49 Mo. App. 608 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1892
The plaintiff filed a bill of interpleader against the defendants, who, as he alleges, are claimants to a certain fund in his possession. The bill asks for leave to pay the fund into court, and for an order directing the defendants to interplead. The defendant, John B. Clayton, who is alleged to be the representative of one of the classes, filed a general demurrer to the bill; the other defendants answered. The court sustained Clayton’s 'demurrer, and the plaintiff declining to plead further, the court dismissed the bill as to all of the defendants and rendered judgment for costs in their favor against the plaintiff. From that judgment the plaintiff appeals.
The plaintiff’s bill states that one John B. Helm, and his wife, Mary, placed into his hands as trustee,
“On failing to find such party he shall settle the principal, with whatever of interest there may be, upon the Missouri Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, which amount shall constitute a principal to remain intact, the interest of which shall go annually to the support of superannuated preachers, widows and orphans of that conference.”
The bill then goes on to state that John B. Helm died June 1, 1872, and John Helm Robards, June 28,
The bill also states that the claimants to the fund are as follows: First. The descendants of John B. Helm and Mary Helm, his wife. Second. John B. Clayton, a descendant of John B. Helm. Third/. The trustees of the conference fund of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, which is now a corporation. That each of these classes claims to be lawfully entitled to the fund, and has demanded the same of him, and that John B. Clayton has actually instituted suit against him for its recovery. The title of said John B. Clayton is stated as follows: “That the defendant, John B. Clayton, is a descendant of said John B. Helm, and did, on the sixteenth day of April, 1889, also claim to plaintiff that he was entitled to said trust fund under the provisions and conditions of said written trust and did demand of plaintiff payment of the same to him.”
We have no statutory provisions governing the proceedings in equity upon a bill of interpleader, and, hence, are remitted to the rules of chancery courts to determine whether this bill is subject to general demurrer as not stating a cause of action. A bill of inter-pleader “is ordinarily exhibited, where two or more persons claim the same debt, or duty, or other thing, from the plaintiff, by different or separate interests; and he, not knowing to which of the claimants he ought of right to render the same debt, duty or other thing,
While the respective claims need not be stated with such exactness as the defendants themselves may be required to state them after they are required to interplead (Lozier’s Ex’rs v. Van Saun’s Adm’rs, 3 N. J. Eq. 325), certainly they must be stated sufficiently to give a color of right to each of the defendants. We assume that no case can be found where a simple statement that the plaintiff holds a certain fund as trustee, and that two or more persons claim it as the beneficiaries of the trust, without more, was held a sufficient statement to maintain a bill of interpleader against the alleged claimants.
Now, if we apply the law thus stated to the plaintiff’s bill, it necessarily results that the bill is bad on demurrer. It does sufficiently appear from it, by inference at least, what claim the trustees of the conference fund of the Methodist Episcopal Church might assert to it, because, in default of other beneficiaries, they are the residuary beneficiaries; but it does not appear what the descendants of John B. Helm and Mary Helm have to do with the fund, nor what John B. Clayton, who is alleged to be a descendant of John B. Helm alone, has to do with it. The bill, as far as it states anything
As the judgment upon the demurrer is in its effect only a judgment of nonsuit, and as the bill shows that John B. Clayton has already instituted proceedings against the plaintiff, which proceedings are still pending, there is no reason why the plaintiff may not bring the fund into court in that proceeding and ask the parties to interplead therein, provided he can show good cause for an interpleader. As, however, there was no error in sustaining the demurrer to plaintiff’s bill in t.biff proceeding, the judgment of the court sustaining it, and dismissing the bill upon plaintiff’s refusal to amend it, must be affirmed.
the judgment is affirmed.