88 Va. 862 | Va. | 1892
delivered the opinion of the court.
This is an appeal from a final decree of the circuit court of Tazewell county, rendered February 26th, 1889, in vacation, in the consolidated causes of Charles E. Jeffries and others, complainants, against the Southwest Virginia Improvement Company and others', defendants, and of Albert Jeffries, complainant, ag’ainst the said company, defendant, in chancery. The said decree complained of dismissed both of the said bills.
The object of these two suits (virtually one) was to annul a decree of the circuit court of Tazewell county, rendered at the May term, 1883, in the chancery cause of Elizabeth E.-Jeffries, by William T. Moore, her next friend, against John J. Jeffries and others; and also to annul and declare void a deed made by the complainants, Charles E. Jeffries, Henry Saddler and wife, Sarah Ann Saddler, made April 22d, 1882, by which they conveyed all their right, title and claim in and to two tracts or parcels of land lying partly in McDo-well county, West Virginia, and partly in Tazewell county, Virginia, containing, together, 780 acres, upon the ground and charge of fraud.
The decree sought to be annulled was rendered in May, 1883, and was never appealed from ; and the deed asked to be vacated was made April 22d, 1882, and duly recorded in the clerk’s office of Tazewell county; while these suits to set them aside were bought in 1887. On the 1st day of March, 1861, Jacob Francisco and Mary, his wife, for the consideration of $100, granted and convej-ed unto John J. Jeffries in fee, two certain tracts or parcels of land, situate on the dividing ridge between Laurel Creek, the waters of the Bluestone, and the Tug river, lying partly in the county of McDowell and partly
Upon the inspection of the title to these lands, by William McGeorge, a countryman of Joseph I. Doran, and a faithful and painstaking conveyancer, whom Doran employed to examine the title to the said lands, it was found that John J. Jeffries had conveyed them to his children by the deed dated December 5th, 1865, and lodged in the clerk’s office of McDowell county. McGeorge, acting for Joseph I. Doran, promptly refused to take the land; and Mrs. Elizabeth Jeffries was then first, advised of the conveyance of the land by her husband to their said children, as aforesaid; and thereupon — viz., on the 29th day of March, 1882 — she, the said Elizabeth E. Jeffries, suing by her next friend, William T. Moore (one of the most worthy and respected citizens of Tazewell county), instituted a chancery suit in the circuit court of Tazewell county, Virginia, against John J. Jeffries, Charles E. Jeffries, Albert Jeffries, Henry Saddler, and Sarah Ann Saddler, his wife, and others to set aside the conveyance aforesaid of John J. Jeffries to their said children, dated December 5th, 1865, and to perfect her title to the said 340 and 440-acre tracts which she had contracted to sell to Joseph I. Doran, as aforesaid. She alleged in her bill that the said 340 and 440-acre tracts of land were purchased by Israel Slade, a friend whom she selected for that purpose, from Jacob Erancisco, with the proceeds of a land warrant issued by the United States government to an ancestor of hers, the said proceeds being her separate estate; and the said Slade being instructed by her to have the said land conveyed to her, which she supposed he had done, as he promised and undertook to do, until after she had sold the said lands to Joseph I. Doran, when, to her utter astonishment, she found that Jacob Erancisco and Mary, his wife, had, on the 5th day of March, 1861, conveyed the said 340 and 440-acre tracts of land to her husband, John J. Jeffries. That the said conveyance
During the progress of this suit a conveyance was made to Joseph I. Doran by Henry Saddler and wife and Charles E. Jeffries for their claim to one undivided half of the said 840 and 440 acres of land; and, under the proceedings in said cause a commissioner was appointed to convey, and who did convey, tb said Doran the interest of Albert Jeffries, being his claim to one-fourth of the said lands, and in this conveyance John J. Jeffries and Elizabeth E. Jeffries, his wife, joined, which passed to Doran the remaining half of said land.
The complainant took the depositions of Thomas H. Eranklin, who proved that the lands in the bill mentioned were of the value of $1.50 per acre, and of William T. Moore, who stated the value of the said land to be $2 per acre.
The decree of the circuit court, of Tazewell county, rendered at its May term, 1883, in the case of Elizabeth E. Jeffries, by her next friend, William T. Moore, against John J. Jeffries, and upon the bill taken for confessed against the said Charles E. Jeffries and Henry Saddler and Sarah Ann Saddler, his wife, adjudicated the claim of the said parties in and to the 340 and 440-acre tracts of land. The allegations of the bill were not denied, but were by the said parties admitted to be true; and the court, iii its decree, recites the conveyance made by them to Doran April 22d, 1882, which the court says, was made by them in compliance with the wish of the complainant in the suit; and that by reason of the said conveyance the said parties have no further interest in said suit, and, therefore, abated the suit as to them. This decree is clear and explicit in its terms, and it is an adjudication upon the matters alleged in the bill, and is binding and obligatory upon the said parties, who never appealed therefrom for error therein; and it must, for all time, be held conclusive upon the parties.
The allegations of the appellants are many and sweeping aiid oft-repeated of fraud, combinations and conspiracy against the appellees, the lawyers, and others of high standing, their own father and mother and their grandfather and grandmother. They charge, in their respective bills, that the decrees rendered by the circuit court of Tazewell county in the case of Elizabeth E. Jeffries, by her next friend, William T. Moore, against. John J. Jeffries and others, defendants, wrere obtained by fraud and conspiracy; that their mother, Elizabeth E. Jeffries, their father, John J. Jeffries, the Southwest Virginia Improve
Fraud is easily charged; but there must be complete and convincing proof to establish it. In Hord v. Colbert, 28 Gratt. 49, Staples; J., said: “ Our inquiry is with the charge of fraud. Is it established by the testimony ? And here it must be borne in mind that the law does not presume fraud. It is not to be assumed on doubtful evidence or circumstances of mere suspicion. The party alleging fraud must clearly and distinctly prove it. The onus ¡orobandi is upon him to prove his cause as charged in the bill.”
