School Dist. No. 24 v. Mease, 6679.

• Citation: 205 S.W.2d 146
• Decision Date: 24 October 1947
• Docket Number: No. 6679.,6679.
• Parties: SCHOOL DIST. NO. 24 v. MEASE.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Missouri (US)

205 S.W.2d 146

SCHOOL DIST. NO. 24 v. MEASE.

No. 6679.

Springfield Court of Appeals. Missouri.

October 24, 1947.

Rehearing Denied November 1, 1947.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Stone County; Tom R. Moore, Judge.

"Not to be published in State Reports".

Action in ejectment by School District No. 24 against Frank I. Mease. Judgment for plaintiff and, from a judgment overruling a motion to quash a writ of restitution, defendant appeals.

Affirmed.

G. Purd Hays, of Ozark, for appellant.

Rufe Scott, of Galena, for respondent.

VANDEVENTER, Judge.

This is an appeal from the refusal of the trial court to sustain a motion to quash a writ of restitution. Our decision upon that question requires a somewhat detailed statement of the preliminary proceedings.

The plaintiff, School District No. 24 of Stone County, Missouri, was at one time School District No. 38 of Township 24, Range 22 of Stone County. On August 3, 1922, the defendant and his wife, by a general warranty deed, for a recited consideration of one dollar, conveyed to the plaintiff approximately five acres of land for a school site. That deed, immediately following the description of the land, contained the following provision:

"Said land to be used by the grantee herein for school purposes only, and should such use discontinue and said lands be no longer used for school purposes, the same shall revert to and the title vest in the grantors herein."

This land, and a house built upon it, were concededly used for school purposes up to and including part of the school year for 1944-1945. In 1944, for the 1944-1945 school term, school was held in the building for approximately one month and then for some reason, which does not appear in the record, the school directors of plaintiff agreed with the Reeds Spring School District to send the pupils of plaintiff district to Reeds Spring. The plaintiff (also known as the Keystone District) had already hired two teachers, whom the Reeds Spring District agreed to retain at the contracted salaries and all of the funds of the plaintiff district were to be turned over to the Reeds Spring School for the 1944-1945 term. Part of the chairs were taken from the house of plaintiff district to the Reeds Spring district and for the remainder of the school term, all the children of plaintiff district attended the Reeds Spring School.

Although the plaintiff district was not using the school house for the teaching of students, it was locked and contained property of the district, consisting of seats, books, desks, chairs, an organ, and a victrola.

Approximately one month after the arrangement with Reeds Spring school district went into effect, the defendant obtained the key to the school house, took possession thereof, removed all the property of the school district to some other place and began to store empty cans in the school house, as the evidence indicates he was engaged in the canning business. He also cut down and deadened many of the shade trees in the school yard, plowed the yard up and planted it in crops, put a new lock on the door of the school house and one on the gate of the school yard. He took possession, as he claimed, under the reverting clause in the deed asserting that the plaintiff herein had abandoned the premises.

Plaintiff brought an ejectment suit against the defendant which was tried in the circuit court of Stone County, by the court sitting as a jury, and after hearing all the evidence, including evidence relating to damages, rendered a judgment for the plaintiff, which judgment is as follows:

"The Court, after hearing all of the evidence introduced in the trial of this cause and argument of counsel, both for the plaintiff and defendant, on the 20th day of June, 1945, rendered the following verdict: Trial by Court verdict and judgment for Plaintiff for the possession of the premises described in Plaintiff's petition and for the recovery of such premises and that Defendant deliver possession of such premises to the Plaintiff and that Plaintiff have and recover of and from Defendant as its damages for unlawfully withholding such premises and any injury thereto in the sum of $50.00, and that the reasonable monthly rental value of such property or premises that Plaintiff have and recover of and from Defendant the sum of $50.00 per month from the 1st day of September, 1945 until possession of such premises is delivered to plaintiff."

A motion for new trial was filed asserting only that the finding of the court was against the weight of the evidence. This motion was overruled. The defendant appealed to this court. This appeal was dismissed for failure to comply with the statutes and rules. See School District No. 24 v. Mease, Mo.App., 193 S.W.2d 513. On the 22nd day of November, 1946, the attorney for the defendant (appellant) withdrew, by the consent of this court, the transcript that had been filed here in the ejectment suit. Defendant later filed in the circuit court of Stone County, a motion to quash a writ of restitution and in support of this motion introduced as his "Exhibit 1" the deed executed by defendant and his wife in 1922 to the plaintiff school district and also introduced in evidence the judgment and transcript in the former trial, the ejectment suit. Upon this showing, the court overruled the motion to quash the writ of restitution and on the same day, the defendant filed a notice of...