 30th, 1881, after the granting of the restraining order in this case, and two days before the hearing. McDonald has never made any returns as administrator, or done any other act than to sign the deeds, as he considered the whole matter closed after he received the $400.00, his understanding being that it was paid to and belonged to him for his interest in the land. He simply did whatever he was directed to do by John W. Griffin, in order to perfect his title to the interest sold. He never read any of the papers, and had no idea how much land there was, or its value, but signed such papers as he was directed to sign, upon Griffin\'s assurances that it was all right and would get him into no trouble, he (McDonald) believing that, at most, he was only selling a small quantity of wild land which no one claimed. As soon as he learned that the land was claimed by Matthewson & Butler, and that it consisted of many thousands of acres, he saw he had been led into a trap, and he determined to have nothing more to do with it, and made a full disclosure of the whole affair. Under the deeds from McDonald, administrator, McArthur & Griffin have taken possession of a large number of complainants' lots, and are daily leasing and renting the same and appropriating the entire proceeds. They justify themselves upon the ground that as complainants have sold several of the lots, they proposed to take possession of enough to get even.

In October, 1880, Griffin came to...