Moore v. Luke

• Decision Date: 29 November 1915
• Citation: 110 Miss. 205,70 So. 84
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: MOORE ET AL. v. LUKE

70 So. 84

110 Miss. 205

MOORE ET AL. v. LUKE

Supreme Court of Mississippi

November 29, 1915

October 1915

APPEAL from the chancery court of Kemper county. HON. J. F. MCCOOL Chancellor.

Suit by Elizabeth Moore and others against J. M. Luke. From an order sustaining a demurrer to the bill of complaint, plaintiffs appeal.

The facts are fully stated in the opinion of the court.

Decree reversed and remanded.

Huddleston & Austin, for appellants.

OPINION

STEVENS, J.

Appellants as complainants in the court below exhibit their bill of complaint against appellee seeking confirmation of their title to forty acres of land in Kemper county, and asking that the claim of the defendant be canceled as a cloud on their title. A demurrer was interposed to the bill and sustained by the chancellor, and from this decree appellants appeal. While the bill in some respects is subject to criticism, we think it sufficiently states a case. Appellants deraigned title from the United States government to Willard C. Mills; from Willard C. Mills to William Reid, Sr.; from William Reid, and his wife, Mary Reid, to Elizabeth Reid and Emma Reid, two of the Complainants; by deed from Elizabeth and Emma Reid conveying an undivided one-half interest to J F. N. Huddleston and H. L. Austin, the other complainants. The bill further alleges that complainants are not fully informed as to the nature of the claim of the defendant, but upon information charge that he claims title to the lands in question through a commissioner's deed executed in pursuance to a decree rendered in an ex parte proceeding filed by E. E. Reid, claiming to be the widow of one Willie Reid, deceased, and by M. E. and E. J. Reid minors suing by their alleged next friend, E. E. Reid. It is averred in the bill that E. E. Reid was not the mother of any of the complainants, that she had no interest in the land and that neither M. E. nor E. J. Reid had any right, title, or interest therein, and that the partition suit referred to was filed without the knowledge or consent of either Elizabeth or Emma Reid, and, if anything, was a fraud upon their rights. The bill in short avers that the proceedings to partite or sell the lands in question, and through which defendant claims, was a proceeding by parties other than the complainants, and conveyed no title whatever. The demurrer submits that the bill is a "fishing" bill and indefinite in its averments; that it is...