Union Ry. & Transit Co. v. Skinner

• Decision Date: 08 June 1880
• Citation: 9 Mo.App. 189
• Parties: UNION RAILWAY AND TRANSIT COMPANY v. JOHN W. SKINNER AND WILLIAM C. BUCHANAN, Appellants.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

9 Mo.App. 189

UNION RAILWAY AND TRANSIT COMPANY

v.JOHN W. SKINNER AND WILLIAM C. BUCHANAN, Appellants.

St. Louis Court of Appeals, Missouri.

Jun. 8, 1880.

1. Where one sells a lot by its number as laid out in a recorded plat, and in giving a further description misstates the boundary line thereof, the monument will prevail and the further false description be rejected.

2. Where one in good faith, believing himself to be the owner of land not in a condition to be occupied, pays the taxes thereon for years, and when the property is condemned for public use the real owner comes forward and claims the proceeds, equity will regard the payment of the taxes as having been made for the owner, and will charge the proceeds of the condemnation with the taxes thus paid in favor of the party paying them.

APPEAL from the St. Louis Circuit Court, WICKHAM, J.

Reversed, and judgment.

T. K. SKINKER, for Buchanan: A general description by name or number will override a more particular description by metes and bounds.-- Rutherford v. Tracy, 48 Mo. 325; Lodge v. Lee, 6 Cranch, 237; Keith v. Reynolds, 3 Greenl. 393; Jackson v. Barringer, 15 Johns. 471; Cooley v. Warren, 53 Mo. 166. Grants are to be most strongly construed in favor of the grantees. If there is a conflict in the descriptive words, the construction most favorable to the grantee will be adopted.-- Evans v. Temple, 35 Mo. 494; Vance v. Fore, 24 Clarke, 435; Hall v. Gittsing, 2 Har. 112; Wilson v. Inloes, 6 Gill, 121. The intention of the parties as gathered from the whole instrument, and not particular words, must govern.-- Gibson v. Bogy, 28 Mo. 478; Jamison v. Fopiano, 48 Mo. 194. When there is any ambiguity in or doubt about the meaning of a deed or other instrument affecting land, in order to arrive at the true intent of the parties, the court ought to take into consideration the circumstances surrounding them and the condition of the land at the time the instrument was executed.-- Hardy v. Matthews, 32 Mo. 121; King v. Fink, 51 Mo. 209; Edwards v. Smith, 63 Mo. 119; Amonett v. Montague, 63 Mo. 201. Where one, in good faith, by mistake and with no purpose of volunteering, pays money which enures to the benefit of another, and which by reason of defect of title becomes wholly lost to him, he is entitled in equity to maintain an action against the other, and if it went to discharge a lien upon land, he is entitled to be substituted to the right of the lien-holder.-- Vallé's Heirs v. Fleming's Heirs, 29 Mo. 152; McLean v. Martin, 45 Mo. 393; Metcalf v. Smith, 40 Mo. 576; Jones v. Manley, 58 Mo. 563; Sims v. Gray, 66 Mo. 613.

M. L. GRAY and J. M. HOLMES, for Skinner: A general description, designed to identify the land conveyed, is to be always limited by a particular and accurate description following it.-- Biddle v. Vandeventer, 26 Mo. 500; Chaplin v. Grodes, 7 Watts, 410; Whiting v. Dewey, 15 Pick. 428; Winn v. Cabot, 18 Pick. 553. Where there is a false call in a deed, even though it be for a monument, it can be rejected if the description of the land conveyed will be complete without it.-- Jamison v. Fopiano, 48 Mo. 195; Gibson v. Bogy, 28 Mo. 478; Shewalter v. Pirner, 55 Mo. 219; Thatcher v. Howland, 2 Metc. 41; Tyler v. Hammond, 11 Pick. 211-213; Birmingham v. Anderson, 48 Pa. St. 258; Biddle v. Vandeventer, 26 Mo. 500.

BAKEWELL, J., delivered the opinion of the court.

This case is submitted by counsel for the opposing parties, Skinner and Buchanan, on the following statement, in which counsel on either side concur:--

This cause comes before the court on opposing appeals by the defendants, Buchanan and Skinner, from an order directing the distribution of a fund in court. This fund grew out of the condemnation of certain land by the Union Railway and Transit Company, for depot purposes. The land having been condemned, the sum of $604 was paid into court, subject to the conflicting claims of the defendants, each of whom claimed to be the owner of the land and entitled to the whole of the fund. Pending litigation, this sum was deposited in bank on interest, and with the interest amounted, on the day when the order of distribution was made, to $723.25. Both defendants filed motions or petitions for payment, and the case was submitted to the court on these pleadings and an agreed statement of facts.

