Langley v. Vaughn

• Decision Date: 30 April 1873
• Citation: 57 Tenn. 553
• Parties: N. A. Langley et al. v. Mary Vaughn et al.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

57 Tenn. 553

N. A. Langley et al.

v.Mary Vaughn et al.

Supreme Court of Tennessee.

April Term, 1873.

FROM SHELBY.

Appeal from a decree of the Chancery Court February Term, 1872. HON. R. J. MORGAN, Ch.

SMITH & JEFFERSON, for Complainants.

G. W. WINCHESTER, for Defendants.

MCFARLAND, J., delivered the opinion of the Court.

This bill was filed by part of the creditors of L. W. Vaughn, deceased, in behalf of themselves and all others to administer the estate in the Chancery Court at Memphis, under the provisions of the Code, sec. 2209 et seq.

Said L. W. Vaughn was a resident of Shelby county at the time of his death. He was a son and heir and distributee of H. B. Vaughn, who died in the year 1862, leaving real and personal estate in Sumner county, which remained undivided and undistributed at the beginning of the present proceedings.

The only question now before us arises upon the appeal of John A. Vaughn, one of the defendants. Said John A. is also a son of H. B. Vaughn, deceased, and administrator of his estate. He sets up in his answer, a claim to a lien upon L. W. Vaughn's share of the real estate of H. B. Vaughn, deceased, superior to the claims of the other creditors. The answer says that previous to the death of L. W. Vaughn, he had paid him some large amounts on the interest coming to him from his father's estate, and on the 16th of March, 1867, took his receipt as follows: “Received, Gallatin, March 16, 1867, of John A. Vaughn administrator of the estate of H. B. Vaughn, twenty-five hundred and eighty-one dollars and twenty-four cents the same to be deducted out of my interest as legatee in the said estate. If the said amount is not realized out of the personal effects of the estate, the same shall be a lien on real estate or my interest in the same. Signed, L. W. Vaughn.” This was witnessed and registered in Sumner County shortly after the filing of this bill, to-wit: February 6, 1869. L. W. Vaughn died October, 1867. This bill was filed January 19, 1869.

The said John A. also relies upon a letter addressed to him by the said L. W., and dated shortly after the above receipt, to-wit: the 11th of May, 1869. The only material part of this letter is, that it requests the said John A. to make advances and pay debts for him and promising that as soon as he returned from a trip he was then about to take, he would give him an instrument of writing conveying him his whole interest in the estate.

There is in the record an agreement of counsel, the substance of which is, that said John A. Vaughn should be allowed to set up his right to a prior lien on the land under these papers without the necessity of a cross-bill. The Chancellor's decree was against John A. Vaughn, upon this question, and he has appealed specially from this part of the decree, and in his behalf it is argued that he is entitled to a lien upon the land for any sum L. W. Vaughn's share of the personalty may fall short of said sum of $2,581.24. His share of the personalty is not proven as the estate of H. B. Vaughn has not yet been settled.

The Chancellor's decree was rested upon the ground that the receipt was void for uncertainty, under the statute of frauds.

It is argued that as the statute of frauds was not pleaded, the question does not arise. There are cases, where it has been held that a defendant admitting in his answer a contract...