Jobe v. Urquhart

• Decision Date: 03 April 1911
• Citation: 136 S.W. 663,98 Ark. 525
• Parties: JOBE v. URQUHART
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

136 S.W. 663

98 Ark. 525

JOBE v. URQUHART

Supreme Court of Arkansas

April 3, 1911

Appeal from Pulaski Chancery Court; John E. Martineau, Chancellor reversed.

STATEMENT BY THE COURT.

This suit was brought against the officials of the State who by law constitute the Board of Commissioners for the management of the Arkansas Penitentiary, to reform a contract of sale of certain lands to said board for the State for a convict farm. It was alleged that plaintiff sold to said Board two plantations in Lincoln County known as the Cummins place and the Maple Grove place, and that in writing up the contract of sale describing the lands particularly certain tracts were included by mistake that did not belong to plaintiff, and were not sold to said Board, and not intended to be described in said contract, and that certain other tracts that should have been included in said contract, and that constituted part of said farm, were omitted therefrom by mistake, and that it was the intention of both parties that these certain tracts of land omitted were included in the sale, and should have been in the contract, and said certain tracts that were included were not sold and should not have been included in said contract.

Further that plaintiff tendered a deed in compliance with the terms of the said contract and including all of the land contained in and constituting both the Cummins place and the Maple Grove place, but not including said tracts that were by mistake included in said contract of sale which should have been omitted therefrom, which deed the defendants, who were not members of the Board at the time the contract was executed and had no personal knowledge thereof, declined to accept because the descriptions therein did not agree with the descriptions of the land in the contract of sale.

The answer admitted the purchase of plantations except "that the land as particularly described in said contract called for a part of section 17, township 7, range 5." "That they have not sufficient knowledge upon which to form a belief as to whether this was a part of the Cummins plantation, but the defendants insisted that, as the contract called for all of section 17, the State is entitled to a deed for all of said section, whether it constituted part of the Cummins and Maple Grove plantations or not; denied sufficient knowledge or information upon which to form a belief as to whether a mistake was made or not in drafting said contract for the sale of land as alleged, also as to whether it was the intention of the grantor or of the Board to buy or sell less than all of said section; admitted that the land described in section 4 was, through a mistake, omitted from the contract of sale as alleged, and should be embraced in the deed tendered to the State; that plaintiff tendered a deed to all of the land described in the contract except said part of section 17 which he charged was included by mistake and alleged that the deed was not in all respects in compliance with the terms of the contract of sale, and that they declined to accept same for that reason.

The testimony tended to show that the Board of Commissioners of the Penitentiary desired to purchase a State convict farm and that W. H. Miller, agent of Urquhart, on the 19th day of September, 1902, proposed in writing to said Board, "I hereby offer to sell you the Cummins and Maple Grove plantations in Lincoln County for the sum of $ 140,000," etc., and describing them in a general way. The Board at that time consisted of George W. Murphy, Attorney General; T. H Bradford, Commissioner of Agriculture, etc.; T. C. Monroe, Auditor; J. W. Crockett, Secretary of State; and Jeff Davis, Governor. The last-named member did not participate in the negotiations.

On November 21 the record of the proceedings of the Board accepting the proposition of E. Urquhart shows: On motion the chairman appointed Messrs. Murphy and Bradford a committee to ascertain from W. H. Miller, as agent, the lowest price and best terms upon which the Cummins and Maple Grove plantations, Lincoln County, can be purchased by the State, and W. H. Miller, agent for E. Urquhart, came before the Board and was conferred with in their presence by the committee, and declined to modify the proposition heretofore made by him for Mr. Urquhart.

Gen. B W. Green made a proposition to sell the State certain lands for use as a...