68 N.J. Eq. 409 | New York Court of Chancery | 1905
The bill is filed by the vendor to compel the vendee to take the title which the vendor has proved in this suit he is able to give. The contract seems to call for a title having something
The following clause also appears in typewriting: “It is hereby agreed that if the title is not found perfect the $25 deposit shall be returned to the party of the second part.”
• A perfect title, if such a thing exists, should probably be defined, if a definition were necessary, in such a manner as to make it appear less open to criticism and attack than many titles which courts of equity deem merely marketable.
The alleged defect in the complainant’s title which the defendant points, out, is as follows: The complainant obtained title to the land in question under a warranty deed in the usual form, dated August 27th, 1900, made by one Sarah L. Brown, who is described in the deed as- a widow. The certificate of acknowledgment upon the deed is in the usual form employed in the case of a man or an unmarried woman. The defendant alleges that when this deed was made the grantor in fact was a married woman, and that therefore the complainant’s title is not marketable, and certainly not “perfect,” because it rests upon a deed executed by a married woman in which her husband did not join, and which was not acknowledged according to law. It is not insisted by the complainant that the land comes within the operation of the statute permitting a married woman living in a state of separation from her husband to convey her lands in certain cases. 2 Gen. Stat. p. 2019 §§ 32, 33. I think the proof in this case shows affirmatively that the lands in question were not within the operation of-those statutes. I certainly refrain from expressing the opinion that if the lands were within the operation of these statutes that a specific performance would be enforced against a vendor who at the time the contract was made was ignorant that the title rested upon proof of facts which
No doubt, at the time this contract was made (June 11th, 1901), Mrs. Brown was living in a state of separation from her husband, and had been continuously for about fifteen years. The complainant, for the support of his title, insists that under our ancient statute establishing a presumption of death in the case of absence for seven years, enacted in 1797 and amended in 1895 (1 Gen. Stat, p. 1187 § 9), the proofs in this case establish the presumption that when Mrs. Brown undertook, in 1900, to make a conveyance of the land in question to the complainant, she was what she described herself in her deed, a widow. The defendant certainly did not prove, or undertake to prove, that Mrs. Brown’s husband was alive when this deed was made by any evidence showing that he was alive at any time after he left his wife in 1876, except the fact that he was alive in 1876.
The complainant stands on the .statute. The defendant insists that the statute should not be construed literally; that the “presumption of death does not arise from the mere fact that a person has been absent and unheard of for seven years or more, except in cases where there is no other reasonable explanation of such absence and silence.” The words of the statute seem to be satisfied whether the absentee has been heard from or not. Counsel for the defendant also argues that in this case the proofs show that the husband of Mrs. Brown left her in 1876, with intent to desert and permanently remain away from her, and that all the facts and circumstances proved in relation to this separation account for the absence of Mr. Brown and make it appear reasonable and highly probable that he would remain absent from his wife without communicating with her during all these years, without its being necessary to account for such absence and silence, on the theory of his death. There is great force in the view of the facts which counsel for the complainant has presented, and also in his argument in regard to the construction of this rigid statutory rule, which perhaps cannot be applied to many situations literally without leading to absurdity.
I do not feel obliged to discuss the facts of this case, or even to determine whether the presumption created by our statute
I think that any decision of mine in this cause is controlled by my decision in the case of Barger v. Gery, 64. N. J. Eg. (19 Dick.) 263. The rule which I found supported by the authorities in that ease is “that a title dependent on a fact must be regarded as marketable when (1) the fact is so conclusively proved in the suit for specific performance that a verdict against the existence of the fact would not be allowed to stand in a court 'of law; and (2) there is no reasonable ground for apprehending that the same fact cannot be in like manner proved, if necessary, at any time thereafter for the protection of the purchaser.” It can hardly be seriously argued in this case that if this title based on this presumption of death should be forced on the defendant, he would be in no danger of being unable to- prove that Mr. Brown was dead when Mrs. Brown made this deed in any future litigation in which such proof might be necessary. Mr. Brown, if living, apparently, is about seventy-five years of age. One of the daughters of Mrs. Brown by a former husband testified to a report that Brown was living in Tombstone, Arizona, some time after the year 1876. The children of Mrs. Brown, who are her heirs-at-law, might, after Mrs. Brown’s death, bring an action of ejectment against the defendant and overcome the presumption of Brown’s death, which the defendant might establish in his defence by positive proof that Brown in fact was alive when the deed in question was executed. Certainly Mr. Brown himself might return from the west, if he is alive, and utterly defeat any title which the defendant could now obtain from the complainant. I do not overlook the fact that the
If, however, the complainant succeeded in a suit brought by Mrs. Brown’s heirs or devisees, or their grantees, in establishing a presumption that Mrs. Brown’s deed to him was an efficient instrument to convey the property in dispute, it is still, in my judgment, altogether probable, as the testimony stands, that this presumption would be entirely overcome by positive proof that Mr. Brown was alive when the deed was made.
A decree will be advised that the bill be dismissed.