Hurst Automatic Switch & Signal Co. v. Trust Co. of St. Louis County

• Decision Date: 10 June 1924
• Docket Number: 23982
• Citation: 264 S.W. 406
• Parties: HURST AUTOMATIC SWITCH & SIGNAL CO. et al. v. TRUST CO. OF ST. LOUIS COUNTY et al
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

264 S.W. 406

HURST AUTOMATIC SWITCH & SIGNAL CO. et al. v. TRUST CO. OF ST. LOUIS COUNTY et al

No. 23982

Supreme Court of Missouri, First Division

June 10, 1924

Motion for Rehearing Denied July 31, 1924.

W. W Cohick, of St. Louis, for appellants.

Jos. C McAtee, of Clayton, for respondent Trust Co. of St. Louis County.

John W Mueller, of St. Louis, and Stonewall J. Walton, of Buell, for respondents Walton and Scheer.

OPINION

Statement

WOODSON J.

This is the third time this case has been here, each presenting different questions growing out of the original transaction. The opinion rendered upon the first appeal is reported in 216 S.W. 954, and the second in 291 Mo. 54, 236 S.W. 58. The original case was a bill in equity to cancel and set aside a sale made by a trustee under a deed of trust, conveying certain lands to secure money loaned, and to redeem the land from the deed of trust, which was executed by Mrs. Massey, the original owner, under which the sale was made. The plaintiff company was the owner of the land, subject to the deed of trust; plaintiff Hurst was its tenant, the defendant trust company was the trustee named in the deed of trust, and owner of the Massey note secured thereby; defendant Bode was the sheriff of St. Louis county, who was designated in the deed of trust to act as trustee in the absence or refusal of the trustee to act; the defendant Stonewall J. Walton was the purchaser of the land for $ 17,605 at the foreclosure sale made by defendant Bode, substitute trustee.

A full statement of all the facts of the case may be found in the two cases previously cited, and for that reason it will be unnecessary to prolong this case by restating them here.

Upon return of the case to the circuit court by this court upon the first appeal the plaintiffs filed a petition or statement for an accounting in the case for rents and profits, damages and waste to the property, conversion of the crops and costs, and expenses of the litigation, including attorney's fees and other expenses, costs of litigation not taxable as costs, and some other claims not necessary to be here mentioned.

This case is a second trial on accounting under the directions of this court before division No. 2 of the circuit court of St. Louis county. That court entered a finding of facts, and found the amount due the trust company on the Massey deed of trust from plaintiff Hurst Automatic Switch Company to be $ 28,917.96.

The defendants Walton and Scheer in their answer prayed judgment for the value of improvements alleged to have been made on the plaintiff's real estate while in their possession and for taxes paid, and the court entered judgment in favor of Walton and Scheer for improvements and taxes for the sum of $ 8,248.09. It also found for the plaintiffs on their petition for an accounting against Walton and Scheer the sum of $ 8,552.72, and subtracted the one from the other, and thereby found that there was due the plaintiff Hurst Automatic Switch & Signal Company the sum of $ 304.63. Thereupon judgment was entered in favor of...