McCormick v. McCormick

• Decision Date: 09 October 1930
• Docket Number: 5 Div. 40.
• Citation: 221 Ala. 606,130 So. 226
• Parties: MCCORMICK ET AL. v. MCCORMICK ET AL.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

130 So. 226

221 Ala. 606

MCCORMICK ET AL. v. MCCORMICK ET AL.

5 Div. 40.

Supreme Court of Alabama

October 9, 1930

Appeal from Circuit Court, Randolph County; S. L. Brewer, Judge.

Bill in equity by J. H. McCormick and others against E. W. McCormick and others. From a decree dismissing the bill, complainants appeal.

Affirmed.

Walter S. Smith, of Birmingham, for appellants.

John W Overton, of Wedowee, Pruet & Glass, of Ashland, and Denson &amp Denson, of Opelika, for appellees.

BOULDIN J.

Bill in equity for sale of lands for division among tenants in common.

The respondents deny the title of complainants and set up title in themselves.

All parties claim through James McCormick, the unquestioned owner of the lands at the time of his death in 1897.

Complainants are his heirs at law or their privies in estate.

Respondent E. W. McCormick, one of the sons of decedent, claims exclusive ownership in himself by virtue of a deed from his mother, Eliza McCormick, the widow of decedent. Other respondents claim under him.

The lands consist of one hundred sixty acres, the homestead of decedent, and after his death occupied by his widow until her death in 1916. There were no minor children.

The title in fee in the widow is rested upon the statute of force at the time of decedent's death whereby the homestead not exceeding in area and value the homestead exempt to the widow, and being all the lands owned by the decedent, vested in fee eo instanti without judicial proceedings to set the same apart to the widow.

The title of E. W. McCormick under the deed from his mother, the widow, is attacked upon two grounds: First, want of title in the widow to other than a life estate, because (a) the decedent owned another forty acres at the time of his death and (b) the value of the homestead exceeded $2,000 at the time of his death; and, second, the invalidity of the deed itself, because of (c) mental incapacity of the grantor and (d) undue influence in the procurement of such deed.

Respondents took issue upon these several grounds. Among other things, respondents interposed a plea of res adjudicata showing that after the death of the widow these complainants, or their predecessors and privies in title, brought suit in ejectment against E. W. McCormick in the proper jurisdiction for the lands here involved; that the suit was defended upon the title conveyed by the deed in question, resulting in verdict and judgment for defendant which remains unreversed.

Was this judgment conclusive as against this suit?

While under our statute two judgments in favor of defendant in ejectment founded on the same title are required to conclude the title, it is well settled that one judgment in ejectment is res adjudicata in all proceedings involving the title other than by suit in ejectment. Jenkins v. Raulston, 214 Ala. 443, 108 So. 47; Coleman v. Stewart, 170 Ala. 255, 53 So. 1020; Richardson v. Powell, 199 Ala. 275, 74 So. 364; Morgan v. Lehman, Durr & Co., 92 Ala. 440, 9 So. 314.

A judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction rendered on the merits is conclusive between the parties as to all matters within the issues, matters which the issues were broad enough to cover, and which were presented or might have been presented on the trial. McNeil v. Ritter Dental Manufacturing Co., 213 Ala. 24, 104 So. 230; Irwin v. Alabama Fuel & Iron Co., 215 Ala. 328, 110 So. 566.

Ejectment is the well-known and favored action for the trial of title to land.

The plea of "not guilty" puts the title in issue and, broadly speaking, any fact tending to defeat plaintiff's title or sustain that of defendant is within the issue. Code, § 7456; Bynum v. Gold, 106 Ala. 427, 17 So. 667; Torrey v. Forbes, 94 Ala. 135, 10 So. 320.

True, of course, merely equitable titles and defenses are not cognizable in a court of law, and are not litigated in an action of ejectment.

Appellant relies upon this principle to avoid the effect of the judgment in ejectment.

Does it apply here?

Certainly the title of respondent's grantor, her title in fee under the homestead law, was within the issue in the ejectment suit. So, also, the issue of mental incapacity to execute such deed, a matter going to the existence of a deed in fact.

This leaves the question of undue influence as invalidating the deed. Undue influence as between persons standing in confidential relations is involved. We need not consider whether, in the first instance, a...