102 Va. 880 | Va. | 1904
Lead Opinion
delivered the opinion of the court.
In the fall of 1886 John B. Hamilton executed to Lucinda Ratliff and John R. Ratliff, one of her sons, a title bond for a tract of land near Abingdon, Virginia, in consideration of $6,500.00, of which $3,000 was paid in cash, the residue being evidenced by the joint bonds of the vendees. • On the 11th of January, 1887, for reasons satisfactory to the parties, this title bond and deferred purchase money bonds were surrendered to Hamilton, and an additional $1,000 was paid on the purchase, and a new title bond executed by Hamilton toLucindaRatliff and Floyd A. Ratliff, another son, which acknowledges the receipt of $4,000 in cash; it being provided that the residue of the pur
On September 4, 1896, John B. Hamilton, the vendor in the title bond, without the knowledge or authority of the heirs of Lucinda Ratliff, conveyed the land in question to M. S. Ratliff, the husband and father of the vendees named in the title bond, reserving a vendor’s lien for a small balance of purchase money, amounting to $362.46. After this deed was recorded, Hamilton, being informed that the heirs of Lucinda Ratliff would contest his right to make the deed to their father, M. S. Ratliff, filed his original bill, seeking to enforce the payment of the balance of the purchase money due to him, and convening all the parties, in order that the deed might be reformed in accordance with their respective rights. Subsequently, an amended bill was filed, bringing in additional parties, and repeating the allegations of the original bill. To these bills M. S. Ratliff filed his demurrer and answer, denying in general terms that the land was sold to Lucinda Ratliff, and insisting that all the negotiations leading up to the purchase were alone with him, and that the entire purchase money was paid by him from his own resources. Subsequently, J. M., J. R., and F. A. Ratliff, three of the adult heirs of Lucinda Ratliff, filed their answers,
The Circuit Court held that M. S. Ratliff could not defeat the rights of the heirs of Lucinda Ratliff under the title bond of January 11, 1887, and that the deed from Hamilton to M. S. Ratliff was without authority, and must be set aside. The court further held that M. S. Ratliff was entitled to the interest bought by him from F. A. Ratliff, under the assignment mentioned of February 9, 1891, the nature and extent of which was fully known to him; that under this assignment he was entitled to an undivided interest in the land in the proportion that $1,816.00, the balance of purchase money which he then agreed to pay, bore to $6,500.00, the whole purchase money agreed to be paid for said land. From this decree If. S. Ratliff has appealed.
The first assignment of error is to the action of the court in overruling the demurrer of appellant to the original and amended bills.
John B. Hamilton had, upon the inducement of the appellant, made him a deed to land which, on the face of his contract, belonged to other parties. He was threatened with suit in consequence of this act, and we are of opinion that in a suit to enforce payment of his vendor’s lien he had a right to convene all parties in interest, and to ask a court of equity to determine their respective rights in the land, and, if necessary, to set aside the deed he had made, and direct to whom the land should be conveyed. The bill, in addition to seeking a satisfac
A further assignment of error is to the action of the court in not excluding the testimony of John R. and R. A. Ratliff.
John R. Ratliff was not a party to the contract or title bond which is the subject of dispute. This contract was with Lucinda Ratliff and R. A. Ratliff. Besides, M. S. Ratliff, an adverse party, having been examined for himself, John R. was thereby made competent, if otherwise incompetent. As to R. A. Ratliff, if he were incompetent, having been called as a witness by M. S. Ratliff, he was made competent for all purposes.
The fifth and sixth assignments of error seem to assert the proposition that, even though Lucinda Ratliff may have been entitled to the land in question, or a part thereof, still, as she died without having the legal title thereto, her interest was not descendible to her heirs. This position is without merit. An equitable interest in real estate descends just as a legal estate.
The remaining assignments of error call in question the respective rights of the parties in and to the land in controversy.
It appears from the record that prior to the purchase of the land in question the appellant and his family lived in Tazewell county, and that he and his wife, between them, owned in Tazewell and Buchanan counties considerable real estate, the title to the greater part of which was in his wife. Although the title to these lands was in Lucinda Ratliff, the appellant insists that, as a matter of fact, they belonged to him. His explanation of the title to these lands being in his wife, and of the title bond for the Hamilton land being in her name, is stated i» his deposition as follows: “Me and Gordon Rife had been in the
Section 2458 of the Oode (1887) provides that “every bond or other writing, given with intent to delay, hinder, or defraud creditors, purchasers, or other persons, of or from what they are or may be entitled to, shall, as to such creditors, purchasers, or other persons, their representatives or assigns, be void.” This section, as well as the unvarying decisions of this court, however, declare that, as between the parties, such a writing shall be binding and valid. Harris v. Harris, supra.
