Laughlin v. Mitchell

• Decision Date: 25 April 1887
• Parties: LAUGHLIN v. MITCHELL. 1
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

121 U.S. 411

7 S.Ct. 923

30 L.Ed. 987

LAUGHLIN v. MITCHELL.¹

April 25, 1887.

[Murray F. Smith, for appellant.

A. M. Lea, for appellee.

BLATCHFORD, J.

This is a bill in equity, filed on the twenty-fifth of June, 1881, in the circuit court of the United States for the Southern district of Mississippi, by Florida Laughlin, the wife of Edmund C. Laughlin, against Joseph D. Mitchell, and also against Jeffer- son Davis and Joseph H. D. Bowmar, as executors of the last will and testament of Joseph E. Davis, deceased.

The allegations of the bill are substantially as follows:

The plaintiff is the owner and in possession of a plantation in Warren county, Mississippi, known as 'Diamond Place.' She is a daughter of Joseph E. Davis, deceased. The defendant, Mitchell, is the grandson of Davis. Davis died in 1870, leaving a last will and testament, which was duly admitted to probate, in the proper court, in September, 1870. The will was executed on the eighteenth of March, 1869. Its second and third articles were as follows: '(2) I give and devise to my daughter, Florida Laughlin, the estate known as the 'Diamond Place,' in said county of Warren, containing about one thousand two hundred acres, for and during her natural life, with full enjoyment of the profits and privileges thereunto belonging. (3) I give and devise to my grandson, Joseph D. Mitchell, the plantation known as the 'Diamond Place,' in the county of Warren, containing about one thousand two hundred acres, now in possession of and occupied by my said daughter, Florida Laughlin, who has a life-estate therein, with appurtenances thereunto belonging, on the death of my said daughter, Florida Laughlin, to hold and enjoy the same in fee-simple; but in case my grandson, J. D. Mitchell, should not survive my daughter, Florida Laughlin, and should die without issue, I give and devise said Diamond Place to my nephew, Joseph E. Davis, son of Hugh R. Davis, of Wilkinson county, Mississippi.'

Davis became possessed of the property in question only through the plaintiff, and as her trustee, under the following circumstances: On the seventh of June, 1844, the plaintiff was the wife of David McCaleb, and she and her husband were then living on the plantation, which had been his property before he married her. There existed a deed of trust of the property, given by McCaleb in 1837, theb alance of the debt secured by which, amounting to $13,955.80, had been assigned to one Jacobs. In June, 1844, the plaintiff and her husband executed a new deed of trust to Chilton and Searles, as trustees, to secure the payment of said balance to Jacobs, covering the land and sundry slaves and personal property. In May, 1846, the plaintiff and her husband executed another deed of trust, covering the same real and personal property, and some additional slaves, to one McElrath, as trustee, to secure a debt due by the husband to Laughlin, Searles & Co., the debt amounting to $4,201.61 of principal. In addition, McCaleb owed other large, pressing debts. The property was then reasonably worth more than $100,000. Chilton and Searles advertised the property for sale under their deed of trust, at public outcry, on the fifteenth of June, 1846. Before that day, Jonathan McCaleb, the uncle of David McCaleb, had promised to purchase the property at the sale, to take the title to it in his own name, and to give to David McCaleb time to repay to his uncle such amount as he should advance to make the purchase. Accordingly, the uncle attended the sale, prepared to purchase the property, in trust, for the benefit of his nephew. The plaintiff's father had, however, in the mean time, at her solicitation, consented to purchase the property in trust for her, and to hold it so that she and her husband might in time be able to redeem it, the object being to make it secure from the creditors of her husband. On the day of the sale, her father and her husband's uncle being present, it was agreed that the purchase should be made by and in the name of her father, to be held for and sold to her on payment of such sum, with interest, as her father might be required to pay or assume, instead of being bid in by and in the name of her husband's uncle, to be redeemed in like manner by her husband. It was made known at the sale to all present, that her father was bidding for her, and on that account no bidding was made by any disinterested persons, and, as a result, there was no substantial competition. All of the property, real and personal, was knocked off to her father, as the highest bidder, at the sum of $28,531, which was scarcely more than one-third of its value. The creditors who were entitled to the proceeds consented that the purchase money should not be required to be paid in cash. The plaintiff was left in the undisturbed possession of the property, without the payment of any money, and her father executed his own note to Jacobs for the principal and interest of the debt to Jacobs including the expenses of the sale; the intention being that her husband might be able to meet such payment by the proceeds of the crops from the property.

On the fifteenth of June, 1846, a written agreement was executed by Chilton and Searles, as trustees, by Joseph E. Davis, and by Jacobs, which recited the sale under the deed of trust to them, and that Davis had at the sale purchased the slaves and the land for $28,531, and conveyed the property to Davis, subject to the payment of a promissory note which he then gave for the amount of the debt due to Jacobs; the title to all the property to remain in the trustees until the payment of such debt, and then to vest absolutely in Davis, Davis to pay out of the balance of the purchase money the amount due to Laughlin, Searles & Co., under the deed of trust of May 7, 1846, and the remainder of the purchase money to go to David McCaleb. After these arrangements, David McCaleb continued the cultivation of the crops, and exercised dominion over the property, in like manner as if the title had been vested in the plaintiff instead of in her father for her use. Her father never, during the life-time of her husband, exercised any control over the property. No account was kept or demanded as to its rents, issues, and profits, and the debts which had been so assumed by her father were considered by him and her husband as her debts, to be paid for by her hub and by means of the property. Her husband treated the property as her separate estate, and shipped the crops during his life-time, and applied the proceeds to the payment of the debts which had been assumed by her father, and of the other incumbrances. David McCaleb died in May, 1847, and she shipped the crops of that year, as the crop of the preceding year had been shipped, to agents, to the credit of Diamond Place account, for the Jacobs judgment. In July, 1848, she married Edmund C. Laughlin, her present husband. They continued to live on the plantation, shipping the crops as before, and applying the same, sometimes through their merchants, and sometimes by direct payment to her father, to the discharge of said indebtedness.

Some years after she had married Laughlin, and after she had paid a large portion of all the incumbrances, and some other indebtedness, she requested her father to make a title to her, and allow her to secure to him any balance for which she might be liable. This request was not complied with by him, but his failure to do so was not accompanied or explained by his advancing any claim of beneficial interest in himself in the property. Her ownership of the property was repeatedly admitted by her father, both orally and in letters addressed to her and subscribed by him. On more than one occasion he declared to her that he had devised the property to her by his will. Before the year 1858 she had more than repaid to her father all money and debts paid out and assumed by him for her on account of the property. On the twentyseventh of December, 1858, when her father was just beginning to recover from a dangerous illness, and while he was feeble and nervous, he said to the plaintiff, who was then in attendance upon him, that he would like her husband to be sent for; he being then at Diamond Place, several miles away. When her husband arrived, he and the plaintiff were called into the office of her father, and a paper was put into her hands, which he desired her to read aloud. When she had read it, she found it was a lease to be signed by her and her husband, and by her father, in which her father leased the Diamond Place, and the slaves so purchased by him, to the plaintiff for life. The lease, a copy of which is annexed to the bill, was signed by the three parties. It is dated December 27, 1858, and by...