140 Ky. 786 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1910
Opinion op the Court by
Reversing.
In December, 1882, Robert Chestnut sold and conveyed by title bond to W. B. Inman a tract of land in Laurel county for $250. Fifty dollars of the purchase money was paid in cash and the remainder was to be paid in two equal annual payments. This title bond by assignment became the property of William Inman, who died in 1893, without having paid the whole 'of the purchase money. After his death Martha Inman, his widow, paid the balance due on the purchase price, and in January, 1894, Chestnut made to her a deed for the land. In December, 1900, Martha Inman mortgaged this land to Sparks and Willman to secure the payment of a promissory note that «he executed to them for twenty-five dollars. In April, 1902, Sparks, who was then the owner of the note, brought suit’in the Laurel circuit court to enforce its collection and the lien on the land to secure its payment. On the day the petition was filed a summons was issued against Martha Inman, but the summons is not in the record, as it could not be found by the clerk of the circuit court, who testified that on the trial docket of the court, opposite the case styled James Sparks v. Martha Inman, there appears in the handwriting of the lady who was deputy clerk at that time, this entry -of the return of the summons, “Executed by summoning the within named parties. April 12,1902. J. D. Johnson, C. L. C.”
At the May term, 1902, of the Laurel circuit court a judgment by default was rendered against Martha In-
In January, 1906, Sparks sold and conveyed by deed recorded in the proper office, this land to Green Chandler, in consideration of $350 paid in cash. In January, 1907, Green Chandler sold and conveyed by deed recorded in the proper office the land purchased by him from Sparks to the .appellant William Chandler, his son, for $775.
In December, 1908 this action was brought by the widow and children of William Inman against Green Chandler, and William Chandler to recover possession of the land mentioned and damages for its detention, the. petition proceeding upon the idea that William Inman died the owner of the land and that it descended under the laws of inheritance to his widow and children. In other pleadings an issue was ma,de as to whether any summons was executed upon Martha Inman in the suit of Sparks against her to enforce Ms mortgage lien on the land. After the pleadings were made up, the ease was prepared for trial, and a judgment rendered, awarding the Inmans the land, and allowing them one hundred dollars damages for its detention, and the appellant $400 the value of improvements placed on the land after it came into the possession of the Chandlers.
The mortgage executed by Martha Inman to Sparks was never recorded, and it is shown that in 1903 Martha Inman paid Sparks the full amount of her indebtedness to him that was secured by the mortgage. It thus appears that at the time William Chandler bought the land his vendor had a clear record title, and that when Green Chandler purchased from Sparks, his vendor had also a clear record title to the land. TMs being so, there are only two questions wliich we need consider. The first one is, was the summons executed upon Martha Inman; and the other, did Green Chandler or the appellant William
There is absolutely no evidence to show that Green Chandler at the time he purchased the land from Sparks, or William Chandler at the time he purchased it from Green Chandler, or that cither of them at any time before their purchases, or until this suit was filed, had any knowledge or information whatever that there was any defect in the title of Sparks. With the record in this condition, however much we might desire to protect Martha Inman and her children, we cannot do it at the expense of the Chandlers, who are innocent and bona
Wherefore, the judgment is reversed, with directions to dismiss the petition.