The evidence in the cause is full and voluminous; and our conclusion, upon a careful and patient scrutiny of it all, upon both sides, is that it does not sustain or warrant the charge of fraud against the defendants, the Southwest Virginia Improvement Company and Joseph I. Doran, or the agent or agents of either; but that it constrains the belief that the only attempts at fraud lie at the door of the appellants, who have come into equity with most unclean hands and false clamor. The land in controversy is situated’ upon a poor, dividing ridge, with scraggy growth, and of very little value in 1861, when John J. Jeffries bought it for $100.00; and it so remained until it was negotiated for and purchased, in 1882, by some gentlemen, who
The Southwest Virginia Improvement Company, a chartered corporation under the laws of Virginia, innocently acquired this land, along with other lands, and bravely encountered the jungles and the expense and risks of developing the minerals, expended vast sums in exploration, investigation and acquisition of title, built seventy miles of railroad, and have thereby developed and made valuable these lands. The company was a stranger to the soil and to the titles.. It was their right and duty to be on the alert in the expenditure of millions of money, to be sure that no bad title was imposed upon them; and, where there were various claimants to endeavor to acquire the titles of all. Haturally — alas! these munificent and enterprising Pioneers in the development of the hidden wealth and dormant energies of our state were set upon, by some of the now discontented vendors; their tracks scented over; hidden defects of title resurrected and disclosed; irregularities of conveyances sought after as badges of fraud; idle and irresponsible declarations called “ indicia ” ; agents and lawyers denominated conspirators ; and the character' of reputable irreproachable citizens assailed upon the slightest pretext. The evidence of the appellants, Charles E. Jeffries, Sarah Ann Saddler and Albert Jeffries shows conclusively that they entered into a conspiracy and combination with their father, John J. Jeffries, to let Mrs. Elizabeth E. Jeffries sell the land to Joseph I. Horan, get the money for it and then leave the state; that, until all this
Sarah Ann Sadler, in her deposition, says: “ "When pap came over to our house, I told him I thought he had done mighty wrong to wrong the children out of their land, and I told him that he knowed very well that I heard him say to mother, a many a time, that she had nothing when they married but a set of dishes. Then he told me not to say nothing about it while they stayed in this country, but to wait till they got plumb gone- — got out of the way. If the company found it out they might send them to the penitentiary.” I asked him how wo could do anything with the land when he was gone, and he said we could write and he would send his deposition. Charles E. Jeffries, in his deposition, says: “ He (father) told me, after he had sold the land, to hold on and not to bring any suit for the land; for me to let mother get all she could out of the land, that he knew that we were swindled out of our land, and- for us not to bring any suit about the land until he could get away. That he never had been sworn in the case, but my mother had. Albert Jeffries, says in his deposition, that he went with his father to Hew York in September, 1884 or 1885, and under direction of his father returned with instructions to sue for this land. That he waited, until the 7th day of March, 1887, and then sued one year, five months and twenty-nine days after he became twenty-one years of age. These appellants made their deed to Doran conveying their claim to an undivided one-half interest in the land, April 22d, 1882, and they instituted their suit March 7th, 1887 — nearly five years. They were men and women of .full age, sui juris, and in possession of all their faculties, their father had made the conveyance in 1865, but he held the possession, occupancy and ostensible ownership of the land from that time, seventeen years, until his wife sold it. They had never paid their father or their mother a dollar for the land, and there was no war
See Barnett v. Barnett 83 Va., p. 510; Grimes v. Saunders, 93 U. S.; Terry v. Fontaine, 83 Va. page 451; Pomeroy’s Equity Jurisprudence, §§ 965, 917, 897, 817, 418 and 945. These appellants say that they received but little for their land. It was their mother’s land; and she received value for it. "What right had they to exact or to expect -payment for her land? (As to Albert Jeffries, see Zirkle v. McCue, 26 Gratt. 517; Code 1873, chapter 174, § 10, p. 1125; Pomeroy’s Equity, § 814.)
These appellants, with sublime filial devotion and duty to the wishes of their pious ancestor, “ did hold on, and not bring any suit about.the land until he could get away; and they did let mother get all she could out of the land; and they did say nothing about it while they (John J. and Elizabeth E. Jeffries) stayed in this country; and they did wait till thei’ got plumb gone — got out of the way; and they did remain silent for nearly five years, so that the company never found it out; and they did so conduct themselves with regard to this great fraud as to save the gray hairs of their honored parents from the penitentiary.” And now, after sleeping for this avowed sinister purpose upon their rights or wrongs, for nearly five years, when father and mother are plumb gone away into the state of Hew York, and after the Southwest Virginia Improvement Company have paid full value for and held the lands for nearly five years, and have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in developing this and their other lands, without a hint of this dormant claim — they come with uplifted hands, crying fraud ! fraud: and ask the aid of a court of conscience to consummate their villainy!
The appellants come into equity with the voice of Jacob, but with the hands of Esau! There is no error in the decrees appealed from, and our judgment is to affirm the same.
Decree affirmed.