Shoultz v. Lee

• Decision Date: 23 June 1914
• Docket Number: No. 16703.,16703.
• Citation: 168 S.W. 1146,260 Mo. 719
• Parties: SHOULTZ v. LEE.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

168 S.W. 1146

260 Mo. 719

SHOULTZ v. LEE.

No. 16703.

Supreme Court of Missouri. Division No. 2.

June 23, 1914.

Rehearing Denied July 14, 1914.

1. ADVERSE POSSESSION (§ 62) — POSSESSION BY WIDOW BEFORE ASSIGNMENT OF DOWER.

A widow's possession of land of which her husband died seised, before the assignment of dower, is not adverse to his heirs.

2. ADVERSE POSSESSION (§ 62) — POSSESSION BY WIDOW BEFORE ASSIGNMENT OF DOWER.

The heirs of a decedent were not chargeable with laches in failing to terminate the widow's right of exclusive possession in quarantine by having her dower assigned, though she purchased the property at administrator's sale, and thereafter claimed it as her own.

3. ADVERSE POSSESSION (§ 62) — POSSESSION BY WIDOW BEFORE ASSIGNMENT OF DOWER.

A widow in possession of land of which her husband died seised, before the assignment of dower, could not, by purchasing, at an administrator's sale and claiming the land as her own, render her holding adverse to the heirs during the existence of her life estate.

4. PARTITION (§ 87) — INCIDENTAL RELIEF — REIMBURSEMENT FOR PAYMENTS.

In a suit by an heir of a decedent against the widow, whose dower had never been assigned, to partition land of which the decedent died seised, where it appeared that the widow purchased the land at an administrator's sale for the payment of debts, she was entitled to reimbursement from the heirs for the amount paid by her, with interest thereon from the date of her purchase, as her purchase was to protect and preserve her rights and those of the heirs.

5. EXECUTORS AND ADMINISTRATORS (§ 175) — WIDOW'S QUARANTINE — LIABILITY OF WIDOW.

Though a life tenant is usually required to pay taxes, one holding under the widow's quarantine is not chargeable with taxes nor required to account for rents.

Appeal from Hannibal Court of Common Pleas; Wm. T. Ragland, Judge.

Action by James W. Shoultz against Eliza Jane Lee. Judgment for plaintiff, and the defendant appeals. Reversed and remanded.

Nelson & Bigger, of Hannibal, for appellant. M. L. Farres, of Hannibal, for respondent.

WALKER, P. J.

Plaintiff brought suit in the Hannibal court of common pleas against the defendant Eliza Jane Lee and a number of others, to partition a half acre of ground in Mason township, Marion county, described as the east 104 feet of lot 11 of the Darr tract, Oakwood, situated within or adjacent to the city of Hannibal. Upon a trial the court rendered a judgment partitioning the property subject to the dower interest of said Eliza Jane Lee, and the land, not being susceptible of division in kind, was ordered sold. From this judgment defendant appealed to this court.

In 1857 one Gardiner Shoultz, then the husband of the defendant Eliza Jane Lee, acquired by purchase the lot above described, and he and his wife began to occupy same and continued in possession until 1859, when he died leaving his widow, the defendant, and a number of children by a former marriage. The defendant continued thereafter to occupy the property as a home. An administration was commenced upon the estate of the deceased husband. In 1862, the estate being still in process of administration, upon an application made to the probate court the sale of the lot in controversy was alleged to be necessary to pay the debts of the deceased, and an order for such sale was made and entered of record. No further record entries of said probate court were offered in evidence except a report of the administrator as to the condition of the estate, and thereafter, in June, 1862, an order accepting and approving his final settlement.

Defendant testified that the property was sold by the administrator under said order of sale, and that she purchased same for $300, and offered in evidence a deed to same from the administrator, dated October 10, 1864, which was on the 20th day of October, 1864, filed for record and recorded in the recorder's office of Marion county; that under the purchase evidenced by said deed she has continuously been in the adverse possession of said property, claiming it as her own; that plaintiff was the youngest child of Gardiner Shoultz, being about six years of age at the time of the latter's death in 1859; that plaintiff and the other children grew to manhood and womanhood, if not at the home occupied by their stepmother, in the immediate vicinity thereof, and had actual knowledge of her possession of said property during all the time of her occupancy of same, covering a period of more than 50 years from the date of her husband's death to that of the institution of this suit.

Plaintiff testified that he had known for about 25 or 30 years that the defendant, his stepmother, claimed this property as her own; that he had not conceived...