Knight v. Boner
| Decision Date | 18 September 1969 |
| Docket Number | No. 3757,3757 |
| Citation | 459 P.2d 205 |
| Parties | Irene KNIGHT, Appellant (Defendant below), v. Harry BONER, Appellee (plaintiff below). |
| Court | Wyoming Supreme Court |
Ernest Wilkerson, Casper, for appellant.
Paul B. Godfrey, Cheyenne, William A. Taylor, Lusk, for appellee.
Before GRAY, C. J., and McINTYRE, PARKER, and McEWAN, JJ.
Plaintiff, Harry Boner, brought an action of forcible entry and detainer in justice of the peace court against defendant, Irene Knight, to recover possession of certain real property located in the Town of Lusk, Wyoming. Judgment was for the plaintiff, and defendant appealed to the district court.
When the matter came on for trial de novo in the district court plaintiff, without objection, put in evidence a warranty deed dated July 10, 1960, by virtue of which the parties acquired title to the premises involved as joint tenants with right of survivorship; a warranty deed dated July 6, 1966, whereby the defendant conveyed her interest in the premises to the plaintiff; and a copy of a stipulation entered into in open court on July 17, 1967, between the parties in settlement of a bastardy proceeding brought by the defendant against the plaintiff wherein, among other things, it was agreed that defendant, who was then making her home on the premises, would vacate the same on or before October 1, 1967, and if not 'she shall be deemed to be a tenant at sufferance and subject to immediate removal by an action in forcible entry and detainer by the defendant (plaintiff here), and the plaintiff (defendant here) shall assert no defenses to said action.' It was also stipulated that proper notice to quit had been served and that defendant was still in possession of the premises. Thereupon plaintiff rested his case.
In defense of the proceeding the defendant took the position that the stipulation concerning plaintiff's right to possession of the premises was entered into by the defendant and her then attorneys under a misapprehension of the facts brought about through concealment by plaintiff of certain financial transactions between plaintiff and a bank relating to the property and defendant's automobile and that the deed from defendant to plaintiff whereby defendant conveyed away her interest in the premises and relinquished her equal right to possession thereunder was void because obtained by plaintiff through misrepresentation, fraud and deceit.
When defendant undertook to offer evidence in support of her theories, objection was made on the ground that the derivation of plaintiff's title was incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial and on the further ground that the matters raised constituted equitable defenses which could not be injected into an unlawful detainer proceeding. The objection was sustained and defendant, after making an extensive offer of proof which we find unnecessary to relate in any detail for purposes here, and which offer was also rejected by the trial court, rested her case. The district court in disposing of the appeal found that plaintiff was entitled to possession and entered its order affirming the judgment of the justice court. Defendant appeals.
In presenting the matter here counsel for defendant in his brief says:
'The issue in this appeal is a narrow one: Is the defendant in a forcible entry and detainer action, being a former joint owner of the property with attendant joint right to possession, entitled to establish as a defense to eviction by the other joint tenant that the title in the evictor was obtained from the defendant evictee by misrepresentation, deceit and fraud and therefore that the instrument vesting such title in the evictor is void and of no force and effect with the resulting continuing right in the defendant to occupy the premises.'
As nearly as we can determine, he argument of defendant that the issue should be answered in the affirmative is predicated upon the proposition that proffered evidence was admissible as tending to show that the defendant took possession of the premises and continued in possession under 'color of title,' which if established would defeat the action of unlawful detainer.
The difficulty with defendant's carefully articulated statement of the narrow issue on this appeal and the argument in support thereof is that it entirely ignores the underlying and significant circumstance of the force and effect of the stipulation in the bastardy...
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