15 Mich. 47 | Mich. | 1866
The decree of the court below declaring the deed void as to complainant Maria E. Braun, on the ground of her minority, not having been appealed from by her or the defendants, we are only to consider the case so far as it relates to the complainant John J. Beeker.
Complainants and their mother, since deceased, believing themselves to be the owners, and being in possession of a lot on the plat of a part of the Louis Moran farm, undertook, through complainant John J. Beeker, to sell the same. He employed an agent by the name of Gee to make the sale, but having for some time been unable to find a purchaser, he at length introduced said John J.-'Beeker, to dbfepdant Hastings, as a person likely to purchase. Hastings/went two or three times to see the property, and the. ppio| Jjalked
Complainants and their mother had never known or suspected any defect of title until informed of it by defendant, and were very naturally somewhat alarmed, and, as it seems became all the more anxious to sell; but defendants, after this discovery would not of course make the purchase and pay the value of the property for so uncertain a title: but (through Hastings) they offered certain copper stocks and their note or agreement to pay three hundred dollars, payable when a good title should be perfected. The result was that the complainants consented to and did receive the copper stock and this note or agreement, and executed to the defendants a deed of the property.
The bill claims the sale to be void on the ground of the fraud and imposition of Hastings, by which, as they allege, they were induced to take the stocks. But in this we are not satisfied that the bill is sustained by
It does not appear that this was communicated to Hastings, nor is there any evidence showing combination or concert between him and Gee. It was complainant’s own folly to take the stock without further inquiry. He had fair notice that^ he was to ascertain the value of the stock for himself. And though we may feel that defendants have made a bargain which a conscientious man ought not to insist upon holding, we can discover no ground on which we can set the sale aside for fraud' in procuring the complainants to take the stock, without laying down a principle which might disturb many titles, and which would be likely to do more injury in other cases, than we should remedy in this.
But there is another branch of the case of which we have been compelled to take a different view. The deed executed by complainants and their mother on the sale was a warranty deed, containing covenants of seizin in fee, against encumbrances, and warranty, and it purports to have been made for the consideration of two thousand dollars. Yet the answers of the defendants and their own testimony leave no room to doubt that by the understanding and agreement between them and the complainants, the defendants were to take the property at their own risk with the single exception that the amount they might pay to remove the small mortgage of about eighty dollars and the expenses of perfecting the title were to be deducted from the three hundred dollars for which their note or agreement was given. It is entirely clear that this was the understanding of the parties to the transaction, and no satisfactory reason is given, nor do we see how any could be given consistent with the testimony of the defendants themselves for the execution