Stevenson v. Crapnell 2

• Decision Date: 15 May 1885
• Parties: STEVENSONv.CRAPNELL et al.2
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

114 Ill. 19

28 N.E. 379

STEVENSON

v.CRAPNELL et al.2

Supreme Court of Illinois.

May 15, 1885.

Error to circuit court, Mercer county; JOHN J. GLENN, Judge.

Bill by Edwin A. Crapnell against Ellen R. Stevenson and Emily J. Noble for partition of certain lands. Cross-bill was filed by Ellen R. Stevenson. From a decree ordering partition, and dismissing the cross-bill, Ellen R. Stevenson brings error. Affirmed. J. C. Pepper, for plaintiff in error.Bassett & Wharton, for defendants in error.SHELDON, J.

This was a bill for partition of certain lands described in the bill, filed June 30, 1883, by Edwin A. Crapnell against Ellen R. Stevenson and Emily J. Noble. The bill states that William B. Crapnell died December 15, 1881, seised of the lands, leaving complainant, his brother, and the defendants, his sister and niece, his sole heirs at law, and entitled each to one-third of the land. The defendants filed a joint answer, setting up the facts stated in the following bill. Ellen R. Stevenson had before, on March 7, 1883, filed her bill against Edwin A. Crapnell and Emily J. Noble, in which she stated that previously to June 29, 1877, she and her brother William B. Crapnell and Emily J. Noble were unmarried people, and had never left their home they had had with their parents; that on said 29th of June she was about to be married and go to the state of Texas, and thought she might never return to live at the old home, and desiring, if she never returned, that her brother William B. should have the old farm and home, he made to him a deed of 120 acres of the land which is described in this bill for partltion; that the understanding and agreement between her brother and herself was that if she never returned he was to own and hold the land, but, if she returned from Texas to live at the old home, he was to give up the land and deed to her, and it was to remain her property; that no consideration was ever paid for the land; that shortly after makig the deed she was married, and went to Texas, and resided there until in July, 1878, when she returned to Illinois, and to the old homestead, where she resided with her brother William B. until his death, in December, 1881. The bill prayed for a decree for $1,500, the consideration named in the deed, and that it be made a lien on the land. That bill became a cross-bill to the present bill for partition, by consolidation. The answer of Edwin A. Crapnell denies the allegation that William B. Crapnell had...