Laclede Land & Improvement Co. v. Goodno
| Decision Date | 21 December 1915 |
| Docket Number | 17356 |
| Parties | LACLEDE LAND & IMPROVEMENT CO., INC., v. GOODNO ET AL. |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Appeal from Circuit Court, Reynolds County; E. M. Dearing, Judge.
Action by the Laclede Land & Improvement Company, Incorporated against Adaline Goodno and others. From a judgment for defendants, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.
Plaintiff, a Missouri corporation, commenced this action in the circuit court of Reynolds county, Mo., on September 28 1910, against the above-named defendants, under section 2535 R. S. 1909, to quiet title and determine the rights, title etc., of said parties in and to the southeast quarter and the south half of the southwest quarter of section 35, township 28, range 1 east, in said county and state. It appears from the record that all of the defendants herein were brought into court by an order of publication duly made and published. Thereafter, on May 28, 1911, Ben. H. Goodno, Harry C. Goodno, and Lucy B. Donoho, husband and heirs of Adaline Goodno, deceased, filed an answer in said cause, and admit therein the incorporation of plaintiff as alleged, and likewise admit that they claim title by descent from Adaline Goodno, deceased, to the real estate aforesaid. They allege in said answer that they have a fee-simple title to said land, and that their interests are adverse to those of plaintiff. It is further averred that Adaline Goodno was the owner and had full title to said real estate; that she died in February, 1888, leaving as her sole heirs, Ben. H. Goodno, her husband, Harry C. Goodno, her son, and Lucy B. Donoho (née Goodno), her daughter, all of whom are now living and are defendants in this action. The answer further avers that all the proceedings brought against Adaline Goodno, for taxes alleged to be due on said land in 1890, including the tax judgment, sale, etc., relied upon by plaintiff, are all void, for the reason that at the time said action was commenced, said Adaline Goodno was dead. Said answering defendants, subject to the admissions aforesaid, also plead the general issue, and ask the court to determine the estate, title, and interest of plaintiff and defendants respectively, in and to the real estate aforesaid. Proof of publication was filed against the nonanswering defendants, etc. The cause was submitted to the trial court upon the pleadings and proof of plaintiff and said answering defendants. Said court found and determined that said Ben. H. Goodno, Harry C. Goodno, and Lucy B. Donoho, were, at the commencment of this suit, and at the date of the judgment herein, the owners of said real estate, and that the plaintiff has no title to, nor interest in, the same. The costs were taxed against the plaintiff. The latter, in due time, filed its motion for a new trial, which was overruled, and the cause brought here by appeal in due form.
Plaintiff’s Evidence. Plaintiff introduced in evidence a sheriff’s deed under special execution for delinquent taxes, based on a judgment dated May 31, 1890, which named therein as the judgment defendants Adaline Goodno, Joseph E. Manning, and Lysander B. Greenman. The above-named heirs of Adaline Goodno objected to the introduction of the sheriff’s deed aforesaid, for the alleged reason that at the time said tax proceedings were brought, and at the time of the order of publication, the defendant Adaline Goodno was dead, and therefore said proceedings were void and no title passed by said deed. The objection aforesaid was overruled, and said deed admitted in evidence. Thereupon the following occurred:
"Mr. Daniel: Will you concede that whatever title passed by this tax deed is now vested in the Laclede Land & Investment Company?
Yes; that is admitted.
Mr. Daniel: Very well; the plaintiff will rest."
Evidence of Ben. H. Goodno, Harry C. Goodno, and Lucy B. Donoho. Said answering defendants conclusively proved that Adaline Goodno died in the State of Kansas, in February, 1888. It was admitted by plaintiff that the plat book of Reynolds county, Mo., shows that the land in controversy was entered by Adaline Goodno. Ben. H. Goodno was sworn as a witness in behalf of said defendants, and testified: That he was in the hardware, implement, and grain business at Bronson, Kan.; that he and Adaline Goodno were married in Clark county, Mo., in March, 1856; that her maiden name was Adaline Hyde; that his wife, Adaline, purchased from the United States government the land in controversy; that she died intestate; that Harry C. Goodno and Lucy Belle Donoho are the only children of said Adaline; that he lived with his said wife up to the time of her death in February, 1888. He testified that he never joined with his wife in the conveyance of said land, and had no knowledge of her ever having transferred same. On cross-examination he testified that his wife paid twelve and one half cents per acre for said land; that to the best of his knowledge, he never knew a man from Iron county, Mo., by the name of Wm. A. Scott; that neither he nor his wife ever lived on said land; that the matter of taxes was looked after by his wife’s father, and he did not know whether he paid the taxes on said land; that he did not pay the taxes after his wife’s death, because he was under the impression it had been sold for taxes, and that the title had passed; that he either saw the patent or certificate for said land while it was in the possession of Mr. Hyde; that he had written to the Hyde family and the land office for said patent, but was unable to get it. The defendants closed.
