76 Iowa 467 | Iowa | 1889
.On .the twenty-eighth of February, 1862, Richard A. Barret conveyed to William L. Barret, in trust for Mary. L. Barret, wife of said Richard A., all his undivided interest in his father’s estate in this state. That conveyance was executed at about the date of the marriage of Richard A. and Mary L., and was intended as a marriage settlement.- Qn the eighth of July, 1885, the said William L. Barret, trustee, conveyed to the defendant, R. A. Buckner, a one-seventh interest in the property in question, the said Mary L. joining in the conveyance. The claim of the defendants is that neither the deed from Richard F. Barret to Ridgley, nor the conveyance in trust by the latter to Buckner, was ever delivered, and hence that the portion of the property described therein descended, on the death of Richard F., to his widow and heirs (the former taking a dower estate therein); and,that the interest of Richard A. passed by the conveyance in trust to William L., and is now vested in Buckner. They also claim that the deed from Richard F. to Richard A., of that portion of the property acquired subsequent to 1850, was a mere voluntary conveyance, and that it was never delivered,
We are of the opinion that a delivery of the deed from Barret to Ridgley must be presumed from the facts proven. It is apparent that Barret’s object was to settle the income of the property on his wife. The two deeds, as stated above, were executed on the same day, and without doubt as one transaction. The deed to Ridgley was executed, not with the view of conveying to him a beneficial interest in the property, but as one of the steps in the accomplishment of the object in view, viz., the settlement of the estate on Mrs. Barret, and the trust deed from him was procured to be executed for the same purpose. All this is clear from the circumstances proven. Now, the only reasonable inference that can be drawn from the fact that Barret procured the execution of that instrument is that he had already done all that was essential to vest the title in Ridgley; for, if that had not been done, there was no necessity for its execution, and we cannot presume that the parties were performing an idle and useless action.
We come now to the question as to the delivery of the trust deed from Ridgley to Buckner. It is
As Barret procured the execution of that instrument in furtherance of the object he had in view, the plain inference is that he also procured the execution of the acceptance. He probably regarded that act as quite as essential for the accomplishment of his object as those which preceded it, and he is the only person except the beneficiary of the trust who had any interest in procuring it to be done. Having procured the acceptance of the trust by the trustee, he had done everything essential to the accomplishment of his object.' The manual delivery of the deed, either to the trustee or the beneficiary, was not essential to the passing of the title; for the acceptance of the duties imposed by the instrument necessarily included the acceptance of the title conveyed by it. And the act of Barret in procuring the execution of the acceptance necessarily implies that everything essential to the vesting of the title in the trustee had been done. This view' appears to us to be sustained by sound reason, and if is well supported by the authorities. Otis v. Beckwith, 49 Ill. 121; Souverbye v. Arden, 1 Johns., Ch. 240; 1 Perry, Trusts, secs. 260-268. We conclude, therefore, that the trust deed was effective to pass the title to the trustee.
Some controversy having arisen between Mrs. Barret and some of her children with reference to the estate, they made a settlement of the matter in 1878, by which she' relinquished to them all the rents of the property except three hundred dollars per month, This settlement was reduced to writing, in which it was recited that she was seized as '•’■cestui que trust” of
In 1856, Richard F. Barret executed a, trust deed :of the property to secure a promissory note for twenty thousand dollars given by him to John Reynolds. Defendant Buckner pleaded that he is now the . owner, of said note, and that six thousand dollars of ..the, amount remains unpaid, and he prayed that his lien on the property be preserved in any partition that may be made of it. This claim has not been urged in this court, and we deem it sufficient to say, with reference to it, that all right of action. for the enforcement of the lien now appears-to be barred by the statute of limitations.
Reversed.