Peck v. Ayres

• Decision Date: 06 February 1909
• Docket Number: 15,790
• Citation: 79 Kan. 457,100 P. 283
• Parties: CLAUDE S. PECK et al. v. OSCAR O. AYRES
• Court: Kansas Supreme Court

100 P. 283

79 Kan. 457

CLAUDE S. PECK et al. v. OSCAR O. AYRES

No. 15,790

Supreme Court of Kansas

February 6, 1909

Decided January, 1909.

Error from Johnson district court; WINFIELD H. SHELDON, judge.

STATEMENT.

THIS suit was commenced by Oscar O. Ayres in the district court of Johnson county against John G. Brooks, his unknown heirs etc., F. C. Schroder, his unknown heirs, etc., and the unknown heirs of Thomas J. Lockridge, their devisees administrators, executors and trustees. The petition alleges that Ayres is the owner in fee simple and in possession of the southeast quarter of section 3, township 14, range 24, in Johnson county, Kansas. After alleging that the defendants have or claim to have some right or interest in the land, the petition avers that all such claims are void and of no effect, and prays that the title of the plaintiff to such land be quieted.

After service by publication the court rendered judgment in the suit in accordance with the prayer of the petition. Thereafter, on compliance with the provisions of section 17 of the civil code, the judgment was reopened as to the plaintiffs in error and they were permitted to and did file in the court their answer as defendants in the cause.

Their answer is, in substance, that Thomas J. Lockridge, through whom Ayres also claims to derive title to the land, died testate, and was at the time of his death the owner and in the quiet and peaceful possession of the land; that by the terms of the will of Lockridge, which had been admitted to probate several years before, a life-estate in the land had been devised to one Alice R. Soyster, now Alice R. Peck, and the remainder to the heirs of her body in fee simple; that the answering defendants are the only children of Alice R Peck, and, as such, are the devisees under such will and are the owners of the land in question, subject to the life-estate of their mother, who is still living; and that the land is not subject to the payment of any debts or other liens, devises or bequests of Thomas J. Lockridge. They ask for a decree adjudging to them the absolute title to the land, subject only to the right of the plaintiff to the possession of the land during the lifetime of their mother.

Ayres in reply, denies generally the allegations of the answer, and pleads the one, two, three, five and fifteen years statutes of limitation; also, that the defendants are estopped by the record and the judgment of the trial court from setting up or claiming any right, title or interest in the land.

Both parties to the controversy claim title through a common source, Thomas J. Lockridge, who, it appears, left surviving him a son, Charles R. Lockridge, and a daughter, whose married name is Nannie J. Bell, who by the terms of the will would become the devisees of the fee to the land upon the death of Alice R. Peck in case no heirs of her body survived her.

Ayres's chain of title is: (1) A court decree adjudging Alice R. Peck the owner of the land as against Charles R. Lockridge and Nannie J. Bell, sole heirs of Thomas J. Lockridge; (2) quitclaim deed from Charles R. Lockridge and wife and Nannie J. Bell and husband to Alice R. Peck; (3) tax deed from Johnson county to E. E. Peck; (4) quitclaim deed from E. E. Peck and wife to John W. Peck; (5) warranty deed from Alice R. Peck and John W. Peck, her husband, to Henry Cochran; (6) warranty deed from Henry Cochran and wife to John J. Mann; (7) warranty deed from John J. Mann to M. D. Ogg; (8) sheriff's deed from Henry Cochran and others to M. D. Ogg; (9) special warranty deed from M. D. Ogg and F. R. Ogg, her husband, to Oscar O. Ayres, the plaintiff.

The court rendered judgment in favor of Ayres, debarring the answering defendants from all right, title and interest therein, and they bring this proceeding in error.

Judgment reversed and case remanded.

SYLLABUS

SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.

1. JUDGMENTS--Res Judicata--Minors. In a suit to quiet the title to lands a prior judgment quieting the title thereto constitutes no estoppel and is not evidence against a party whose claim of title antedates the commencement of the prior suit, who was then a minor, had no notice of the pendency of the suit, was not a party thereto, and was not represented by guardian or otherwise therein.

2. TAX-DEEDS--Grantee Obligated to Pay Taxes--Redemption. A husband and wife resided and made their home upon a tract of land in which the wife owned a life-estate, and the husband enjoyed the rents and profits thereof. Held, that by omitting to pay the taxes on the land and allowing it to be sold and conveyed for the taxes, and thereafter purchasing a deed thereto from the tax-title holder, the husband acquired no interest in the land. The transaction resulted only in a redemption of the land from the tax sale.

3. LIMITATION OF ACTIONS--Adverse Possession--Life-tenant--Remainder-man . As against the devisees of an estate in remainder the possession of the estate by the life-tenant or by persons to whom the life-estate has been conveyed does not start any statute of limitation or prescription to running during the lifetime of the devisee of the life-estate.

4. QUITCLAIM DEED--Purchaser in Good Faith. A person who holds real estate by virtue of a quitclaim deed only from his immediate grantor, whether he be a purchaser or not, is not a purchaser in good faith with respect to outstanding and adverse interests shown by the records in his chain of title, and he is bound to take notice of all superior titles to the land shown by the records or which might have been discovered by proper inquiry. (Johnson v. Williams, 37 Kan. 179, 14 P. 537, 1 Am. St. Rep. 243; Goddard v. Donaha, 42 Kan. 754, 22 P. 708.)

5. QUITCLAIM DEED--Same. As against the holders of adverse interests who are strangers to his deed it can not avail a person who has accepted a conveyance of land by a quitclaim deed to assert that at the time of his purchase he supposed he was getting a deed of general warranty to the land.

John T. Little, James P. Hindman, H. F. Simrall, and C. B. Little, for plaintiffs in error.

I. O. Pickering, for defendant in error.

OPINION

SMITH, J.:

The common source of title of the plaintiff and the defendants is Thomas J. Lockridge. The next link, or links, in the chain of title...