Taaffe v. Kelly

• Decision Date: 23 May 1892
• Citation: 19 S.W. 539,110 Mo. 127
• Parties: TAAFFE v. KELLY.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

19 S.W. 539

110 Mo. 127

TAAFFE v. KELLY.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 1.

May 23, 1892.

ACTION TO SET ASIDE DEED — ESTOPPEL — ELECTION OF REMEDIES.

1. Where one R. fraudulently gave a deed for land not his own, his grantee cannot, in an action by the real owner to set aside such deed, set up as a defense, by way of estoppel, the fact that plaintiff has instituted criminal proceedings against R.

2. Where R. had been an employe of plaintiff, who for business purposes had been in the habit of making deeds for land purchased by him to R., and the title to the land fraudulently conveyed was, according to the records, in R., but there was no evidence that defendant was induced to act on any knowledge of plaintiff's peculiar business methods, such mode of business is of no avail as a defense.

Appeal from St. Louis circuit court; JACOB KLEIN, Judge.

Action by Peter Taaffe against M. J. Kelly and J. Roberts. Judgment for plaintiff. Defendant Kelly appeals. Affirmed.

John J. McCann, for appellant. C. P. & J. D. Johnson, for respondent.

BRACE, J.

This is an action instituted in the St. Louis circuit court against Michael J. Kelly and Joseph Roberts to set aside and cancel a deed in fee from said Roberts to the said defendant Kelly, dated September 5, 1888, and filed for record September 6, 1888, at 4:54 P. M., to a lot of ground in block 922, on the corner of Jefferson avenue and Pine street, in the city of St. Louis, of which plaintiff was the owner, on the ground of fraud. At the same time, and in the same court, and on the same ground, another suit, in which Peter Taaffe and Thomas E. Gay, as co-partners, were plaintiffs, was instituted against the same defendants and one Henry Klinger, to set aside a deed of trust of the same date executed by the said Roberts to the said Klinger, as trustee for said Kelly, to a lot of ground on Channing avenue and Chestnut street, in said city, and filed for record on the 6th of September, 1888, at 12:21 P. M., of which the said Taaffe & Gay were the owners. The two conveyances were part of the same transaction, and the two cases were tried together. Judgment in each was rendered for the plaintiffs, respectively, from which Kelly alone appeals. His answer was a general denial and a plea of estoppel. After the appeal was taken Peter Taaffe died, and his heirs have been substituted here as plaintiffs. It appears from the evidence that, for several years prior to the summer of 1888, Peter Taaffe and Thomas E. Gay were partners doing business as real-estate dealers in the city of St. Louis, under the firm name of Taaffe & Gay; that they had in their office, in their employ, the said Joseph Roberts, who was a half brother of Mr. Gay, not particularly bright, nor of the most exemplary habits; that from time to time both the firm and Mr. Taaffe individually made purchases of real estate, and for business purposes had deeds therefor made to the said Roberts, who held the title for them, and made, conveyances thereof as he was directed by his employers; that among the property thus conveyed to Roberts was the Jefferson avenue and Pine street lot, purchased by Mr. Taaffe, and conveyed to Roberts by deed dated May 10th, and recorded in the recorder's office on May 13, 1886, and the Channing avenue and Chestnut street lot, purchased by the firm of Taaffe & Gay, and conveyed to Roberts by deed dated October 1st, and recorded October 13, 1887. Afterwards, and in pursuance of this arrangement, Roberts, on the 22d September, 1887, executed and delivered a deed for the Jefferson avenue and Pine street lot, and other lots standing in his name, and belonging to Taaffe, to the said Taaffe; and on May 1, 1888, he executed and delivered to Taaffe & Gay a deed for the Channing avenue and Chestnut street lot and other lots then standing in his name belonging to them. These deeds were deposited in the safe of Taaffe & Gay, and were not filed for record until the 7th day of September, 1888, one day after the conveyances from Roberts to Kelly, and from Roberts to Kelly's trustee. Prior to the year 1886 one Henry J. Dockery also had been in the employ of Taaffe & Gay; was acquainted with their mode of doing business in the name of his coemploye Roberts; and at the time of the transaction in question knew that Taaffe and Taaffe & Gay were the real owners of this property, and that Roberts had no real interest in the same. After leaving the employ of Taaffe & Gay, he seems to have served, at times, others in the same line of business, and finally, in the summer of 1888, appears in the evidence as a sort of curbstone broker in real estate, impecunious and unscrupulous, and an habitue of the saloon kept by the defendant Kelly, an old acquaintance of his, who at the time was the owner of an equity of redemption in some real estate on Itaska street, in said city, of uncertain, if any, value, the property being worth about $2,000, and with some other property, incumbered by liens, amounting to about $3,300. In the latter part of the summer of 1888, during the absence of Mr. Taaffe from the city on his usual summer "outing," the dissipated habits of Roberts became of such a character that he was discharged from the office of Taaffe & Gay, turned out of the home of his relatives, and sought shelter with his quondam associate and coemploye Dockery; and thereafter, daily supplied with liquor at Kelly's saloon, he seems to have become Dockery's pliant tool, moving at his will and pleasure, in the negotiations which resulted in the execution by him of the two deeds dated September 5, 1888, one to Kelly, and one to Kelly's trustee, in which negotiations Roberts was made to pose as a large landed proprietor, Dockery as broker, and Kelly as innocent purchaser. These negotiations seem to have...