Logan's Adm'r v. Caldwell

• Decision Date: 31 October 1856
• Citation: 23 Mo. 372
• Parties: LOGAN'S ADM'R, Appellant, v. CALDWELL, Respondent.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

23 Mo. 372

LOGAN'S ADM'R, Appellant,

v.CALDWELL, Respondent.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

October Term, 1856.

1. A deed of conveyance of a tract of land, executed by A., contained the following reservation: “The said A. reserves the use of said tract of land and farm thereon, or the rents and profits arising from it, during his life and the life of his wife.” Held, that this reservation created no interest in the wife, and that the personal representatives of A. and not of his wife, would be entitled to money becoming due for the use and occupation of the premises by A.'s grantee after the death of A. and before that of his wife. (LEONARD, J., dissenting, holding that, upon the death of the husband, the interest created by the reservation, being a freehold interest, passed to the heir, and not to the administrator.)

Appeal from Perry Circuit Court.

This was a suit instigated by the administrator of John Logan to recover rent claimed to have become due under the reservation contained in a deed from John Logan to the defendant, Caldwell. It appears by the finding of the court that defendant Caldwell had paid for the use and occupation of the premises up to the death of Logan. The court decided that the defendant was “not responsible to the plaintiff, the administrator of Logan, for any rent accruing after the death of Logan, the same belonging to Rosannah W. Logan, the widow of Logan, she having survived him.” Judgment was accordingly given for defendant. Plaintiff appealed.

Frissell, for appellant.

Noell, for respondent.

I. After the death of John Logan the rents reserved in that deed were reserved for the benefit of his wife Rosannah W. Logan, and the administrators of John Logan have no right to recover the same. Such was the plain intention of the parties as appears from the face of the deed, and that intention, when executed, will be carried into effect. (Perry v. Craig, 3 Mo. 360; Gathwright v. Calloway County, 10 Mo. 663; Com. Dig. 23.)

II. The rent claimed in this case having accrued after the death of plaintiff's intestate, does not accrue to him as administrator, even should the deed warrant the construction claimed by his counsel. If any right of action exists, it is in the heirs and not the administrator. (Bacon's Abr. tit. Rent, 348-9.)

SCOTT, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

John Logan conveyed a tract of land to the defendant, Caldwell, in fee, with the following clause, by way of exception or reservation, viz: “ With this exception, that said John Logan reserves the use of said tract of land and farm thereon, or the rents and profits arising from it, during his life andthe life of his wife.” John Logan's wife survived him, and the question is, whether this clause gives the rents and profits accruing after his death to his wife.

We see nothing in the language used which can by any implication create any estate or interest in the wife. If the reservation had been during the life of the wife alone, would she have taken any interest? Can the circumstance that it is made...