Modrell v. Riddle

• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Missouri
• Writing for the Court: SHERWOOD
• Citation: 82 Mo. 31
• Decision Date: 30 April 1884
• Parties: MODRELL et al., Appellants, v. RIDDLE et al.

82 Mo. 31

MODRELL et al., Appellants,
v.
RIDDLE et al.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

April Term, 1884.

[82 Mo. 32]

Appeal from Buchanan Circuit Court.--HON. WM. H. SHERMAN, Judge.

AFFIRMED.

Plaintiffs read in evidence a deed containing covenants of general warranty, executed March 29th, 1865, by Uriah Griffith and wife to Hardin Riddle and Mary Riddle conveying the land described in the petition. This deed was duly recorded April 8th, 1865. Plaintiffs further offered oral evidence to the effect that Mary Riddle furnished the money to pay for the land in question, and that she objected to the deed to Hardin Riddle and herself, and wanted the deed made to herself alone, giving her husband, Hardin Riddle, only a life interest in it, and it was agreed that a second deed such as she desired should be made. That Hardin Riddle, after the death of his wife, endeavored to purchase the interest of his wife's children by a former husband, and that he admitted to various persons, before and after the death of his wife, that he only had a life estate in the land. Defendants' testimony was, in substance, that Hardin Riddle stated to several persons that the land in controversy was his wife's, that her money bought it, and he only had a life interest in it. To others he claimed the land as his. That he sold a farm in 1865 for $1,600, and then moved on to the land in controversy. That he lived on it about thirteen years and made additions to the house and otherwise improved the land. Defendants read in evidence insurance policies and tax receipts, showing that Hardin Riddle twice insured the house and paid the taxes on the land; and, also, read in evidence a writing purporting to be a deed from Uriah Griffith and wife, but not the one read by plaintiffs, conveying the land in controversy to Hardin Riddle and Mary Riddle, and purporting to have been acknowledged before Allen Jamison, a justice of the peace. The plaintiffs, in rebuttal, introduced Allen Jamison, who testified that he never took the acknowledgment

[82 Mo. 33]

to the deed read by defendants, and that the name signed to the certificate of acknowledgment was not in his hand-writing.

James W. Boyd and B. R. Vineyard for appellants.

Mary Riddle paid for the land, and hence a trust resulted by which Hardin Riddle held it as trustee for her and her heirs. Tennison v. Tennison, 46 Mo. 77; Darrier v. Darrier, 58 Mo. 222. It is contended that this money belonged to Hardin Riddle by virtue of his marital rights. This would not be so unless he received and held it with the intention of becoming the owner of it. If it was her money, and he reduced it to his possession, the law then offered to give it to him, leaving it optional with him to accept or decline it. The law did not both offer it to him, and then compel him to receive and own it. If he received it without any intention to own it, it did not become his. This doctrine is abundantly sustained, by many cases among which are the following, all to the point: Noble v. Morris, 24 Ind. 478; Standeford v. Devol, 21 Ind. 404; Gochenaur's Estate,23 Pa. St. 460; Bargey's Appeal,60 Pa. St. 408; Tracy v. Kelly, 52 Ind. 535. The second ground upon which we ask for such a decree is, Hardin Riddle's name was written in said deed as a grantee by mistake, neither he nor his wife being able to read. Even if this court shall determine that Hardin Riddle, by his marital rights, received the money with which this land was purchased, still if he purchased it for her with this money, and intended it to be conveyed to her, and his name was written in the deed by mistake, then the deed ought to be corrected. The defenses set up are the statute of limitations and that “plaintiffs' pretended claim is stale.” They are not sustained. The statute did not begin to run till Hardin Riddle died, 1878, and there was no stale demand. Dyer v. Brannock, 66 Mo. 391; Kelley v. Hurt, 61 Mo. 463; Spurlock v. Sproule, 72 Mo. 503; Miller v. Bledsoe, 61 Mo. 96.

[82 Mo. 34]

Plaintiffs did not know until after Hardin Riddle's death that his name was in the...