Grover v. Fox

• Decision Date: 06 June 1877
• Citation: 36 Mich. 453
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court
• Parties: Leonard Grover v. William D. Fox and William C. Richfield

36 Mich. 453

Leonard Grover v. William D. Fox and William C. Richfield

Supreme Court of Michigan

June 6, 1877

Heard April 6, 1877

Appeal in Chancery fro Calhoun Circuit.

Decree affirmed, with costs.

Brown & Patterson, for complainant.

T. G Pray, for defendants.

OPINION

Graves, J.

Complainant, claiming to be owner and in possession of a farm of four hundred and forty acres in Homer, Calhoun county, filed the present bill April 3d, 1875, to quiet his title against certain attachments and executions under which the defendant Fox had sought to subject the premises for liabilities incurred by one Powell Grover. Richfield acted as sheriff, and the only ground of his being made a party was his official connection with the proceedings.

The circuit court, after hearing on pleadings and evidence, granted the relief prayed, and Fox appealed. The matters in the record are numerous and somewhat complicated, and no attempt will be made to specify all. A reference to some of the main facts is necessary.

October 19th, 1867, and prior thereto, Powell Grover owned the farm in question, and with his wife, Elizabeth Grover, and his family, resided on it. He became anxious to engage in lumbering with one Wright in Osceola county, and to effectuate his wish, proposed to raise by mortgage on the farm the sum of six thousand dollars. The family opposed the project, and Mrs. Grover refused to join in the suggested mortgage. The loan was to be for five years, with interest semi-annually at the rate of ten per cent.

Some agreement became necessary to enable Mr. Grover to raise the loan upon the farm, and the following understanding was reached. He was to convey the farm to Mrs. Grover, and thereupon both were to execute the mortgage, and Mrs. Grover was to execute a paper to him, binding herself to reconvey on his paying the mortgage in five years, and also allowing him to hold possession during the five years. This bargain was completed by the execution of the proper writings on said 19th of October. The mortgage was made to one Parker, who provided the money.

Grover and Wright then went into partnership under the name of "Grover & Wright," and a few days later proceeded to the pine woods to carry out the contemplated lumbering operations. In the course of about a year, however, the necessities of the firm required more money, and in raising it Grover made himself liable to Fox on account of two notes of about three thousand dollars each, and also liable to Houck & Ostrom for some two thousand dollars more.

The parties in whose favor these liabilities were incurred knew of the arrangements which had been made between Grover and his wife, and did not give credit to Grover upon the faith of his having any legal title to the farm. These demands being unpaid, three attachment suits were instituted for their collection, two by Fox, and one by Houck & Ostrom. This occurred in May, 1869. The attachments were levied on the farm as real estate of Grover, and on some other property. Some time in the fore part of 1870, Fox, Houck and Ostrom bought the Parker mortgage.

October 19, 1869, bankruptcy proceedings were commenced against Grover & Wright, by a creditor, in the district court of the eastern district of Michigan, and they were adjudged bankrupts November 9th thereafter. C. J. Reilley was appointed assignee, and in the succeeding December the assets were vested in him.

After the levy of the attachments, and within four months next prior to the bankruptcy proceedings, Grover assigned to his wife the agreement for reconveyance, and quit-claimed the farm to her. He also made an assignment to Fox of the agreement for reconveyance.

Subsequently, and on December 6, 1870, judgments were given against Grover in all the attachment suits.

September 5, 1871, after full hearing of the attaching creditors and all concerned, the district court, sitting in bankruptcy, adjudicated upon and definitely settled the rights of the respective parties in interest in and concerning the farm.

The attachment levies having been made more than four months before the bankruptcy proceedings, were not disturbed; but the assignments of the agreement for reconveyance, and the quit-claim of 1869 to Mrs. Grover, were held void as against Grover's creditors, and it was decided that the only right Powell Grover held under the arrangement with his wife of 1867 was to have reconveyance of the farm in case of his payment of the Parker mortgage in five years, and to have possession of the farm during that period. The decree in bankruptcy also assumed that the attachment levies were not upon this right of possession at all, and that it accordingly vested in the assignee in bankruptcy and was subject to sale absolutely, whilst the interest in the farm under the stipulation for reconveyance could only be disposed of subject to the levies.

August 27, 1872, the district court, on petition of the assignee, ordered him to sell his interest in the farm and products, and on the next day, and pursuant to the order, he sold and conveyed his interest in the farm for three hundred dollars to Nancy A. and Martha A. Grover, daughters of Powell and Elizabeth Grover. This was of course subject to whatever the attachments covered.

Executions in the attachment cases had been issued in January, 1871, and levied on the farm as real estate, and on June 10, 1873, the district court granted leave to proceed to enforce the attachment levies in the state court.

January 9, 1874, defendant Richfield, as sheriff, sold the farm on the three executions, the defendant Fox being the...