291 Mass. 295 | Mass. | 1935
The defendant filed a plea to this suit in equity. It was overruled by an interlocutory decree. The trial judge, being of opinion that that decree so affected the merits of the controversy that it ought to be determined by the full court before further proceedings, reported its correctness. G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 214, § 30.
The allegations of the bill are in substance these: The plaintiff, on July 27, 1922, being the owner in fee simple of real estate in Malden and being also non compos mentis, without any consideration, signed a deed purporting to convey it to her son, who in 1923 gave a mortgage on that real estate to the defendant to secure his note to it for $3,000. In 1924, the plaintiff brought a suit in equity
The plea of the defendant set up the fact (Reilly v. Blackstone, 266 Mass. 503, 507) that the deed of the real estate in question from her son to the plaintiff, in May, 1926, contained a recital that the premises were conveyed subject to the mortgage to the defendant, which the plaintiff seeks by the present suit to have avoided, and that that deed was recorded and was accepted by the plaintiff. The contention of law founded on the plea is that the plaintiff is estopped by the recital in the deed and her acceptance of it to deny the validity of the defendant’s mortgage.
The principle is established that in general a grantee is estopped to deny the validity of a mortgage to which the real estate described in the conveyance to him is declared by the deed to be subject. Johnson v. Thompson, 129 Mass. 398. Cheffee v. Geageah, 253 Mass. 586, 589. Pearson v. Mulloney, 289 Mass. 508, 515. The decisions supporting that proposition have arisen mainly, if not wholly, in instances where the grantee was acquiring a new or different title. Another principle is involved in the case at bar. The deed of the plaintiff to her son was voidable because she was non compos mentis at the time of the execution and delivery. Such a deed is ineffectual to convey a title to land good against the grantor unless ratified and confirmed by the grantor when restored to soundness of mind. Brewster v. Weston, 235 Mass. 14, 15-16. Hermanson v. Seppala, 272 Mass. 197, 201. The plaintiff did not ratify and confirm the deed to ‘her son, but on the contrary, on recovering her
The acceptance of the deed cannot rightly be treated as an estoppel against the plaintiff. “In order to work an estoppel it must appear that one has been induced by the conduct of another to do something different from what otherwise would have been done and which has resulted to his harm and that the other knew or had reasonable cause to know that such consequence might follow. But the doctrine of estoppel is not applied except when to refuse it would be inequitable.” Boston & Albany Railroad v. Reardon, 226 Mass. 286, 291. This language occurs in Bloomfield v. Charter Oak Bank, 121 U. S. 121, 135: “no estoppel in pais can be created, except by conduct which the person setting up the estoppel has the right to rely upon, and does in fact rely and act upon.” It was said in Greenwood v. Martins Bank, Ltd. [1933] A. C. 51, 57: “The essential factors
The trial judge also reported for determination his ruling to the effect that the report of the master in the suit of the plaintiff against her son was inadmissible as evidence in the present suit, and that no evidence in that case is competent except in so far as may tend to prove admissions on the part of the present plaintiff. It is contended that the report is admissible on the doctrine of res judicata. A judgment on the merits in an earlier proceeding between the same parties is a bar, as to every issue that in fact was or in law might have been litigated, to a later proceeding on the same cause of action. Foye v. Patch, 132 Mass. 105, 110. Newburyport Institution for Savings v. Puffer, 201 Mass. 41, 46. Old Dominion Copper Mining & Smelting Co. v. Bigelow, 203 Mass. 159, 217-218. Hopkins v. Treasurer & Receiver General, 276 Mass. 502. Knowlton v. Swampscott, 280 Mass. 69, 73. The rights of the defendant were acquired and became vested before the prior suit was instituted. Its mortgage had become a matter of public record. The defendant was not made a party to the prior suit. It was given no notice of that suit. It has never had its day in court as to the matters in issue in that suit or in the present bill. On general principles it is not bound by the judgment in that suit. It would open the way to great injustice if the rights of an innocent mortgagee could be jeopardized without notice or opportunity to be heard by litigation between a grantor and grantee such as is shown by the earlier suit. Instances are not infrequent where rights of owners in real estate are not affected by litigation between other parties to the title. Colton v. Smith, 11 Pick. 311. Brewer v. Hardy,
Interlocutory decree overruling plea affirmed. Ruling as to inadmissibility of report of master in earlier suit affirmed.