239 F. 617 | 6th Cir. | 1917
Appeal from a decree denying relief in a suit in equity to reform a deed, etc. The case is this:
On June 23, 1898, William E. Estep and wife, the parents of plaintiffs, executed a deed to them of certain lands in Pike county, Ky'., then belonging to the father. When executed, the deed contained no reservation of minerals. The deed was voluntary and without valuable consideration. The plaintiffs were at the time respectively 17 and
This suit was begun July 6, 1912, for the cancellation of the exception of the minerals contained in the deed, and an adjudication that plaintiffs were the owners of such minerals. The testimony upon the trial was taken in open court. The trial judge filed an opinion, in which he expressed himself as not satisfied that the deed was delivered to plaintiffs before the date on which it was lodged for record, and announcing the conclusions that plaintiffs knew of the sale of the minerals to Hellier and consented to the insertion of the exception in the deed, that plaintiffs carried the chains in the making of the survey in 1899, and were present when the transaction was closed and the money paid, and that the' defendant Kentland Company was a purchaser for value without notice of any defect in the title. The conclusion was reached that plaintiffs are barred from relief by laches and estoppel.
While the trial, judge states that “for the sake of the argument” he disposed of the case on the basis that the exception was inserted in the deed and in its record after the deed was recorded, the judge was apparently of a contrary opinion; and we think it the natural inference from the testimony that the interlineation was made between the date of the deed and its recording. There'was testimony, apparently credible, that ITellier had heard, after the contract of February, "1899, for the sale of the minerals, but before payment was made, that the land had been deeded to plaintiffs on account of the father’s trouble with 'a creditor, and that Hellier declined to carry out, the contract unless the minerals were excepted in the deed, that the father agreed that th exception should be made, and that plaintiffs agreed thereto. The mother was living with one of the plaintiffs when the trial was had, but was not produced as a witness, nor was her absence explained. As well said by the trial judge:
“It is not likely that, with this title bond outstanding, he [the father] would have put to record a deed showing the title thereto in his children.”
We have no trouble in agreeing with this conclusion. And not only is the conclusion that plaintiffs knew of and consented to the insertion in tire deed of the exception of the minerals supported by direct testimony, but there was also apparently credible testimony from the same witness that plaintiffs were present when the deed was made, that it was read in their presence, and that they agreed that “if ever anything occurred afterwards they was to join in the deed when they became 21,” and that there was talk that the father would pay to the boys some part of the consideration for the minerals.
That the Kentland Company is-a purchaser in good faith is clear; the only suggestion to the contrary deserving mention is that the record itself, if consulted, would, because of the spelling and language of the exception, be seen not to have been made by the scrivener of the deed generally. But this suggestion does not overthrow the otherwise convincing nature of tire evidence of good faith purchase. The ques
The pertinent situation may be thus summarized: Plaintiffs knew of and assented to the sale of the minerals in 1899 and to their conveyance in 1902; no complaint was ever made until 1912, when this suit was begun, at which time one of the plaintiffs was 31, the other nearly 30 years of age. Meanwhile Hellier had paid for the minerals, presumably with plaintiffs’ knowledge; the father had died, as had Hellier; the value of the minerals had been greatly enhanced; and they had been sold to an innocent purchaser for value at a large price.
In Pond Creek Coal Co. v. Hatfield (this day decided) 239 Fed. 622, - C. C. A. -, we state the rule to be well settled that state statutes of limitation are not binding upon the courts of the United States, and that in suits in equity in the federal courts relief is barred by lapse of time, only as the same amounts to laches, or works an estoppel, and that while there has been “for the sake of uniformity a disposition to accept the statutory regulations of the states prescribing the time within which suits may be brought,” ripening into a rule which will be enforced whenever by observing it the court “is not required to abrogate its own principles,” yet that the courts have frequently enforced the doctrine of laches where the lapse of time has been shorter than 'that prescribed by state laws, but where the peculiar circumstances gave rise to an equity which the court was bound to protect. The latter proposition is abundantly sustained by the following decisions: Richards v. Mackall, 124 U. S. 183, 188, 8 Sup. Ct. 437, 31 L. Ed. 396; Alsop v. Riker, 155 U. S. 449, 460, 15 Sup. Ct. 162, 39 L. Ed. 218; Penn Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Austin, 168 U. S. 685, 18 Sup. Ct. 223, 42 L. Ed. 626; Ky. Coal, etc., Co. v. Ky. Union Co. (C. C. A. 6) 187 Fed. 945, 948, 110 C. C. A. 93; Patterson v. Hewitt, 195 U. S. 309, 319, 25 Sup. Ct. 35, 37 (49 L. Ed. 214). As said in the latter case:
“Indeed, in some cases the diligence required is measured by months rather than by years. * * * And in others a delay of two, three, or four years has been held fatal.”
The decree of the District Court is affirmed, with costs.
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