59 Miss. 148 | Miss. | 1881
delivered the opinion of the court.
The allegations of the bill, which is demurred to, may be thus stated. The lands of John D. Leflore, which were worth twenty thousand dollars, were bound bj' a trust deed for a debt of four thousand dollars. The debt maturing and remaining unpaid, the lands were advertised for sale by the trustee. Mrs. Leflore desired to purchase them, and for this purpose made an arrangement with Mr. Robinson to borrow the money from him, agreeing that for his indemnity the title when the sale took place should be vested in him, until such time as she could repay the loan. She and Robinson attended the sale together, and when it .took place Robinson bid the amount due on the trust deed, proclaiming to the persons present that .he was bidding for Mrs. Leflore. No other bid
In the case of Miazza v. Yergur, 58 Miss. 135, it was held that, while a trust which a court of equity will enforce may spring out of the relations of the parties, no such trust can arise by a parol contract between parties, and that wherever the claim is based solely on a parol agreement it must be treated as absolutely void. We do not consider the case at bar as resting on the contract of the parties, but as springing out of the facts alleged which show a purchase of the land with Mrs. Leflore’s money, and make therefore a case of resulting trust. If the facts make out a case of resulting trust independently of the agreement, relief will not be denied because of the agreement ; it being well settled that an invalid agreement cannot destroy an otherwise good cause of action, and this is no less true of resulting trusts than of other legal rights. Barrows v. Bohan, 41 Conn. 278; Cotton v. Wood, 25 Iowa, 43. We have said that the money invested in the purchase was the money of Mrs. Leflore, though actually handed to the trustee by Mr. Robinson, and this statement we think is clearly declucible from the allegations of the bill. The agreement was that Robinson should lend her the money to make the purchase for
Decree affirmed.