Murphree v. Henson
Decision Date | 28 September 1972 |
Docket Number | 7 Div. 908 |
Citation | 267 So.2d 414,289 Ala. 340 |
Parties | Roy L. MURPHREE, individually and as Co-Executor of the Estate of Jesse W. Murphree, et al. v. Gus HENSON. |
Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Dortch, Wright & Cobb, Gadsden, for appellants.
Roy D. McCord and J. A. Hornsby, Gadsden, for appellee.
The decree here appealed from was rendered in a proceeding begun in October 1962. Gus Henson filed a bill in equity seeking specific performance of an oral contract to convey certain described land located in Etowah County, Alabama. The bill averred that the contract was made between complainant and Jesse W. Murphree, that complainant had been put in possession of the land, and had paid the purchase price therefor.
Murphree's demurrer to the bill as then amended was overruled in 1964, and Murphree then filed his answer to the bill. He denied the material averments of the bill, and averred his prior alienation of the described land, and set up as defenses the Statute of Frauds, the Statute of Limitations, and the non-joinder of essential parties as respondents.
On motion of the complainant the testimony of four witnesses was heard by the court on 29 September 1964.
Thereafter complainant amended his bill by adding Roy Murphree, the son of Jesse W. Murphree, and C. E. Parker, a lessee of Roy Murphree, as party respondents. It was averred that Roy Murphree was aware of the agreement between Jesse W. Murphree and Gus Henson, and a group of men involved in the agreement, and that no consideration for the deed of the land to Roy Murphree passed between the parties to the deed which was recorded on 10 January 1961. It was averred that the deed from Jesse W. Murphree to Roy Murphree was made by the parties to the deed with intent to hinder or defraud Henson in his claim to title to the land.
Roy Murphree and C. E. Parker filed demurrers to the bill as then amended.
The court appointed a commissioner to hear testimony on 10 January 1966, and thereafter the testimony of several witnesses was taken before the commissioner at various times, mostly during April 1966.
The death of Jesse W. Murphree on 5 August 1966, was suggested, and thereafter the suit was revived against his executors, Homer Murphree and Roy Murphree.
The bill was thereafter amended several times, the named respondents filing, or refiling, their demurrers thereto. The demurrers being overruled, the respondents separately and severally filed their answers denying all material averments of the bill as amended.
Further testimony of several witnesses was thereafter taken by the commissioner at various times, the last hearing before the commissioner being on 3 July 1969.
On 21 October 1969, the Chancellor ordered the commissioner to have made a transcription of all the testimony heard before him, and to file the same with the register, together with all exhibits offered at the hearings.
The respondents filed their final answer to the bill as amended, denying all the material averments of the bill and reasserting the defenses previously assigned in their answers.
Notes of submissions were filed by the complainant and respondents. The cause was submitted, and a decree rendered, on 22 January 1970.
The Chancellor decreed:
1. That the conveyance of the land here in question by Jesse W. Murphree to his son, Roy Murphree, on 10 January 1961, be set aside and held for naught, and the right, title, claim, or interest of Roy Murphree, and of the estate of Jesse W. Murphree be divested out of Roy Murphree, and the estate of Jesse W. Murphree, and the same be fully vested in the complainant Gus Henson, and
2. Roy Murphree, individually, and Roy Murphree and Homer Murphree, as executors of the estate of Jesse W. Murphree, deceased, as well as those holding under them as tenants, were ordered to immediately surrender possession of the land to Gus Henson.
3. Roy Murphree was ordered to satisfy any encumbrance or mortgage of record that he might have covering said land.
4. Roy Murphree, individually, and Roy Murphree and Homer Murphree, as executors of the estate of Jesse W. Murphree, deceased, were taxed with all costs, and the register was empowered and directed to issue a writ of possession or such other legal process or proceeding as might be necessary to carry out the decree rendered.
For a better understanding of this case, we set out the following sketch of the facts disclosed by the evidence.
