Mitchell v. Jones

• Decision Date: 31 August 1872
• Citation: Mitchell v. Jones, 50 Mo. 438 (Mo. 1872)
• Parties: WILLIAM C. MITCHELL et al., Respondents, v. JOHN P. JONES, Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

50 Mo. 438

WILLIAM C. MITCHELL et al., Respondents,

v.JOHN P. JONES, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

August Term, 1872.

Appeal from Chariton Circuit Court.

C. A. Winslow, for appellant.

G. D. Burgess, for respondents.

ADAMS, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

This was a motion made by all the parties to a partition suit to set aside the sale of the land and for a new order of sale.The facts, as they appear from the bill of exceptions, are that the land consisted of eighty acres, worth in cash $20 per acre, or $1,600; that on the day of sale one of the adult parties in interest had employed an agent to attend the sale to see that the land was not sacrificed; that this agent was detained by accident and did not reach the place till after the sale, and that appellant Jones bought the eighty-acre tract at the sum of $50.

There may not have been any actual fraud in the purchaser, but the inadequacy of price is so great in this case as to shock the conscience; and, as infants are concerned, it was the duty of the court to set aside the sale.

In looking into this record I discover an irregularity which has not been noticed by either party, which may have caused this great inadequacy of price.The record presents the anomaly of two infant plaintiffs suing by next friend for partition and sale of the land.This next friend was appointed by the clerk in vacation, as though it was an...