Joiner v. McCullers
| Decision Date | 28 January 1947 |
| Parties | JOINER et al. v. McCULLERS et al. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Rehearing Denied Feb. 10, 1947.
Appeal from Circuit Court, Suwannee County; R. H. Rowe judge.
J. L Blackwell, of Live Oak, for appellants.
Davis Davis & McClure, of Madison, and J. W. Bryson, of Live Oak, for appellees.
Appellants were Executor and Executrix of the estate of J. H. McCullers who died on June 23rd, 1944, and were Trustees as to a part of the property under a provision of the will which read as follows:
'Third, All my real estate shall be held in trust by the Executor above named until it can be sold at a fair price, which must be agreed to by a majority of my children then living, including Mary Elizabeth McCullers as one of my children, or they may agree on a division at values fixed by the heirs.'
The property was located in Suwannee County, Florida. A. G. McCullers resided in Suwannee County and was familiar with the property. All the other parties were non-residents of Suwannee County, and it is alleged and proved that none of the appellees were familiar with the real estate involved or had any knowledge of its value.
Soon after the death of J. H. McCullers the Executor and Executrix and Trustees under the terms of the will, through A. C McCullers, acting for himself and his cotrustee, proposed to buy the undivided interest of the other beneficiaries (appellees here) in two certain forty acre tracts of the lands and other property bequeathed under the will, and represented to the appellees that the land was worth more than the dollars per acre and that there was not any timber on the land. The appellees, relying on the representation of J. H. McCullers and having absolute confidence in his integrity and loyalty to the trust reposed in him by the terms of the will, accepted the offer of the appellants and jointly conveyed the said two forties of land to the appellants for and at a consideration of ten dollars per acre, and included in said deed other property. It is next shown that at the time of this transaction each of the forty acre tracts of land was actually worth approximately two thousand dollars because of valuable timber standing on said land. It is also shown that prior to the institution of this suit appellants sold the timber on one of the forty acre tracts for $1,800.00.
On August 31st, 1945 appellees filed suit in Suwannee County to cancel the deed made by them on the 1st day of August, 1944, and for an accounting to the appellees by the appellants for their pro-rata part of the sale price of the timber and offered to do equity by returning to appellants the purchase price paid for the property conveyed by the deed of August 1st 1944.
After answers were filed and testimony taken as adduced by the respective parties, the Chancellor adjudged and decreed:
'1. The equities of this cause are with the plaintiffs. They are entitled to maintain this suit and this court has jurisdiction of the subject matter and the parties thereto.
'2. The deed of the plaintiffs to the defendants dated the 1st day of August 1944, and recorded in Deed Book 49, page 35-7 of the public records of Suwannee County, Florida, a copy of said deed being annexed to the plaintiffs' bill of complaint and made a part thereof, be and the same is hereby set aside, cancelled, annulled, and held to be absolutely void, and that such cancellation be noted on the margin of the record of said deed by the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Suwannee County, Florida, upon restitution to the defendants by the plaintiffs of the sum of $3565.76 with interest thereon at the rate of eight (8) per cent per annum...
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