Meyers v. Van Wagoner

• Court: Missouri Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: ADAMS
• Citation: Meyers v. Van Wagoner, 56 Mo. 115 (Mo. 1874)
• Decision Date: 31 March 1874
• Parties: JOHN MEYERS, Respondent, v. ADALINE H. VAN WAGONER et al., Appellants.

56 Mo. 115

JOHN MEYERS, Respondent,

v.ADALINE H. VAN WAGONER et al., Appellants.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

March Term, 1874.

Appeal from St. Louis Circuit Court.

ADAMS, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

This was an action in the nature of a bill in chancery to subject the separate property of the defendant, Adaline H. Van Wagoner, to the payment of a promissory note which she had executed and delivered to the plaintiff.

The petition alleges that she is the owner of certain real estate situate in the City of St. Louis, and described in the petition, and that it is held by the defendant, John M. Krum, in trust for her sole and separate use; that she and the defendant Garret S. Van Wagoner are husband and wife, and were so at the time of the execution of the note; that she executed and delivered the note in suit, and intended thereby to bind and did bind her separate estate for its payment, and prays judgment for the amount of the note, and that it be enforced against her separate property described in the petition. The answer denies the material facts alleged in the petition, and the defendant Adaline H. Van Wagoner in a separate answer alleged that the note in suit was made without any consideration, and that it was merely voluntary, and that she did not bind nor intend to bind her separate property for its payment. The plaintiff by replication denied the new matter contained in the answer. The plaintiff had judgment at Special Term, which was affirmed by the General Term, and the defendants have appealed to this court.

The facts as developed on the trial appear to be; that the plaintiff held the note of Adaline H. Van Wagoner's son by a former marriage, for loaned money; that this son was wholly insolvent; that the plaintiff applied to Mrs. Van Wagoner to assume the debt, which she did by executing her own note for the same, and taking up and destroying her son's note; that plaintiff...