175 Wis. 365 | Wis. | 1921
The appellants in this case assert that there is no proper foundation in the evidence for certain of the findings of fact upon which the court reached its conclusions of law in favor of the defendants. The substance of the findings so attacked is as follows: That the plaintiffs knew at the time of their signing the so-called gravel-pit lease of the giving of the deed to the property in question by their father, John Hustis, to Dehne; that the plaintiffs knew at such time of the statement in the opinion of this court in the case of Koch v. Hustis, 113 Wis. 599, 87 N. W. 834, and quoted supra, that Laura Hustis was there declared to be the owner in fee of this property; that Dehne, at the time of the deed to him by John Hustis in 1904, did not know of the ownership by Laura Hustis of the property nor that it had been so found by the court in which that action was tried, nor that it was so stated in the opinion of this court on the. appeal of said case. An examination of the testimony, however, convinces us that there is evidence in this record to fully support each one of such challenged findings.
The plaintiff, Mrs. Anthony, with her husband had lived at Hustisford many years prior to 1904; Mrs. Hustis and
No steps were taken-by either of the plaintiffs to repudiate the transaction or assert title until the commencement of this suit in 1908.
Stress was laid upon the fact that Dehne, to whom' the conveyance was made in 1904 and through whom the de
It was plaintiffs who knew or ought to have known that there was a possible claim on their own behalf 'to this property derived from their mother’s estate at the time they joined in the gravel-pit lease knowing of the conveyance, for a valuable consideration, by the father to Dehne, acting in good faith and in reliance upon the assertion of title by John Hustis.
■ The property here involved was evidently considered as of no very great value at the time, as indicated by the consideration of only $450 paid by Dehne to John Hustis for such conveyance and the rights secured by the gravel-pit lease. Plaintiffs, without present protest, permitted this entire consideration to be paid to John Hustis. If their claim of title now asserted was then valid, the entire consideration belonged to them and not to their father. Their acquiescence in this transaction by their father under his assertion of title, with the knowledge they then had of the situation, brings them well within the doctrine that he who speaks not in assertion of his rights when he may, is, as to one who acts in reliance upon such situation, forever after bound to keep his peace and cannot .subsequently assert such right as against such good-faith and relying purchaser. Vilas v. Mason, 25 Wis. 310, 323, 324; McLean v. Dow, 42 Wis. 610, 614; Two
This disposition of the case renders it unnecessary to consider the exceptions presented by the defendants on certain of the findings of the trial court or any of the other questions presented on this appeal.
By the Court. — Judgment affirmed.