So that the lands in Tazewell and Buchanan counties, which had been conveyed to Lucinda Ratliff at the instance and request
Lucinda Ratliff and F. A. Ratliff were co-tenants under the title bond of January 11, 1887, executed by Hamilton for the land in question, each being, as between themselves, bound for one-half of the purchase money. Hnder the assignment by F. A. Ratliff of February, 1891, the appellant took his assignor’s shoes, and became a tenant in common with the heirs of Lucinda Ratliff, and is entitled to an interest in the land to the extent that he has paid the purchase money. Grove v. Grove, 100 Va. 556, 42 S. E. 312. It was, therefore, error in the court to limit the interest of the appellant to the extent of the unpaid purchase money due at the date of the assignment.
It is impossible to determine from the record what proportion of the purchase money for the land in controversy was paid with the proceeds of the sale of the real estate, the title to which was in Lucinda Ratliff. It is evident that the first payment of $3,000 came from that source, for it was evidenced by the check of the purchasers of her land, which was payable to Lucinda Ratliff, and by her endorsed to John B. Hamilton, her vendor. It is also quite clear that $632.16 of the second payment of $1,000 came from that source, for it was a check of the same purchasers of her land, and went to the credit of John B. Hamilton, in bank, on the same day that the cash payment of $1,000 was made. Further than this, however, we are unable to go without danger of doing injustice. The case must be referred to a commissioner to ascertain what part of the land in controversy was paid for from the proceeds of the sale of the real estate of Lucinda Ratliff, and what proportion was paid for by the appellant, taking any additional evidence that may be necessary to facilitate the enquiry, and upon the coming in of
There are two assignments of cross-error under Rule IX. The first of these is disposed by the views already expressed. The second is, that the court erred in holding that the appellant was entitled to curtesy in that portion of the land which belonged to the heirs of Lucinda Ratliff.
The lands in Tazewell and Buchanan counties, the title to which was in Lucinda Ratliff, constituted separate statutory estate, except the land derived from her father, and when the proceeds of those lands was reinvested under the title bond executed by Hamilton to Mrs. Ratliff, the lands thus acquired continued to be her statutory separate estate. This court has held that a husband is not entitled to curtesy in the equitable separate estate of his wife, which he has created for her benefit; that he is excluded by the nature of the transaction. Jones v. Jones, 96 Va. 749, 32 S. E. 463. We are of opinion that the reasons given in the case cited for excluding the husband from curtesy in the equitable separate estate, which.he has created, with equal force deny his right to curtesy in lands that he has conveyed, or caused to be conveyed, to her without reservation of his marital rights, where such lands constitute, as in the case at bar, statutory separate estate. See note to Jones v. Jones, supra, 4 Va. Law Reg., 821-2, by the author of Burk’s Separate Estates. We are, therefore, of opinion that the appellant was not entitled to curtesy in such of the Tazewell and Buchanan lands as were conveyed to Lucinda Ratliff by her husband, or by others, at his instance and request, and hence is not entitled to curtesy in that part of the Hamilton lands paid for with the proceeds of such lands.
Eor these reasons the decree complained of must be reversed, and the cause remanded for further proceedings in accordance with the views expressed in this opinion.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting:
The doctrine that a litigant will not he heard to assert his own wrong to defeat a right claimed by another, or to defend a right he claims against the right claimed by another, has, in my judgment, no application to this case. If, in point of fact, M. S. Ratliff intended to perpetrate a fraud upon his creditors in putting the title to the lands in question here, or those in Tazewell and Buchanan counties, in his wife, Lucinda Ratliff, which were sold in her lifetime, and the proceeds of which sales went into the purchase of the lands here in question, and his wife knew of his wrongful intent and participated in it, then she is With respect to the transactions equally guilty, and the maxim in pari delicto potior est conditio defendentis applies to her. If, on the other hand, she was ignorant of his wrongful purpose, but did not, in fact, furnish .any portion of the purchase money, she and those claiming under her are mere volunteers. As such they are in the attitude of plaintiffs, seeking specific performance of a contract, a relief which is never granted, except to a plaintiff who stands upon a contract supported by a valuable consideration. In this case the legal title is in the husband, and rightly in him to the extent that .the consideration. emanated from him. He asks nothing except to be let alone. Heither courts of law nor equity have jurisdiction to punish the actors in a fraudulent transaction by force of the maxim invoked in the opinion of the court. All that the courts can do is to withhold all aid in the enforcement of such contracts. •Here the husband asks nothing at the hands of the court, but stands upon his legal right as the holder of the legal title, and that position should prevail until it is assailed by some one with a better equity. A volunteer has not only no better equity, but he has no equity whatever. I think the enquiry directed by the court is too narrow. The transactions should be probed to the bottom, and all the facts brought to light. Let it be
From so much of the opinion of the court, therefore, as narrows the enquiry to he made upon the case going hack to the Circuit Court, so as to exclude enquiry as to who, in fact, paid the purchase money for the Tazewell and Buchanan lands, I dissent.
Keith, P., concurs with Oabdwell, J.
Reversed.