Shortridge v. Southern Mineral Land Co.

• Decision Date: 14 May 1914
• Docket Number: 552
• Parties: SHORTRIDGE et al. v. SOUTHERN MINERAL LAND CO.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

65 So. 354

186 Ala. 660

SHORTRIDGE et al. v. SOUTHERN MINERAL LAND CO.

No. 552

Supreme Court of Alabama

May 14, 1914

Appeal from Chancery Court, Bibb County; Thomas H. Smith Chancellor.

Bill by the Southern Mineral Land Company against W.W. Shortridge and others to quiet title to land, and to divest the title out of respondents and vest it in complainant. From a decree overruling demurrers to the bill, respondents appeal. Affirmed.

The bill avers that on June 13, 1858, one George D. Shortridge executed and delivered to the Shelby Coal Company an instrument in writing, a copy of which is hereto attached marked Exhibit A, and is as follows:

"State of Alabama, Dallas County. Know all men by these presents, that I, George D. Shortridge, for and in consideration of the sum of $70, the receipt of which I hereby acknowledge, have sold to the Shelby Coal Company all the right and title which is vested in me to a certain tract or tracts of land lying in Bibb county, in the state aforesaid, known as the Spivey land, containing 240 acres more or less; said land having been entered at the Tuscaloosa land office by one Beverly Spivey some time in the winter or spring of 1856, under the graduation law, with funds advanced by me. Said Spivey having absconded without having given me a deed for the same according to the contract, I have filed a bill in chancery in the chancery court of Bibb county to compel him to do so. Now, in the event that the decree is rendered in my favor, or in the event I am able to obtain title in any other way, I hereby obligate myself to make such title as I may then have to the Shelby Coal Company; they having paid me the sum aforesaid as a consideration therefor. Witness my hand and seal this the 30th day of June, 1858. [ Signed] George D. Shortridge."

The bond was filed in the office of the judge of probate of Bibb county July 19, 1902, and recorded on the same day. The bill alleges that on January 28, 1856, Beverly Spivey did enter and purchase from the United States government a certain tract of land in Bibb county, Ala., described as follows: W 1/2, N.E. 1/4, E. 1/2, N.W. 1/4, and W. 1/2 of S.E. 1/4, all in section 3, township 24, range 11 E., and that the above land is all the land which was ever entered or purchased from the United States government by Beverly Spivey. It is then alleged that search has been made, and no record can be found in the Bibb chancery court having reference to any suit by George D. Shortridge against Beverly Spivey, and that, so far as orator is able to ascertain, no deed or other conveyance has ever been executed by Beverly Spivey to George Shortridge, or any one claiming under him. It is then averred that George D. Shortridge is dead, and that the respondents named are all of the heirs at law of the said George D Shortridge. It is then averred that orator has title by mesne conveyances from the Shelby Coal Company by virtue of the above-mentioned instrument to lands described. Then follows the usual allegation as to possession, etc., and asserted claim of title by respondent. The respondents answered, setting up that they had conveyed to G. Rotholz all of their interest in the lands mentioned in said bill, and that they now have no right, title, or interest in or incumbrance upon the same. Rotholz was then made a party to the bill and filed the demurrers and also answers to the bill.

Haley & Haley and T.M. Bradley, Jr., all of Birmingham, for appellants.

Thetford, Blakey & Strassburger, of Montgomery, for appellee.

DE GRAFFENRIED, J.

The instrument, a copy of which is attached to the original bill and which bears date June 30, 1858 (and which the reporter will set out), conveyed, between the Shelby Iron Company and George D. Shortridge, a perfect equity in the lands referred to in the instrument, and which lands are described by government numbers in the bill. This instrument recites that the grantee had paid the grantor in full for the land, and, while it did not convey the legal title to the land, it did convey, as between the grantor and the grantee, a perfect equity in said lands to the grantee. The instrument shows that the grantee had performed his every duty to the grantor, and that nothing was left to be done by either party, except for the grantor to perfect his title to the property and then, without further or other consideration, convey the legal title to the grantee. This situation clearly differentiates this case from, and takes it out of the operation of the rules laid down in the cases of, Young v. Lathem, 132 Ala. 341, 31 So. 448, Smith v. Gordon, 136 Ala. 495, 34 So. 838...