43 S.C. 29 | S.C. | 1895
The opinion of the court was delivered by
On the 27th day of December, 1869, defendant’s testator, by a deed containing full covenants of warranty, conveyed a certain tract of land, containing seventy-four acres, in fee simple to one Wm. Bell, in consideration of the sum of four hundred and fifty dollars. On the 31st of August, 1885, all the right, title, and interest of the said Wm. Bell, by several intermediate conveyances, became vested in the plaintiff herein. It is conceded that the testator, Thomas W. Rabb, was not seized of an estate in fee in the said land, but only of an estate for the life of one Mary Marion, and that such estate passed by the deed of 1869 to the said Wm. Bell and those claiming under him by the said several successive intermediate conveyances, and finally became vested in the plaintiff herein. This life estate, terminated by the death of Mary Marion on the 21st of January, 1886. It seems that, although the life estate of Mary Marion fell in on the day last mentioned, the plaintiff herein was not disturbed in her possession of the premises until the 6th of February, 1890, when the remaindermen commenced their action against the plaintiff herein to recover possession of the same, of which action the defendants received due notice. That action resulted in a judgment in favor of the remaindermen, under which judgment the plaintiff herein has been evicted.
Thereupon this action was commenced to recover damages . for the breach of the warranty contained in testator’s deed to the said Wm. Bell, wherein it is claimed that the plaintiff is entitled to recover the sum of four hundred and fifty dollars (the consideration mentioned in the deed from Thos. W. Rabb to Wm. Bell), with interest thereon from the date of said deed, to wit: 27th December, 1869, after deducting certain payments admitted to have been made by defendant before the com
In the “Case” we find the following: “Agreed Statement oe Facts: It is agreed by counsel in this case, that Miss Mary Marion died on the 21st day of January, 1886; that Thomas W. Eabb had a valid estate in the premises in question for the term of her life, and that his deed passed this estate to his grantee, and by due course of conveyance to the plaintiff; that the value of the use of the estate was the annual sum of $75; that these facts be considered as duly pleaded, and that they be given whatever consideration they may be entitled to; and that a'jury trial be waived.”
The Circuit Judge, in his decree, held that the true measure of damages which the plaintiff was entitled to recover was the purchase money mentioned in the deed from Thomas W. Eabb to Wm. Bell, four hundred and fifty dollars, with interest thereon from the date of said deed, viz: 27th December, 1869; and as it was admitted that the defendants had paid the costs of the action under which plaintiff was evicted, and had also made certain other payments to the plaintiff, aggregating the sum of five hundred and five 45-100 dollars, he rendered judgment in favor of the plaintiff for the said sum of four hundred and fifty dollars and interest, less the sum of said payments. From this judgment defendants appeal upon the several grounds set out in the record, which need not be specifically stated here, as, with the exception of the first, they make the single question, as to what is the true measure of damages in this case.
In the case of Earle v. Middleton, Cheves, 127, decided in 1840, the action was upon a covenant of warranty in a deed from Middleton to Earle, purporting to convey 1,020 acres of land, and the breach assigned was the loss of 131 acres by paramount title in a third person. Plaintiff recovered judgment for the value of the 131 acres, and the judgment was affirmed. In that case, ONeall, J., used the following language: “The A A. 1824, sec. 4, p. 24, enacts, in affirmance of the rule
If, then, the rule requires that in case of a partial breach of the warranty by a failure of title to a portion of the thing conveyed, there shall be an apportionment of the measure of damages fixed by the statute, based upon the relative values of that portion to which the title fails, and of that portion to which the title proves to be good, we do not see why, upon the same principle, there should not be a similar apportionment in a case where there is a partial breach of the warranty by reason of a failure of title to a portion of the estate conveyed. In this case it is conceded that Thomas W. Rabb had a valid estate in the land for the life of Mary Marion, and that such estate passed by his conveyance to Wm. Bell, and the same was enjoyed by
While no case has been cited, and we have been unable to find any, in which thejprecise point made by this appeal has been decided in this State, yet we think that the analogies afforded by the cases which we have cited not only warrant but necessarily require us to adopt the conclusion which we have reached. Even the case of Lowrance v. Robertson, supra, so strongly relied upon by counsel for respondent, is not only not in conflict with our view, but, inferentially, at least, supports it. In the first place, that was not a case of a partial breach of warranty, but was a case of a total breach; and the language used in that case, in vindication of the rule there adopted, indicated very plainly that the court there had in mind only a case where there was a total breach of warranty. Amongst other things, it is there said: “For if a person sells land for which he has no title to another, there is certainly no injustice, so far as he is concerned, in taking from him the purchase
This language, while very appropriate to a case where there has been a total breach of the warranty, would be so wholly inapplicable to a case where there had been only a partial breach of the warranty, as to be not only untrue but absurd. Take the present case as an illustration — it could not with any propriety or truth be said that the testator, Eabb, sold land for which he had no title, for it is conceded that he did have a good and valid title for the life of Mary Marion, which, as the event proved, enured to the benefit of his grantees for the term of sixteen years; nor could it be said that there was no inj ustiee in taking from him money which, in equity and good conscience, was never his, for it cannot be denied that so much of the purchase money as represented the value of the life estate was his, both in equity and good conscience, obtained by parting with an estate of the annual rental value of seventy-five dollars, which enured to his grantee’s benefit for the term of sixteen years. The fact that the plaintiff enjoyed the benefits of the life estate for only a small portion (about five months) of the sixteen years during which the successive grantees of Eabb enjoyed that estate, cannot affect the question; for she can only maintain this action as assignee, and she cannot stand in any higher or better position than her assignors.
But while, as we have said, there is no case in our own State, so far as we are informed, which is precisely in point, the research of appellant’s counsel has furnished us with abundant authority from standard text writers, and decisions in other States, which fully support our view. See, also, the case of Brooks v. Black, 24 Am. St. Rep., at page 267, where Mr. Freeman, the learned editor of that valuable publication, has collected in a note a number of cases in support of the view which we have adopted.
Counsel for appellant has asked this court, in the event his appeal is sustained, to go on and fix the value of the life estate, and thus ascertain whether the plaintiff is entitled to recover
The judgment of this court is, that the judgment of the Circuit Court be reversed, and that the case be remanded to that court for a new trial, in order that the views herein announced may be carried into effect.