Stevenson v. Edwards

• Decision Date: 04 November 1889
• Citation: 12 S.W. 255,98 Mo. 622
• Parties: STEVENSON et al. v. EDWARDS et al.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

12 S.W. 255

98 Mo. 622

STEVENSON et al. v. EDWARDS et al.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

November 4, 1889.

MORTGAGES — REDEMPTION — PURCHASER PENDENTE LITE — ESTOPPEL.

1. Persons who have a remainder under a deed which has been declared void as to creditors and purchasers, such deed being valid as between the parties thereto, may bring suit to redeem the land from the lien of deeds of trust executed by the lifetenant, though the land has been sold thereunder.

2. In such a suit, the purchaser under the deeds of trust should be credited with his expenditures for necessary repairs, and must account for all rents actually received by him.

3. A purchaser of land sold under deeds of trust, pending a suit to redeem therefrom, takes the land subject to the result of such suit.

4. A judgment charging land with a lien, on the ground that a former conveyance of the same land, duly recorded, was made in fraud of creditors and subsequent purchasers, is final, and cannot be questioned in a suit between the same parties, though it has been partially overruled by a holding that a deed duly recorded, though made to defraud creditors, is not void as to subsequent purchasers; nor can plaintiffs, in a suit to redeem from such lien, question its validity, where it has been admitted in their petition.

Appeal from circuit court, Saline county; GEORGE L. HAYS, Special Judge.

Wm. D. Bush, for appellant. Boyd & Sebree, for respondent.

BLACK, J.

This is a suit in equity to redeem 160 acres of land from the lien of two deeds of trust. The court awarded a decree according to the prayer of the petition, and the defendants appealed. The plaintiffs are the children of Sally Y. Lewis, and the defendants are Edwards, Tracy, and Henry B. Lewis, who was the husband of Sally Y. Lewis. There are some other defendants, but it is not necessary to make special mention of them. The land was purchased with the money of Henry B. Lewis, except some $600 advanced by Charles B. Lewis. It was conveyed to Charles, who held it for Henry. On the 27th October, 1864, Charles B. Lewis conveyed it to Sally Y. Lewis in trust for her sole use during her life, and, after her death, for the use of her children and her husband, Henry B. Lewis; the property in no event to be liable for the debts of her said husband. The deed was duly recorded in the year 1865. Thereafter, and on the 10th March, 1871, Sally Y. Lewis and Henry B. Lewis conveyed the land to Edwards, in trust to secure their note of the same date for $700, payable to defendant Tracy. In 1873 they made a second deed of trust to Edwards, to secure their note to Tracy for $300. These deeds of trust profess to convey the fee, though Sally Y. Lewis had but a life-estate. In 1877, after the death of Sally Y. Lewis, these plaintiffs brought a suit against the present defendants to set aside and cancel the $700 deed of trust on the ground that it was a cloud on their title. To that suit these defendants answered that the land was purchased with the money of Henry B. Lewis, and was conveyed to Sally Y. Lewis to defraud the creditors of said Henry. The court found the issues for the defendants, and dismissed the plaintiffs' petition, and that judgment was affirmed by this court. Shaw v. Tracy, 83 Mo. 224. The $700 deed of trust having been thus adjudged to be a lien on the land, even as against the plaintiffs, they brought this suit to redeem from that, and also from the $300 deed of trust.

1. The first claim on the part of the defendants is that as the deed to Sally Y. Lewis for life, remainder to her children, has been adjudged to be a fraudulent and void conveyance, these plaintiffs have no interest in the property, and therefore no standing in this case. That deed was adjudged to be fraudulent and void as to the creditors of and purchasers from Henry B. Lewis, in the case of Shaw v. Tracy. But it does not follow that it is a nullity for all purposes. A deed, though fraudulent as to creditors, is valid as between the parties thereto. George v. Williamson, 26 Mo. 190; Wait, Fraud. Conv. § 395. Such a conveyance is void only as to the creditors, and to them only to the extent necessary to pay the debts. Satisfy the debt, and the conveyance must stand. Nor do we see that it can make any difference that Tracy is to be deemed a a purchaser also, for his deeds of trust are in effect but mortgages, and are of no validity upon the payment of the debts thereby secured. The plaintiffs have a right to prosecute this suit.

2. It follows from what has been said that Tracy must account for all the rents received...