43 Mo. App. 591 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1891
This is a suit in equity, whereby plaintiff seeks to charge sixty acres of land, the title of which stands in the name of Martha C. Satterfield, wife of defendant William C., with the payment of a judgment held by plaintiff against said.William G. Satterfield. The defendants in the action are William O. Satterfield
I. It seems that, in the trial court, after the evidence was all in for both sides, defendants interposed a demurrer to the evidence, which, it is said, the court sustained over the plaintiff’s objection.
In the oral argument here plaintiff’s counsel spent some time in urging this action by the court as error, insisting that as there was some evidence, at least, tending to sustain plaintiff ’ s case, a demurrer should not have been sustained. If this was an ordinary action at law, then there would be some point in this contention. But, since it is a suit in equity, a demurrer to the evidence is improper. Instructions in such a case are entirely immaterial. By declaring then, in this case, after the evidence was adduced, that plaintiff should not recover, we deem it nothing more than in the judgment of the circuit court plaintiff had not sustained the allegation of his petition, and was not enti tied to the relief prayed.' It is our duty, in cases of this nature, to examine the record and evidence, and determine whether or not the judgment of the lower court was proper, and affirm or reverse, as the case may be.
II. The substantive facts giving rise to this con-ti’oversy are about as follows : Defendant, William C. Satterfield, was formerly the husband of Sarah D. Satterfield, who secured a divorce • from said William C., in April, 1875. In this decree for divorce the court awarded the said Sarah D. the sum of $200 ali•mony. This alimony was never paid, and in January, 1881, plaintiff Baker bought the said judgment on which, as assignee of the said Sarah D., he recovered a judgment in the Schuyler circuit court, in November 1887, for the amount and interest then running up to $372. Some two or three years after this divorce,
III. Now' the theory of plaintiff is, as stated by his counsel, “that William C. Satterfield conveyed the eighty acres (in 1874) in expectation of litigation with
These being the facts (which we think are shown beyond question) the plaintiff has no standing in a court of justice, and we cheerfully affirm the judgment of the circuit court.