125 Wis. 284 | Wis. | 1905
The complaint contains two causes of action, the one equitable and the other legal. The former is alleged for the purpose of obtaining a reformation of the contract by the correction of the alleged misdescription of the premises intended to be covered by the parties, and the latter sets forth the facts whereon plaintiff asserts the right to re- • cover damages for the injury done to the freehold by the severance of trees by the defendant after the making of the contract for the sale of the land and before its conveyance by deed to the plaintiff under the conditions of this sale. It has been held that these causes of action might be joined in one complaint and appropriate relief granted in one judgment. The approved practice is that the equitable issue be first tried by the court and the legal issue be then tried by a jury. Cameron v. White, 74 Wis. 425, 43 N. W. 155; Harrison v. Juneau Bank, 17 Wis. 340; Aultman Co. v. McDonough, 110 Wis. 263, 85 N. W. 980.
It is contended by respondent that the facts alleged in the •second cause of action do not constitute a cause of action,
The principle of the foregoing adjudications is conclusive of the question presented, but, in addition, it seems clear that the doctrine of relation is applicable to this case. It is alleged that on April 10, 1902, pursuant to the contract of October 27, 1900, Wille and his wife executed and delivered a deed of the premises upon full payment of the consideration specified in the contract. The delivery of this deed is not regarded in the law as alone constituting a sale of the land, but is the final step of the transaction, which consummated it pursuant to and in accordance with the precedent contract between the parties. Under such circumstances the deed relates back to the contract, and, for the promotion of justice and for the protection of the purchaser, the title is considered, as between the parties, as having vested in the grantee from the time the contract was made. In Stahl v. Lynn, 86 Wis. 75, 56 N. W. 188, this court sanctions the statement of this doctrine as stated by Mr. Justice Eield in Gibson v. Chouteau, 13 Wall. 92:
“By the doctrine of relation is meant that principle by which an act done at one time is considered, by a fiction of the law, to have been done at some antecedent period.. It is-*289 usually applied where several proceedings are essential to complete a particular transaction, such as a conveyance or deed. The last proceeding which consummates the conveyance is held for certain purposes to take effect by relation as of the day when the first proceeding was had.”
We deem the rule applicable to the instant case, and under it plaintiff’s title to the land had its inception on the date of the'written contract, namely, October 27, 1900, and, so far as it may be necessary to protect his rights in the land conveyed, the title is held to have taken effect by relation as of that date. Sutherland v. Goodnow, 108 Ill. 528; Young v. Guy, 87 N. Y. 457; Cummings v. Newell, 86 Minn. 130, 90 N. W. 311; Womack v. Powers, 50 Ala. 5; Carney v. Reed, 11 Ind. 417; Thompson v. Spencer, 50 Cal. 532. The court erred in holding that -the complaint failed to state a cause of action, and the order sustaining the demurrer must be reversed.
By the Court. — The order appealed from is reversed, and the cause is remanded with directions to overrule the demurrer, and for other proceedings according to law.