113 Va. 61 | Va. | 1912
delivered the opinion of the court.
This is an appeal from a decree dismissing a bill filed by the .appellants in the Circuit Court of Amelia county, to correct a mistake in a deed and a plat as to the dimensions of a small parcel of land or town lot lying in Amelia county, sold under decrees entered in the consolidated causes of the Union Bank of Richmond, -&c., against John B. Harvie, and the same plaintiff against Lewis E. Harvie, &c., pending in the Chancery Court of the city of Richmond, to restrain the appellees from interfering with the appellant’s possession of the said lot, and to quiet their title.
The circuit court dismissed the bill upon the ground, as stated in its decree, that the appellants had failed to establish the case alleged. But if the action of the court can be sustained upon that, or either of the other grounds relied on by the appellees— viz., that the court was without jurisdiction, or that the bill did not state a case entitling the appellants to the relief sought—the decree appealed from must be affirmed.
Upon the case made, the circuit court had jurisdiction. The land as to which the alleged mistake was made lies in Amelia county, and the appellees are residents thereof. It appears that at the time (1908) the alleged mistake was discovered the consolidated causes in which the sale of the land was made had been stricken from the docket, and that it was then too late to apply for relief in those causes.
It°is well settled in this State, and in many if not most jurisdictions, that relief from mistakes in judgments, decrees, or other -court proceedings, may, in an otherwise proper case, be had if the
There is no valid objection to proceeding by original bill to obtain relief from such a mistake in a court (having jurisdiction of the parties and the subject matter) other than that in which the mistake was made, when it cannot be corrected in that cause, since such mistake is not corrected by reviewing the judgment or decree of that court, but by restraining the parties who may take advantage of it from doing so, or by compelling them to execute proper papers for the purpose of correcting it. Barnesley v. Powell, 1 Ves., Sr., 284; Byrne v. Edmonds, supra; Loss v. Obrey, 22 N. J. Eq. 52.
The court also properly overruled the demurrer to the bill. Its allegations are sufficient, if proved, to entitle the appellants to relief from the alleged mistake. The fact that the bill also prays to have the cloud upon the appellant’s title removed does not render it demurrable, even if it be conceded, as counsel of the appellees insists, that it is not distinctly charged in the bill that the appellants were in possession of the land in controversy when the suit was brought. While the general rule is that the holder of the legal title to land cannot maintain a bill to remove a cloud from his title unless he is in possession (Otey v. Stuart, 91 Va. 714, 22 S. E. 513; Austin v. Minor, 107 Va. 101, 57 S. E. 609), this rule does not, and ought not to, apply where the primary relief sought is upon another and well-established ground of equity jurisdiction, and the removal of the cloud is sought only as an incident to that relief. See Booth, &c. v. Wiley, 102 Ill. 84, 113-'14; Swick v. Rease, 62 W. Va. 557, 59 S. E. 510, 511; Shipman v. Furnes, 69 Ala. 555, 44 Am. Rep. 528, 531.
The next question to be considered is whether or not the mistake alleged has been clearly proved, as it is conceded and well settled it must be in cases of this character.
It appears that at the suit of his creditors the lands of the estate of Lewis E. Harvie, deceased, including those situated in
There are located upon lot No. 1, as taken possession of and claimed by Jefferson, a store-house and shop. The lot contains about one-fourth of an acre, as described in the report of sale and the deed of the commissioner. By recent survey, made in accordance with the calls in the plat referred to in the report of sale and the commissioners’ deed, the shop is not within the boundaries of the lot, and it contains only about one-sixth of an acre. To correct this alleged mistake this suit was instituted.
The facts relied on by the appellants to show the mistake, briefly stated, are as follows: W. C. Harvie, who represented Jefferson in his negotiations with Haskins, one of the special commissioners, for the purchase of the said property, testifies that said negotiations were solely between him, as the agent of Jefferson, and Haskins, special commissioner of sale; that both of them -were familiar -with the property purchased by Jefferson;
The competency of this witness to testify as to what passed between him and Haskins, special commissioner, in negotiating the purchase and sale of the property, is objected to by the appellees, upon the ground that Haskins was dead, and the witness was not only a party to the original transaction, by reason of his conducting the negotiations as the agent of Jefferson, but was also deeply interested in the purchase of the property.
It clearly appears that in negotiating the purchase for Jefferson the witness was merely his agent, and in no legal sense one of the “original parties” to the contract. The witness is not a party to this suit, and, if he ever had any pecuniary interest in the purchase, it is clear that he had no such interest in it or in this controversy when he testified. He was clearly a competent witness. Goodell’s Ex’ors v. Gibbons, 91 Va. 608, 610, 22 S. E. 504; Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Oliver, 95 Va. 445, 448, 28 S. E. 594, and cases cited; Reynolds v. Calloway, 31 Gratt. (72 Va.) 439-'40; Moorman v. Arthur, 90 Va. 455, 18 S. E. 869.
It is proved, beyond a reasonable doubt, that when the county surveyor, Childress, laid off or surveyed the lots at Chula depot, the boundary lines of lot No. 1 included the land upon which the said shop is situated, and that its boundaries were run and staked off as claimed by the appellants. There were three persons present at that time besides the surveyor, and all three of them so testify positively, and the surveyor does not recollect whether' or
It further clearly appears that Jefferson repaired the shop, had Both it and the store-house insured, leased the shop to different persons, and that no one, during a period of nearly nineteen years, ever questioned his ownership of the shop and the land upon which it is built, except appellee Gregory, and the evidence is overwhelming that he did not make any adverse claim to it until just before the institution of this suit, when it was first ascertained, by a survey made preparatory to a sale of the property by the appellants, that the description of the lot as contained in the plat of the Chula depot lands and in the deed from Haskins, commissioner, to Jefferson, was not a correct description of the lot as actually run by the surveyor making the survey and plat, and as occupied and held by Jefferson and those who claim under him.
It further clearly appears that lots Nos. 1 and 2, as thus actually surveyed and held, contain almost the exact area which they are described as containing in the report of sale and conveyances to the original purchasers, while, according to the said plat of the Chula lands, lot No. 1 contains much less (nearly one-third), and lot No. 2 more, than they were described as containing when sold and conveyed.
While there is some slight conflict in the evidence, the court is of opinion, after a carefül consideration of all the facts and circumstances disclosed by the record, that the alleged mistake is clearly proved; and that there has been no such delay in discovering the mistake, or bringing suit to remedy it, as deprives the appellants of the right to the relief sought.
The decree of the circuit court dismissing the appellants’ bill
Reversed.