Reko v. Moore

• Decision Date: 17 January 1920
• Parties: REKO v. MOORE et al.
• Court: North Dakota Supreme Court

44 N.D. 644

176 N.W. 115

REKO

v.MOORE et al.

Supreme Court of North Dakota.

Jan. 17, 1920.

Syllabus by the Court.

A judgment in a prior suit is deemed final and conclusive in subsequent litigation between the parties, or their privies, as to those matters necessarily determined or implied in reaching the final judgment, although no specific finding may have been made with reference thereto.

Where, in an action to set aside transfers on the ground of incompetency of the original grantor, an accounting is ordered and had to determine the value of the use and occupation of the premises, and the amount, if any, of payments made by the transferees for taxes and incumbrances upon the premises, a transferee cannot avoid the conclusive effect of the judgment merely by withholding proof of the amount of payments made by him.

Appeal from District Court, Sargent County; Allen, Judge.

Action of ejectment by S. A. Reko, as guardian of the person and estate of John H. Williams, incompetent, against Charles A. Moore and another, with counterclaim by defendant. Judgment for plaintiff and for defendants in part, and defendants appeal. Affirmed.Kvello & Adams, of Lisbon, for appellants.

J. A. McKee, of Oakes, and Wolfe & Schneller, of Wahpeton, for respondent.

CHRISTIANSON, C. J.

The plaintiff is an incompetent person, having been adjudged insane by the county court of Iowa county, Wis., on January 23, 1907. Subsequently, he was paroled or escaped from custody, and took up his residence in Sargent county in this state. The order declaring him to be insane has never been vacated or set aside. While residing in Sargent county, he became the owner of the quarter section of land involved in this controversy. In November, 1910, the plaintiff bought from the Daniels-Jones Company a half section of land in Kidder county, in this state, paying down $1,900 in cash, and assuming certain mortgages against that land. In January, 1911, the Daniels-Jones Company sold and assigned to the plaintiff a contract of purchase covering a certain quarter section of “school” land in Clay county, Minn. As consideration for the assignment of such school land purchase contract, the plaintiff conveyed to the Daniels-Jones Company by deed the quarter section of land in Sargent county, and the half section in Kidder county. The quarter section in Sargent county alone is involved in this suit. It appears that the Daniels-Jones Company transferred that land to one A. P. Guy, and that he thereafter sold it to the defendants Moore, who went into possession thereof in the fall of 1911, and remained in possession until ousted by the judgment rendered in this action on April 14, 1919.

In 1912 a guardian was appointed for the plaintiff, Williams, on the ground of his incompetency,and a suit was brought by such guardian to set aside the conveyances of the Sargent county land. The defendants in the present action were named as defendants in that action, as were also the Daniels-Jones Investment Company, A. P. Guy, Harvey T. Daniels, and the Harvey T. Daniels Investment Company. That action came on for trial on May 29, 1913. Apparently the trial court announced its determination that the conveyances must be set aside, and the plaintiff, Williams, adjudged to be the owner of the Sargent county land. Thereupon application was made by his attorneys for an accounting in that action, and on August 20, 1915, the trial court made an order:

“That an accounting be had between the respective parties as to all matters involved in said action relating to the specific lands * * * involved in this action, especially as to the rental values of said lands and the use and profits of the same, and for taxes paid thereon or for interest paid upon the incumbrances thereon, and upon any of the matters of detail involved in an accounting between the respective parties to said action, as relates to the lands involved herein.”

Thereafter testimony was taken before a referee at times and places stipulated by the attorneys for the respective parties. On January 24, 1917, the trial court made its findings of fact and conclusions of law, wherein it found that the plaintiff, Williams, was incompetent and ordered judgment to be entered vacating and setting aside the various conveyances to the land in controversy. In its findings the court found:

“To adjust the equities between the several parties to this action, it is necessary to state an account of the rents, profits, and payments of taxes and on incumbrances by the several parties hereto involving the lands in controversy and to find the balance thereof, and the apportionment thereof.”

The court further found:

“That the use plaintiff, John H. Williams, is not entitled to recover of any of the defendants any sum or sums whatsoever, for the use of said lands during the years 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, and 1915, save and excepting the net sums actually received by such defendants for the use of said lands during said years, and that none of said defendants received anything whatever for the use of said lands during any of said years, excepting that the Harvey T. Daniels Investment Company for the use of the Kidder county land, received in 1913 the sum of $26.50, and in 1915 the sum of $47; total, $73.50.”

The court also found that the Harvey T. Daniels Investment Company had “paid on account of incumbrances, taxes, and interest on said lands in Kidder county” sums aggregating $1,346.54; and adjudged that the said company have and recover from the said Williams the sum of $1,273.04 (the excess of payments over rents and profits received), which sum was decreed to be a valid lien upon the Kidder county land. The court also found that the “Daniels-Jones Company had paid on account of...