Hodges v. Thompson

• Decision Date: 22 June 1893
• Citation: 13 So. 679,100 Ala. 612
• Parties: HODGES ET AL. v. THOMPSON.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

13 So. 679

100 Ala. 612

HODGES ET AL. v. THOMPSON.

Supreme Court of Alabama

June 22, 1893

Appeal from chancery court, Tuscaloosa county; Thomas Cobbs Chancellor.

This is an appeal prosecuted by the respondents from a decree of the chancellor overruling their demurrers to the original bill and the amended bill. Affirmed.

J. J Mayfield and M. Amoson, for appellants.

Wm Cochran Fitts, for appellee.

McCLELLAN J.

James A. Thompson, Sr., is complainant in this bill. The administrator, Hodges, and the heirs of Peter Thompson deceased, are the respondents. The purpose of the bill is, in brief, to have the legal title to a certain tract of land divested out of said heirs, and invested in the complainant.

To this end its averments present the following case: In 1873 complainant purchased the land in question from one Palmer, at the price of $3,000, paying $500 in cash, and agreeing to pay the balance in five equal annual installments, with interest, and took Palmer's bond for title on payment in full. The vendor did not insist upon strict performance as to these deferred payments, but was content "so long as the interest was promptly paid and the original debt gradually reduced." Upon his death, however, in 1885, his administrator, one Baker, "soon became diligent about making collection of the balance of the purchase money, *** and about closing the matter up, and, upon a statement of the account in the fall of the year 1886, it was found that the amount remaining due and unpaid was approximately $850; but, because of a certain misdescription and misunderstanding by which said Palmer at the time of the sale had included more land than he had a right to convey, the sum of $500 was agreed to be fairly the amount remaining due and necessary to satisfy and extinguish both principal and interest." Complainant, who is the father of said Peter Thompson, had taken possession of the land in 1873, made a home upon it, and has continued to live there with a younger son and several daughters, who are the brother and sisters, respectively, of said Peter. Complainant was unable to pay said balance of $500. At this juncture, Peter, for the purpose of saving the place as a home for his father and sisters, agreed to pay off said balance of $500, take the conveyance from Palmer's representatives and heirs to himself, allow complainant and his daughters to use and occupy the place as a home, and upon complainant's "repaying to him the amount of said last payment so made and paid by said Peter Thompson, to wit, the sum of five hundred dollars, with the legal rate of interest from the date of said payment to Baker, together with all actual expenses in the matter, that, upon such sum being so paid or tendered to him by his father, the complainant, at any time, he, said Peter Thompson, would make a conveyance vesting the same absolutely in him." This agreement was carried out, except in respect of its stipulations for repayment to and conveyance by Peter. Peter Thompson paid the money ($500) to the representatives of Palmer; complainant surrendered his title bond to them; and they conveyed the land to Peter, under and in consonance with the foregoing agreement and understanding of the parties. Complainant was unable to repay said sum of $500, with interest and expenses, to said Peter in the lifetime of the latter, but had the necessary funds to that end at the time of filing this bill, on December, 12, 1889, and the bill avers that complainant "is ready, able, and willing to make payment of said amount, and hereby makes proffer to promptly pay or repay the same when, by so doing, a proper and sufficient conveyance can and will be made, reconveying and vesting the title to said place and property in your complainant, as the said Peter Thompson in his lifetime agreed should be done." By an amendment to the bill, allowed on September 28, 1891, it is averred that, in the fall of 1889, complainant, through his son and agent, John S. Thompson, offered to pay the administrator of said Peter Thompson, and make full satisfaction of the amount, with interest, due the estate of Peter Thompson, deceased, growing out of said above-described land transaction. The prayer of the bill is that, upon final hearing, a decree be passed directing the register of the court, on the payment of said sum of $500, with the interest thereon and all expenses,...