In 1933, Jesse W. Murphree and his wife were living in Jackson County, Alabama. Sometime after this he moved to Cherokee County, Alabama, but his wife refused to accompany him. Murphree worked as a farm laborer until he inherited a one-fifth interest in 340 acres of land. In 1938, Murphree purchased 88 acres of land in Cherokee County.
Murphree was a Holiness minister, and shortly after his purchase of the 88 acres of land, he entered into an arrangement with some fifteen young men of his congregation whereby they would pool their efforts and all work together in what is referred to as a 'cooperative' by some of the group. One member testified that their agreement began as a 'religious affair,' and another testified that membership in the group was 'fluid,' in that from time to time a member would drop out and another new member would take his place.
The agreement between the members of the group was that they would contribute their labor and whatever farm tools they might own to cultivating the 88 acres purchased by Murphree, and when this tract was paid for, other land would be purchased until eventually each member of the group would acquire a farm. A part of this understanding or agreement was that the title to all land and property that might be purchased from fruits of the joint efforts of the group would be taken in the name of Murphree purely for the convenience of the parties, subject, however, to the agreement that when a member had accumulated sufficient credit by his labors to pay for the value of his farm, Murphree would deliver to him a deed conveying a parcel of land for a farm.
Murphree was unable to do physical work, and his role was to oversee and supervise the cultivation of the lands, and to superintend the purchase of additional land.
Additional land was to be purchased from the rents paid by members on the tracts of land on which they were placed, and also from their labor in a sawmill operation carried on by the group. The rents were a third of the corn raised, and a fourth of the cotton. Each member of the group would contribute as far as possible his labor to any other member of the group in the farming operations, and this was apparently done. No pay was expected for this type of aid.
None of these agreements was ever put in writing.
It appears that shortly after the agreement got underway, a sawmill was purchased. Each member of the group contributed his labor to this undertaking. Some worked at the mill, and others in cutting trees and hauling logs to the mill. The testimony was to the effect that the members of the group worked in the sawmill operation about six months out of the year during the winter months, and also during the farming season if their farming operations permitted. No member received any pay for this work at and around the sawmill. Undoubtedly the profits from this sawmill operation must have constituted a major portion of the profits accumulated by the group. Eventually an interest in some 3500 acres of land was acquired by the group, the title to all of the land being taken in Murphree's name.
The appellee Henson became a member of the group in 1942. Amos Pierce was another member of the group, and we mention him because of our later reference to the case of Pierce v. Murphree, 274 Ala. 20, 145 So.2d 207, wherein this court concluded that Pierce was entitled to specific performance of his oral agreement with Murphree for the purchase of a tract of land of which he had been put in possession by Murphree, and for which this court found he had paid for in full by his work as a member of the group.
Upon the appellee becoming a member of the group in 1942, he was assigned or 'given' a tract of some 80 acres in Cherokee County, which he farmed. In addition the appellee worked at the sawmill, and assisted other members in work on their farms. This arrangement continued until 1948.
Under the arrangement with the group, Murphree bought a farm of 598 acres in 1948 or 1949 in Etowah County Alabama, known as the Rogers' place.
James C. Henson, a brother of Gus Henson, testified that at about this time Frank Kiser pulled out of the group, (Par. ours.)
Other witnesses testified that Murphree had told the group when discussing the purchase of the Rogers' place that Amos Pierce, Wendell Rosser, and Gus Henson were to have farms of 120 acres each, and the remaining land was to be his.
In 1949 Pierce, Rosser, and Henson moved onto the Rogers' place, each being given or assigned 120 acre tracts adjoining one to the other. There seems little doubt from the testimony of witnesses, other than Gus Henson, but that Murphree determined and delineated the boundaries of these three tracts.
After Gus Henson moved onto the 120 acres of the Rogers' farm, he did work on a house which was on the tract and on which he lived. He fenced part of the tract as a pasture, and with the help of three or four other members of the group, he built a barn thereon. As before, he cultivated the land, paying 1/3 of the cotton raised thereon as rent. In addition Murphree placed 40 to 60 head of cattle on the Rogers' place which were tended by Henson, along with four or five head of cattle of his own. The cattle were fed from the corn raised on the Rogers' place, so none...
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