Hull v. Cavanaugh

• Decision Date: 04 June 1878
• Citation: 6 Mo.App. 143
• Parties: WILLIAM C. HULL, Plaintiff in Error, v. PATRICK CAVANAUGH, Defendant in Error.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

6 Mo.App. 143

WILLIAM C. HULL, Plaintiff in Error,

v.PATRICK CAVANAUGH, Defendant in Error.

St. Louis Court of Appeals, Missouri.

Jun. 4, 1878.

1. A decree in partition against minor defendants who were not served with process is void, and could not be cured by proceedings to confirm the partition under the act of November 21, 1857. Acts 1857, p. 52, Adj. Sess.

2. Admissions made under a misapprehension of one's legal rights, without the purpose of influencing the action of another, and not shown to have had that effect, do not estop the person making the admission to afterwards assert the truth.

ERROR to St. Louis Circuit Court.

Reversed and remanded.

R. S. VOORHIS, for plaintiff in error: Without actual service on minor defendants, a decree in partition rendered against them is void.-- Robbins v. Robbins, 2 Ind. 74; Daniel v. Hannegan, 5 J. J. Marsh. 48; Pond v. Doneghy, 18 Bolt. (Ky.) 558; Rutherford v. Richardson, 1 Head, 609; 46 Mo. 391; Peak v. McLaughlin, 49 Mo. 162; Hendricks v. McLean, 18 Mo. 32; 27 Mo. 103; 26 Mo. 65. Admissions made under a misapprehension of one's legal rights cannot affect him.-- Taylor v. Zepp, 14 Mo. 248; Terrill v. Boulware, 24 Mo. 254; Chouteau v. Goddin, 39 Mo. 229; Garnhart v. Finney, 40 Mo. 449; Smith v. Hamilton, 61 Mo. 83.

ALBERT BLAIR, for defendant in error, cited: Wheaton v. East, 5 Yerg. 41; Deford v. Mercer, 24 Iowa, 118; Storrs v. Barker, 6 Johns. Ch. 166; 27 Barb. 595; Highley v. Barron, 49 Mo. 103; Ferguson v. Bell's Administrator, 17 Mo. 347; Thomas v. Pullis, 56 Mo. 211.

BAKEWELL, J., delivered the opinion of the court.

This was an action of ejectment. The cause was submitted on an agreed statement of facts. There was a finding and judgment for defendant, and plaintiff brings the cause here by writ of error.

Joseph S. Hull and Elizabeth, his wife, owned adjoining tracts in the Grand Prairie common fields. They laid the property out in one plat, under the name of “Joseph S. Hull's subdivision,” and sold lots from time to time, according to the plat, giving deeds in proper form. Mrs. Hull died in 1856, without a will. She left as her sole heirs two children by her husband, J. S. Hull,-- Louisa, who afterwards married Cornelius Voorhis, and the plaintiff, William. At the October term, 1856, of the St. Louis Land Court, Joseph S. Hull, who, as tenant by the curtesy, had a life-estate in so much of the land of “Joseph S. Hull's subdivision” as had belonged to his wife, began proceedings in that court for partition of a portion of the subdivision, embracing lands which he owned and lands which were owned by his wife when she died. He made his children defendants in this suit; they were both minors, and neither of them was served with process. A guardian ad litem was appointed for them, who filed an answer. In this suit a decree was rendered that partition be made according to the prayer of the petition, and commissioners were appointed, who reported that partition in kind could not be made. A sale was ordered, at which Joseph S. Hull became the purchaser, in March, 1857. The lot in controversy in this suit, which is a part of the property owned by Mrs. Hull, was a part of the property purchased at partition sale by Joseph S. Hull. At the October term, 1858, of the Land Court, Joseph S. Hull filed a petition against his children, who were still minors, to confirm the partition. Due service was had; a guardian ad litem was appointed; he answered for the defendants, and a decree was entered according to the prayer of plaintiff. After the purchase by Joseph S. Hull at partition sale, he was appointed guardian of the estates of his two children. As guardian, he described in his inventories the unsold portion of the lands in “Joseph S. Hull's subdivision” which had belonged to his wife, describing the estates of the children as fee-simple interests subject to his life-estate. In his accounts he charged himself with the interests of the children in the proceeds of their mother's land sold in partition. On June 15, 1859, he settled with Mrs. Voorhis, and fully paid her, partly in land which he had bought at the partition sale, and partly in notes of himself and others. By deeds of April 2, 1857, and March 30, 1858, Hull conveyed the lot in dispute to his niece, Margaret Hull, now Mrs. Digby, who conveyed to defendant in April, 1876. She paid taxes on the land up to the time of the sale to defendant, who has paid the taxes since. The land remained vacant, and no possession was ever taken under the deeds until April, 1876, when defendant placed building-materials upon the lot.

Joseph S. Hull died in July, 1859. His only heirs were plaintiff and Mrs. Voorhis. By his will, after some special legacies, he devised his property to his children in equal shares. Mrs. Voorhis died in August, 1859, intestate and without issue. Cornelius Voorhis, the husband of Louisa, was executor of Joseph S. Hull. He inventoried the land bought by Hull in the partition sale. An order of sale was made of the lands in 1874, at which one Helmers, the partner of the executor, bought. In May, 1867, plaintiff, by next friend, instituted proceedings in the Circuit Court to set this sale aside. On November 9, 1867, plaintiff became of age, after which an amended petition was filed by him in the suit just mentioned, in which he alleges that his father died seized of an estate in fee-simple of the real estate purchased by him in partition. The sale to Helmers was set aside on the ground of fraud, and the decree is still in force. On August 17, 1868, plaintiff conveyed to William C. Hull, Sr., a large portion of the lands recovered in the suit against his father's executor, and by the same deed assigned for value his claim against his father for the amount with which he was charged, as guardian of plaintiff, in the Probate Court.

It is admitted that plaintiff would testify that when plaintiff filed the amended petition against the executor, and when he gave notice of his claim against his father's estate, and when he conveyed to William C. Hull, Sr., he had not been advised, and had no actual knowledge, that these acts would affect in any way any claim that he might have to, or any of his rights in, his mother's estate. It was not his intention to waive or surrender any such rights; and he was in fact ignorant, in point of law, of the relation in which he stood to the property of his mother, and would have asserted any claim that he had to it, if he had known of its existence.

We do not think that the judgment for defendant can, on this statement of facts, be sustained. As no declarations of law accompany the judgment, we do not know on what theory the learned judge of the Circuit Court proceeded. It is manifest that the original proceedings in partition were bad. The Land Court had, under the existing laws, as full jurisdiction of suits for partition of lands as the Circuit Court would have had had the Land Court not existed. The Land Court was not a court of inferior jurisdiction, in such a sense as to detract in any way from the fullest credit to be given to all its acts in matters regarding lands; but, independently of the fact that at the time of this partition suit, there was no provision in this State for making partition of lands by proceedings in court, except where lands were held in joint tenancy, tenancy in common, or coparcenery, the decree in the partition suit was absolutely void because there was not service upon the minor defendants as required by law. Stats. 1855, p. 1110, sect. 1; 26 Mo. 271; Smith v. Davis, 27 Mo. 298; Shaw v. Gregoire, 41 Mo. 407.

The proceedings to confirm the partition did not cure the defect. They were had under the act of November 21, 1857 (Adj. Sess. Acts 1857, p. 52), entitled “An act respecting lands heretofore sold in partition, and for other purposes.” That act, as will be seen by reference to its provisions, has no application to the case of a partition in which the defendants are minors. The so-called defendants in the Hull partition were never properly made parties...