Lanier v. John L. Roper Lumber Co.

• Decision Date: 19 March 1919
• Docket Number: 222.
• Citation: 98 S.E. 593,177 N.C. 200
• Parties: LANIER v. JOHN L. ROPER LUMBER CO. ET AL.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

98 S.E. 593

177 N.C. 200

LANIER v. JOHN L. ROPER LUMBER CO. ET AL.

No. 222.

Supreme Court of North Carolina

March 19, 1919

Appeal from Superior Court, Duplin County; Guion, Judge.

Action by B. M. Lanier against the John L. Roper Lumber Company and others. Judgment for defendants, and plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

A purchaser for value without notice of fraud in his vendor's title is protected.

This is an action against the Roper Lumber Company to recover damages for cutting certain timber on the land described in the complaint, and against the administrator and heirs of Jefferson Lanier to recover the purchase price of the same.

In 1898 John T. Batts, who was then the owner of the land, executed a deed purporting to convey the same to the plaintiff, who was then under 21 years of age. This deed was not registered until February 5, 1904.

On the 27th of November, 1902, the said Batts sold this land and other lands to Jefferson Lanier, and executed a deed to the said Lanier, purporting to convey the same, which deed was registered on the 27th of December, 1902, prior to the registration of the deed to the plaintiff.

On April 6, 1906, the said Jefferson Lanier sold the timber on said lands to the Blades Lumber Company for $12,000, and executed his deed conveying the same, which was registered April 11, 1906, and thereafter the Blades Lumber Company sold and conveyed said timber to the defendant the Roper Lumber Company.

The plaintiff became 21 years of age in February, 1910, and this action was commenced October 27, 1918.

The plaintiff claims that the land conveyed to him in 1898 was embraced in the deed to Jefferson Lanier in 1902 by fraud and that therefore he is entitled to recover damages of the Roper Lumber Company for cutting the timber, and if this is not so that he should recover of the administrator and heirs of Jefferson Lanier the purchase money paid by the Blades Lumber Company.

The defendants deny fraud and plead the ten and three year statutes of limitations, to which the plaintiff replies that he discovered the facts constituting the fraud within three years before this action was commenced.

The plaintiff knew on February 5, 1904, that the land he claims and which is described in the complaint was included in the deed to Jefferson Lanier.

It was admitted that the Blades Lumber Company paid Jefferson Lanier $12,000 for the timber conveyed in its deed, and there is no allegation in the complaint that the Blades Lumber Company had notice of any fraud or irregularity, or that he knew of the execution of the deed to the plaintiff by Batts.

The allegations in the complaint as to the Roper Lumber Company are that it knew the value of the timber lands of Jefferson Lanier, and did not pay near their value, that it knew of the existence of the deed to the plaintiff at the time of its purchase, and that Jefferson Lanier had bought for much less than the real value, and that the plaintiff was in possession of the land at the time of the purchase. It is also alleged that at the time of the cutting of the timber in 1916 the Roper Lumber Company had notice of the pendency of an action by the plaintiff against the heirs of Jefferson Lanier to set aside the deed executed to him by Batts in so far as it interfered with the deed executed to the plaintiff in 1898 which action resulted in a judgment for the plaintiff.

The allegations of fraud against the administrator and heirs of Jefferson Lanier are that Lanier bought from Batts for much less than the true value; that Lanier knew of the deed to the plaintiff when he bought; that his contract with Batts was for the purchase of the lands owned by Batts, and was not intended to cover the lands conveyed to the plaintiff in 1898, and that Lanier had the land surveyed and included in the deed all of said land. It is also alleged that Batts was an ignorant man and unskilled in business, and that he was induced to sign the deed by the deceit of Lanier, but it is not alleged that Batts could not read, or that any act or representation of Lanier induced the execution of the deed which he signed.

Upon the admissions made by the parties and upon the pleadings his honor rendered judgment in favor of the defendants, holding that the Roper Lumber Company was the owner of the timber and therefore not liable in damages, and that the cause of action against the administrator and heirs of Jefferson Lanier was barred by the statute of limitations, and the plaintiff excepted and appealed.

Gavin & Wallace, of Kenansville, and George R. Ward, of Wallace, for appellant.

L. I. Moore, of New Bern, and L. A. Beasley, of Kenansville, for appellee Roper Lumber Co.

Stevens & Beasley, of Kenansville, for other appellees.

ALLEN J.

The two causes of action alleged in the complaint--one against the Roper Lumber Company to set aside the deeds under which it claims and recover damages for cutting the timber on the land, and the other against the administrator and heirs of Jefferson Lanier to recover the purchase money of the land--are inconsistent, and cannot be prosecuted at the same time, as one repudiates the deed executed to the Blades Lumber Company, and the other affirms it; but as there is no objection made on the ground of a misjoinder, we will consider the causes of action separately, although we might dispose of the appeal as to the Lumber Company by the admission of the plaintiff, appearing in the judgment, that "in this action he is undertaking to follow the fund received by Jefferson Lanier from said Blades Lumber Company for said timber, to recover his proportion thereof from the administrator and heirs at law of the said Jefferson Lanier, defendants herein, upon the grounds set out in his complaint," which he cannot do except upon the ground that the Blades Lumber Company acquired title to the land which it passed to the Roper Lumber Company. He cannot claim the purchase money of the land, and also the land and timber.

If however, there...