In passing, it should be kept in mind that plaintiff in chief offered no evidence tending to show that Adaline Goodno was the owner of the land in controversy, but stood upon the proposition that if she was the owner and possessed of the record title, the plaintiff had acquired the same under the sheriff’s deed read in evidence. The testimony of defendants, showing that Adaline Goodno was the owner of said land and was dead before the tax proceedings were commenced and before judgment was rendered against her, invalidated the tax proceedings, and left said answering defendants as the owners of said land.
At this stage of the case the plaintiff took a departure from its case in chief, and undertook to recover under the guise of rebuttal, by attempting to show that Adaline Goodno had conveyed the land in controversy to Wm. A. Scott, and that the latter had conveyed it to defendant Manning. Thereupon plaintiff read in evidence the deposition of defendant Ben. H. Goodno, taken in Kansas on September 28, 1911, in which he testified that his wife did not visit the above land, so far as he knew; that during 1858 or 1859 he entered land in Missouri; that he never visited the land he entered until January, 1911, and that he conveyed it about 1858 or 1859; that he did not remember any man by the name of Wm. A. Scott, nor one by the name of M. J. Brown. Plaintiff then offered the record of a deed from W. A. Scott to Joseph E. Manning, dated June 13, 1859, conveying the land in controversy, with 40 acres of other land, and recorded in the recorder’s office of said county, in Book 2, at page 274, in May, 1870.
Counsel for above defendants objected to the admission of said deed, because no title had been shown in said Wm. A. Scott; also because the recital in reference to Adaline Goodno is not sufficient evidence that the patentee, Adaline Goodno, ever transferred the land in question; and also, because the heirs of Adaline Goodno are not bound by any recital that might be made by a stranger to the title in a deed. The court admitted the recital in said deed as a circumstance.
Said deed contains the following recital:
"Southeast quarter and east half of the southwest quarter and southwest quarter of the southwest quarter of section No. thirty-five (35) in township No. twenty-eight (28) north, of range No. one east, containing two hundred and eighty acres more or less as per duplicate issued to Adaline Goodno No. 32940 from the receiver’s office at Jackson, Mo., and by her deeded to said William A. Scott."
For the alleged purpose of showing Ben. H. Goodno’s memory to be bad as to ancient matters relied on, plaintiff was permitted, over objection of said defendants, to show that a patent to land in section 18 was issued to Ben. H. Goodno, in September, 1859, and recorded in Reynolds county, Mo., June 4, 1869; and also the record of a deed from Benjamin H. Goodno and Adaline Goodno to Wm. A. Scott, dated June 28, 1858, conveying said land in section 18, supra, and in which M. J. Brown is certified as having been the justice of the peace who took the acknowledgment. It was admitted by counsel for defendants that the records of Reynolds county, Mo., were destroyed by fire in 1872.
Plaintiff had R.I. January, Esq., sworn as a witness, and he testified that he did not then have in his possession any deeds, tax receipts, or other evidences of title to said land; that he did have some deeds, but could not show all the title with them. On cross-examination Mr. January testified that he was not there representing Mr. Manning, but had been employed by him, and got a fee, but did not go on with the case because of a deed being out, and he could not proceed further. It was admitted that the land in controversy is wild, uncultivated land and not in the possession of any one. January testified that there are no abstract books or abstracts of title which claim to show any transfers of the lands of Reynolds county, Mo., made and recorded prior to 1872, that have not since been recorded.
The foregoing is a very full statement of all the facts as disclosed by the record. The case was tried by the court without a jury, and without instructions. The judgment was for defen...
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