275 Mo. 282 | Mo. | 1918
This suit was instituted in the Butler Circuit Court December 5, T914, by petition containing two counts. The first of these is framed upon the provisions of Section 2535, Revised Statutes 1909, and is, omitting caption and signatures, as follows:
“Plaintiffs, for their cause of action, state that they are the owners of and claim the legal title to the following described real estate, lying, being and situate in the county of Butler, and State of Missouri, to-wit; all of the Southwest Quarter of the Southeast Quarter of Section Seventeen in Township Twenty-four north, Range Seven east, except a strip 100 feet wide heretofore condemned for railroad right of way.
‘‘ That the defendant claims some title, interest and estate in said land, which said title is based and predicated upon a void judgment rendered in the circuit court of Butler County, Missouri, in Tax Suit No. 6486, on the 19th day of June, 1903, and execution sale thereunder, wherein the State of Missouri, at the relation and to the use of John H. Souders, Collector of Revenue in and for the County of Butler and State of Missouri, was plaintiff, and plaintiff Joseph Murphy et al. were defendants.
“Plaintiffs further state that, at the time the judgment above referred to was rendered- and at the time the sale thereunder was made, plaintiff Joseph Murphy was incarcerated in the Penitentiary of the State of Missouri, under and by virtue of a judgment and sent
“Plaintiffs further state that the claim of the defendant is adverse and prejudicial to the title and ownership of these plaintiffs in and to said land.
“Wherefore plaintiffs pray the court to set aside the judgment and sale above mentioned and to cancel the deed and all mesne conveyances made thereunder, and further pray the court to try,' ascertain and determine the title of the parties hereto in and to said real estate, and, by its judgment and decree, define said title, and for such other orders in the premises as to the court may seem meet and just.
“And if the court finds that the claim of defendant in and to said real estate is founded upon the invalid tax sale above mentioned and that the defendant has, in good faith, paid any taxes on said land, under and by virtue of said claim, plaintiffs hereby tender the full amount, of all of said taxes to the defendant, together with six per cent interest thereon from the dates the same were paid until this time, and hereby offer to pay the same as soon as the amount thereof, if any, is ascertained and determined by this court.”
The second count is in the ordinary form in ejectment.
The second amended answer, upon which the cause was tried, sets forth- the judgment for taxes pleaded in the first count of the petition, recites personal service of summons on. Joseph Murphy, the defendant in that suit and plaintiff in this, on October 7, 1901, returnable to the next October term of the Butler Circuit Court; that on June 19, 1903, judgment was rendered in said cause in the amount of $8.97 for taxes
The answer also pleaded the Statute of Limitations of ten years hy virtue of the provisions of Section 1881, Chapter 21, Article 8, and Section 1894, Chapter 21, Article 9, of the Revised Statutes. The answer to the second count admitted possession and pleaded limitations under the same statute.
Issue was joined hy replication.
The following facts are admitted or uncontroverted. On and prior to August, 1901, the plaintiff Joseph Murphy was the owner in fee of the land in suit and is the common source of title. On August 10, 1901, an action was brought against him hy the State at the relation of the collector of Butler County to recover
On July 23, 1902, Murphy was convicted in the Butler Circuit Court of a felony, and sentenced to a term of two years in the State Penitentiary. He was not at that time incarcerated in the Penitentiary under this sentence, but was held to answer another charge of felony pending in the same court, in which he pleaded guilty on February 13, 1903, and received a like sentence. He was then sent to the Penitentiary upon both sentences, and there remained confined until June, 1905, when he was discharged.
On June 26, 1902, the plaintiff, joined by his wife, conveyed the'land in suit to Gus Baurton, who, with his wife, executed-a deed of trust conveying the same land on the same day to Joseph Murphy, and on January 14, 1904, conveyed the same land by warranty deed to both these plaintiffs.
In 1904, at a date not .otherwise mentioned in the record, the defendant Barron recovered in the Butler Circuit Court a judgment by agreement against Gus Baurton and Maggie Baurton, his wife, for the possession of the land in suit. The costs were adjudicated in favor of the Baurtons and against the plaintiff. The Murphys took possession of the land in controversy upon Joseph’s release from the Penitentiary in 1905, and remained in possession by himself and his tenants up to the spring of 1914, when he was ousted by the sheriff under the judgment obtained by Barron against
The respondent was vice-president and general manager of the Butler County Railroad Company, which instituted the suit for condemnation pleaded in the answer in this case, the object of which was to condemn a strip of land one hundred feet wide for right of way for the company’s railway across this land. Commissioners were appointed to assess the damages, and after the filing of their report awarding damages in the amount of one hundered dollars with respect to this particular tract, respondent and one M. C. Horton filed a motion in the nature of an interplea alleging that they were the owners of the land and that appellants had no right, title or interest therein. The appellant, at the next term, filed a like plea containing a similar, allegation of ownership, and asking that the money, when paid into court, should be awarded to them. A trial Avas had upon these motions resulting in a judgment or order declaring Barron to be the owner and ordering the money paid to him when it should be paid into the court. The money was never paid into court. Barron testifies that it was paid to him.
The second count is the ordinary one in ejectment.