The court found that Buchanan was the owner in fee of one-third of the land, and Skinner was the owner in fee of the other two-thirds, and directed the fund to be divided and paid out accordingly, except that Buchanan, having paid the taxes on the whole land for nearly twenty years, was allowed out of Skinner's two-thirds, and in addition to his one-third share of the whole, two-thirds of what he had so paid, with interest.

On a further motion by Skinner, this order was modified so as to allow Buchanan only for the taxes he had paid within five years next previous to the decree of condemnation.

The land condemned is described as follows:--

A lot commencing on the northern line of Spruce Street, in said city of St. Louis, at a point distant three hundred and thirty (330) feet west of the western line of Sixteenth (16th) Street; thence running westwardly on said northern line of Spruce Street twelve (12) feet; thence northwardly and parallel with the eastern line of Tayon Avenue one hundred and fifty (150) feet, more or less, to the southern line of an alley; thence eastwardly along said southern line of said alley twenty-two (22) feet to a point distant three hundred and thirty (330) feet west of the west line of Sixteenth Street; thence southwardly and parallel with Sixteenth Street one hundred and fifty (150) feet to the place of beginning.

The following plat represents the lot condemned, with its surroundings:--

TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE

The agreed statement of facts is as follows:--

For the purpose of enabling the court to ascertain the ownership of the fund heretofore paid into court by the Union Railway and Transit Company, as the purchase-money for a parcel of land in the petition in this case described, and in controversy between defendants, William C. Buchanan and John W. Skinner, it is agreed between the said defendants that the following are the facts:--

In the year 1832 the commissioners appointed to make partition of the estate of Auguste Chouteau sold to one Thomas Ingram a lot known as “Red Ink Lot 3,” being part of the tract known as “Chouteau's Mill Tract,” and conveyed the same by a deed which called for “the middle of the creek in its natural channel when the pond is exhausted” as the western boundary of said lot, and Sarpy or Fourteenth Street as the eastern.

In the year 1836 said lot was owned in fee by John P. Reily and Alfred Skinner, who had purchased of Ingram, and held the same as tenants in common, Reily owning an undivided two-thirds and Skinner an undivided one-third. In that year Reily laid off and recorded a plat of an addition, designated “Reily's Addition to the city of St. Louis,” a copy of which, with the description and dedication, are herewith filed, and made part of this statement. Alfred Skinner, though not joining in this dedication, subsequently ratified and approved it, and became bound thereby.

In 1838, Reily by deed duly recorded, conveyed to Gamble, as trustee for Dillon, a part of this addition by the following description: “The undivided two-thirds of all the lots in Reily's Addition to the city of St. Louis which have not been sold and conveyed by said Reily before the date of this deed.” Among the lots which had not been previously sold and conveyed were those designated on said plat 60, 61, and 62.

These lots were subsequently sold and conveyed by said trustee, the deed describing them as lots 60, 61, and 62 of Reily's Addition to the city of St. Louis, and conveying a two-thirds interest in them.

Defendant Buchanan has acquired the title so conveyed by said trustee through a series of conveyances, all duly recorded, and this is his only title to an undivided two-thirds of the land in controversy. At the date of the making of the deed to Ingram and the plat of Reily's Addition, and up to the year 1851, the western part of said lots 60, 61, and 62, and all of the land in “Red Ink Lot 3,” west of a line drawn from north to south, and running parallel to and distant westwardly 330 feet from Skinner or Sixteenth Street (called for convenience the 330-foot line) was covered with the waters of the Chouteau Mill Pond, otherwise known as Mill Creek, to a great depth, and the middle channel of the creek, as called for in the deed to Ingram, was never surveyed nor ascertained until the pond was drained in 1851.

The property in controversy remained unoccupied, and, owing to its natural situation, was unfit for use up to the time when the decree of condemnation was entered in this case without being filled.

At various times between the years 1860 and 1870, and long after the death of John P. Reily, his heirs conveyed to defendant Skinner whatever title they may have had to all the land lying east of the middle channel of the creek and west of the 330 line. The land in controversy lies within these limits and between the southern line of lot 60 and the northern line of lot 62, as laid down on said plat, as they would be if projected to the middle channel of the creek.

It is agreed that if the western boundary of lots 60, 61, and 62 was the middle channel of the creek, as called for in the deed from the commissioners to Ingram, then defendant Buchanan has good title to the undivided two-thirds of the property, and is entitled to two-thirds of the fund in controversy; and if the true western boundary of said lots was the 330-foot line, then defendant Skinner has good title to the undivided two-thirds, and is entitled to two-thirds of the fund in controversy, subject, however, to defendant Buchanan's claim for taxes paid. The title to the remaining one-third involves an additional question.

In the...