Steede v. Ferrer

• Decision Date: 16 April 1928
• Docket Number: 27085
• Citation: 116 So. 616,150 Miss. 711
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: STEEDE v. FERRER et al. [*]

116 So. 616

150 Miss. 711

STEEDE v. FERRER et al. ^[*]

No. 27085

Supreme Court of Mississippi

April 16, 1928

Division B

APPEAL AND ERROR. Quieting title. Chancellor's judgment on disputed fact question sufficiently supported by evidence is binding on appeal; in suit to confirm title to land conflicting evidence as to usurious interest on debt secured by trust deed through foreclosure of which plaintiff claimed held to support judgment for defendants.

Disputed questions of fact decided by the chancellor are binding upon the supreme court upon appeal, if there was sufficient evidence to warrant the chancellor's judgment. The evidence in this case examined, and adjudged sufficient to warrant the chancellor in disbelieving the testimony of the appellant.

HON. V A. GRIFFITH, Chancellor.

APPEAL from chancery court of Jackson county, HON. V. A. GRIFFITH Chancellor.

Suit by Mrs. Sadie Steede against Charles Ferrer and others to confirm title to land. From an adverse judgment, complainant appeals. Affirmed.

Judgment affirmed.

Ford, White, Graham & Gautier, for appellant.

Horace Bloomfield, for appellees.

Argued orally by E. J. Ford, for appellant, and Horace Bloomfield, for appellee.

OPINION

ETHRIDGE, P.J.

The appellant was complainant in the court below, and filed her bill against Charles Ferrer, E. Angellette, and Ben Bosarge to confirm title to certain tracts of land. She claimed title through a foreclosure proceeding under a deed of trust given by Ben Bosarge to A. C. Steede, her husband, who was, at the time suit was brought, dead, and of whose estate she was the sole beneficiary. There was a denial of the legality of the foreclosure proceedings, and a defense that the debt for which the deed of trust to be foreclosed was predicated was void because of the charge of twenty per cent. interest on said loan. All parties claimed through a common source, the common source being Ben Bosarge.

The defendant Ferrer claimed three tracts through quitclaim from Ben Bosarge, and claimed two tracts under a sheriff's deed. Angellette claimed one tract under a sheriff's deed. The said sheriff's deeds were executed as a result of a sale under a judgment rendered against Ben Bosarge and others on an appearance bond.

The complainant, in order to make out her case, introduced deeds making up her deraignment of title, the deed of trust from Bosarge to F. H. Lewis, trustee, given to secure a note for four hundred ten dollars to A. C. Steede, and the foreclosure proceedings and trust deed from F. H. Lewis.

The defendant introduced R. A. Roberts, who testified that at the request of Bosarge he visited A. C. Steede to ascertain if he would loan Bosarge some money; that Steede told him he would make the loan at twenty per cent. The witness did not fix the exact date on which this interview took place. He testified that he had no personal knowledge of any loan ever having been made.

A witness named Canty, who was clerking in the store of Steede, testified that he heard Bosarge talking to Steede, heard Steede say something about charging twenty per cent., saw them go out of the store together, and that Steede had a piece of white paper in his hand, but that he (the witness) did not know what it was.

Another witness, Lawrence Bosarge, brother of Ben Bosarge, claimed to have been with Ben Bosarge at the time Ben borrowed the money from Steede; that he went with Ben to Steede's store. He testified that Steede let Bosarge have money, for the use of which he charged him twenty per cent., with six per cent. added; that he saw the money paid over at the store. He did not remember whether it was paid in cash, or by check, but thought it was paid in cash. He did not know what amount of money his brother got. He said, "All I know is, Ben said he got the money at twenty per cent.

There was an admitted payment on the note, and a disputed item of payment of fifty-six dollars. There was produced a receipt showing a payment of one hundred twenty-five dollars, and Lawrence Bosarge testified that he saw Ben Bosarge pay Steede fifty-six dollars a good long time after he got the money. There was also introduced in evidence the execution deeds through which the other defendants claimed title.

After the defendant's evidence was introduced, as...