The petition seems to have been framed in this form to take advantage of a favorable opinion of the court on either the legal or equitable theory of the right asserted. The defendant’s title might be found
The words “civil rights” constitute a broad expression that, in its ordinary meaning, excludes access to the courts for every purpose other than to question the validity of the sentence, and no judgment could be rendered against him, because the personal jurisdiction of the court implies the constitutional right to appear and be heard. The defendant argues that this cannot be true in this case, because there are many cases, constituting the greater weight of authority, which held that a judgment may be immune from collateral attack, although rendered against the name of one naturally dead. There seems to us to be no analogy whatever between these classes of judgments. The person naturally deceased leaves living an immediate unbroken succession to all his rights and interests. The event that extinquishes his identity continues it in them, whether their interests arise in testamentary disposition, succession, or as creditors. They have been haled into court by the process with which he has been served, and may appear, as the issue may indicate, either by themselves or by the legal representative which the law provides, to answer in their own behalf. The deceased no longer needs protection.
One civilly dead through a sentence for a period which does not include the whole of his natural life stands in a different position. His sentence does not
These are some of the provisions for the protection of a class which has been disabled, in the administration of the laws, from protecting themselves and their dependants. They embody a remedial system so just and
In the McLaughlin case, the wife had secured a decree of divorce from her husband on the ground that he had been convicted of murder and sentenced to a term of ten years in the Penitentiary. The summons' in the divorce case had been served on the convict in the Missouri Penitentiary. The court granted the divorce with the care and custody of the-children, and by its judgment vested the title of the homestead in the wife. No question was made in this court as to the jurisdiction' of the circuit court over the defendant for the purpose of granting the divorce, but it was contended by the defendant that the property of the convict was under the protection of the State and that the title to the land could only be affected through the intervention of a trustee appointed as provided in the statutes to which
Having arrived at the conclusion that the legal title to the land was unaffected by the sheriff’s sale, it follows that it is vested, in the plaintiffs. The fact that the defendant failed to demur for or otherwise plead a misjoinder of' parties makes it unnecessary to further consider the status of the plaintiff’s wife. They and' those representing them continued in possession, either by themselves or their tenants, up to the spring of 1914. There being no evidence of any adverse possession until -that time the pleas which refer to the Statute of Limitations need not be further considered. Nor does the voluntary payment of taxes by the defendant while pláintiffs and their tenants were in possession have any reference to the questions involving the legal title.
The question which is alleged to have been adjudicated in that proceeding is whether these appellants the Murphys, or the respondent Barron,, then held the legal title to the land in suit. If this question of title was adjudicated, that adjudication constitutes the muniment on which it stands. Otherwise, the title, as we have already said, still stands in Murphy, the admitted common source, and his wife.
The judgment which may have the effect of transferring the title to land by estoppel, must, of course, be pronounced by a court acting within the limits of a jurisdiction which authorizes it. It follows that if the court in its pronouncement be acting by virtue of a special and limited statutory jurisdiction, it must look to the law conferring it. We mention this rule in passing, because the judgment on which the respondent relies was entered in the exercise of a power which we have justly characterized as “most extraordinary,” ánd of which we have said: “Its exercise often operates oppressively as well as vexatiously to the citizen whose property is taken. Such high prerogative is only allowed ‘ where the plain letter of the law permits it, and under a careful observance of the formalities prescribed for the owner’s protection.’ ” [Railway v. Railway, 138 Mo. 591, quoting from Cooley’s Constitutional Limitations, page 651.]
The jurisdiction exercised in the appropriation of land for public purposes is circumscribed by Section 21 of Article 2 of the State Constitution, which distinctly provides with respect to compensation that “until the same shall be paid to the owner, or into court for the owner, the property shall not be disturbed or the> proprietary rights of the owner therein divested.” -Ik is not contended here that the compensation was paid to
The statute authorizing the condemnation proceeding (1909, Sec. 2360) provides as follows: “It shall not be necessary to make any persons party defendant in respect to their ownership, unless they are either in actual possession of the premises to be affected claiming title,' or have a title to the premises appearing of record upon the proper records of the county.’'’ The company conformed to this provision by making both Murphy, who was in possession claiming title, and Barron who held a recorded sheriff’s deed, the defendants. Under these conditions commissioners were appointed to assess the damages for the appropriation of the right of way through the land, which of course included not only the value of the strip, but also the amount of damages to the entire tract resulting from the use appropriated. It was thereupon necessary for the railroad company to pay to the clerh of the court in which the proceeding was pending the amount of damages so assessed, within ten days from the filing of the report, unless it should elect within that time to abandon the proposed appropriation, which it might do subject to the payment of costs and damages. [Railway v. Railway, 138 Mo. 591.] Upon the payment to the clerk the Railway Company
That this is the theory upon which the statute relating to the condemnation of lands for public uses is framed is evident. By its terms the public suffers no delay in the acquisition of the land, and the claimants are given a fund which in every respect constitutes the subjeect-matter of any controversy which they may have had with reference to its ownership. The process is not given in aid of any private controversy, but to serve a public purpose. Thenceforth the company, a mere agent for the public with reference to its easement, may not be permitted to use its extraordinary powers as such agent in aid of a personal controversy in no way related to its public function. ' The jurisdiction of the court in the determination of such, collateral controversies arises from the possession of the fund alone. The proceeding is in rem and jurisdiction cannot exist without the res. It was no more effective to determine which of these parties was the owner of the land than would be the determination of arbitrators outside the court. It is unnecessary to determine what effect a judicial determination of the ownership of such a fund in the hands of the clerk might have upon the collateral question of ownership of the remaining land/
It necessarily follows from what we have here said that the judgment is reversed and the cause remanded to the Butler Circuit Court for further proceedings in accordance with this opinion.
PER CURIAM: — The foregoing opinion of Brown, C., is adopted as the opinion of the court.