Murphy v. Renner

• Decision Date: 16 November 1906
• Citation: 99 Minn. 348,109 N.W. 593
• Parties: MURPHY v. RENNER et ux.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

99 Minn. 348

109 N.W. 593

MURPHY

v.RENNER et ux.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

Nov. 16, 1906.

Appeal from District Court, Renville County; Gorham Powers, Judge.

Action by Thomas Murphy against Gustav Renner and Emelie Renner. Verdict for plaintiff. From an order denying a motion for judgment, but granting a new trial, defendants appeal. Affirmed.

Syllabus by the Court

An attempted conveyance, by deed, mortgage, or otherwise, of his homestead by a married man without his wife's signature is void, although at the time she may have abandoned him and her home, and may be living an adulterous life. A. V. Rieke, John Lind, and W. A. McDowell, for appellants.

Daly & Barnard, for respondent.

START, C. J.

This action was brought in the district court of the county of Renville to recover from the defendants the possession of 80 acres of land. The trial court directed a verdict for the plaintiff. The defendants made a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, or for a new trial. The court made its order denying the motion for judgment, and granting the motion for a new trial. The defendants appealed from the order. If the evidence is practically conclusive that the plaintiff has no interest whatever in the land then the order denying defendants' motion for judgment was erroneous, otherwise not.

There is but little conflict in the evidence and by it, with the admissions in the pleadings and the concession, for the purpose of this appeal, in the defendants' brief to the effect that John and Bridget Murphy were husband and wife, the following facts are established, namely: The defendants are husband and wife, and in possession of the land. On April 2, 1884, title to the land was in the state of Minnesota, and, on that day, it executed to John Murphy certain certificates whereby it agreed to convey the land to him upon his making payment of the balance of the purchase price therein stipulated. He was then a married man, Bridget Murphy being his wife, and with her he entered into possession of the land and they lived thereon and it became and was their homestead. Some two years thereafter, and in 1886, she abandoned her home, her husband, and their five minor children then living on the land, without any just cause. She went to Duluth and other places without any intention of ever returning to her husband and home. In 1889 she went through the form of a marriage ceremony with another man by the name of William Henry Whitney. Thereafter they lived together as husband and wife for several years. While so living together, she gave birth to a child of whom Whitney was the father. She and this spurious husband purchased a house in Duluth in which they were then living and held it for two years. How long they lived together does not clearly appear from the record, but it is clear that they so lived together until the year 1894. Some time thereafter and before John Murphy's death, she and Whitney were separated, and she assumed a new role, and went to live with a man by the name of Louis Sheppo, and was known as Mrs. Sheppo. She was so living with him at the time John Murphy died. Some seven years after she so abandoned her home and husband, and on October 6, 1893, John Murphy, who had continued to reside on the land as his homestead ever since such abandonment, assigned the state certificates so held by him, and quitclaimed the land for a valuable consideration to the grantors of the defendants. His wife never signed or executed the instruments whereby he purported to assign and convey his interest in the land, but in one of them he described himself as a widower, and in another one as an unmarried man. The grantees of John Murphy for a valuable consideration purported to convey the land to the defendant Emelie Renner, and she and her husband thereupon entered into possession of the land. John Murphy died intestate July 29, 1904, leaving him surviving his wife, Bridget Murphy, four sons, one of whom is the plaintiff, and one daughter. The plaintiff has acquired by proper conveyances the interest in the land, if any, of his mother, sister, and brothers.

It is the contention of the plaintiff that the assignment and deed whereby John Murphy attempted to convey his interest in the land to the defendant's grantors was void because it was his homestead, and his wife did not sign. On the other hand, the defendants claim that while the land was occupied by John Murphy as a homestead, yet his wife, by her conduct as disclosed by the record, has estopped herself from asserting any homestead rights in the land, and has forfeited all right thereto. If this were a case where Bridget Murphy was claiming homestead rights in the land as against the children of herself and John Murphy, there is ample authority to sustain the proposition that she would be estopped by her conduct from asserting such homestead rights against them. Prater v. Prater, 87 Tenn. 78, 9 S. W. 361,10 Am. St. Rep. 623;Reeman v. Freeman, 111 Tenn. 151, 76 S. W. 825;Cockrell v. Curtis, 83 Tex. 105, 18 S. W. 436;Farewell Brick Co. v. McKenna, 86 Mich. 283, 48 N. W. 959;Dickman v. Birkhauser, 16 Neb. 686, 21 N. W. 396.

The question here to be determined, however, is not whether Bridget Murphy, or those claiming under her, have any...