Williams v. Powell

• Decision Date: 30 June 1841
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: WILLIAM WILLIAMS, jr. v. ADEN POWELL.

1 Ired.Eq. 460

36 N.C. 460

WILLIAM WILLIAMS, jr.

v.ADEN POWELL.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

June Term, 1841.

Where a guardian purchases land of his ward, soon after he comes of age, at a grossly inadequate price, the guardian having sought the purchase and taking advantage of the imprudence and thoughtlessness of the young man, the contract will be rescinded in a Court of Equity, upon a bill filed for that purpose against the guardian.

Between persons standing in that relation to each other, only fair and equal bargains ought to be supported.

Unequal contracts between a guardian and his late ward, just come of age, are set aside, upon a ground of public utility, and to prevent fraud, not merely to redress it.

W. H. Haywood, jr. for the plaintiff .

J. H. Bryan for the defendant .

This was a case transmitted from Johnston Court of Equity. The facts are stated in the opinion in this Court.

RUFFIN, C. J.

John Williams died intestate in 1824, seised and possessed of a large real and personal estate in Johnston county, and leaving seven infant children, of whom the plaintiff was one. Of all of them the defendant, Powell, was appointed the guardian in 1826, and, as such, took into possession the land descended to them from their father, lying on both sides of Neuse River. One Isaac Williams administered on the personal estate of John Williams; and, alleging that he had exhausted the personal estate in paying the debts of the intestate, and that there remained a balance of $981 83 due to him, the administrator, on his administration account, the said Isaac, in March, 1831, filed his bill in the Court of Equity against the present plaintiff and his brothers and sisters, as the heirs of their father, praying satisfaction of his said demand out of the real estate descended. The suit was defended by Powell, as the guardian of the children of John Williams, upon the grounds, that the land was not legally chargeable to the administrator, and that the sum demanded was not due, or but a small part of it. On the 20th of May, 1831, the plaintiff came of full age, and, having in the mean time contracted for the sale thereof to the defendant, Powell, he, by deed bearing date the 5th of September, 1831, in consideration of the sum of $600, conveyed to the defendant all the share of the plaintiff of and in the lands descended from his father, with general warranty. When the plaintiff came of age, he instituted suit by petition against the infant wards of Powell, for partition of the lands and the allotment of the plaintiff's share to him. The sale to the defendant was made pending that petition, which was afterwards proceeded in, so that, in May, 1833, 479 acres on the north side of the river, and 216 1-2 acres on the south side of the river, were allotted in severalty as the share of the plaintiff; and the defendant took possession thereof, claiming the same under his said purchase. In March, 1837, the suit of Isaac Williams against the plaintiff and the other heirs of his father, was compromised, and a decree entered therein by consent for the sum of $500; of which one-seventh part was, by the decree, to be paid by Powell, as representing or standing in the place of the plaintiff. The present bill was filed on the 30th of August, 1838, and the object of it is to have the contract rescinded, and a re-conveyance of the land to the plaintiff, upon the payment of the sums advanced by the defendant, after deducting the profits made by him. The bill states, that, besides being the guardian of the plaintiff and his brethren, the defendant had married their mother, and thus had, as a father, the immediate personal care and control of the children, and commanded the confidence of the plaintiff and entire respect for his opinions. It charges, that the defendant was particularly desirous of owning the plaintiff's land, and knew its value; and had formed designs, before the plaintiff came of age, of purchasing it from him at an under value, as soon as he should attain twenty-one: That to enable him the better to succeed in those views, the defendant represented to the plaintiff and in the family at large the claim of Isaac Williams, the administrator of the plaintiff's father, to be ruinous to the heirs, although, as the plaintiff has since discovered, the defendant knew the small amount of that demand in comparison with the amount of the estate, and was well advised by able counsel that probably even that could not be recovered.

The bill further charges, that, before the plaintiff came of age and afterwards, until the sale, the defendant advised him to remove out of the State to the West, well knowing that the plaintiff could not do so without making sale of his land to get the means for removing, as that was his only property. And that ultimately, the plaintiff being influenced by the advice of the defendant, which he then thought disinterested, and much alarmed also by the representations made by the defendant of the encumbrances aforesaid, which the defendant artfully magnified, agreed to make the sale and conveyance to the defendant, at the price of $600; which the defendant paid; and upon the receipt of which the plaintiff left the State and has since resided abroad, until shortly before the compromise made in March, 1837, whereby the plaintiff's proportion of the encumbrance, including interest up to that time, was ascertained to be but little over $70. The bill further charges, that the price, given by the defendant, for plaintiff's interest in his father's lands, was grossly inadequate: that it was worth more than double the sum, even if the incumbrance had been such, as the defendant represented it; but that the plaintiff from his want of knowledge of the lands and of experience upon such subjects, and from his confidence in the fairness and friendship of his father-in-law and late guardian, was induced, without further enquiry into those points, to sell at the inadequate price mentioned. The answer denies that the plaintiff was under the influence of the defendant or had any particular respect for his opinions, and states that the plaintiff was notoriously insubordinate and beyond the defendant's control. It further states, that the plaintiff determined to remove to the...