172 Mich. 544 | Mich. | 1912
This is an appeal from an order of the circuit court of Kent county, in chancery, overruling defendants’ demurrer to complainant’s amended bill filed to perfect title to a certain tract of land in said county. The original bill of complaint was filed July 21, 1910. Defendants were either nonresidents or their residence unknown,
The original bill alleges: That on June 12, 1888, Susan H. Beckel, of Dayton, Ohio, was the owner of a certain described 40 acres of land in Kent county, Mich., and on that day sold the same on contract, by her authorized agent, N. B. Hill, to Millard E. Yates for the sum of $600, receiving $100 down, the balance to be paid at the rate of $100 annually, with interest at 7 per cent.; that immediately on delivery of said contract, said Yates went into possession of said land; that he and his wife, Flora A. Yates, as his subsequent grantee, continued thereafter in open and peaceful possession of the same, claiming ownership, until the death of said Flora A. Yates, paying all taxes assessed against said land, and greatly increasing the value thereof by clearing and improving the same; that said Millard Yates deeded said property on October 5,1905, to his said wife, Flora, who died leaving an indebtedness, including funeral expenses, of over $200, and insufficient personal property to pay the same; that complainant, a creditor, was duly appointed administrator of her estate; that her debts cannot be paid except from said real estate; that said Susan H. Beckel died some number of years ago, leaving as heirs at law Charles B. Beckel, of Dayton, Ohio, and Susan H. Beckel, Mary Gf. Beckel, Fannie (Beckel) Conklin, and Anna (Beckel) Huffman, whose residences are unknown. It is also alleged on information and belief that Charles B. Beckel, of Dayton, O., has had charge and management of the said Susan H. Beckel estate, and that complainant caused a letter to be written to him oh June 23, 1910, asking if the heirs of said Susan H. Beckel made any claim to said real estate,
The amended bill is substantially the same as the original, except it alleges the possession under claim of ownership was adverse, that Susan H. Beckel died in Dayton, Ohio, March 9, 1890, fails to allege that she was ever owner of the land in question, alleges on information and belief that the purchase price was paid in full more than 20 years prior to the death of said Flora Yates; that Susan H. Beckel in her lifetime, and defendants since, have neglected and refused to convey said property according to the terms of the contract; that neither said Susan H. Beckel nor any of said defendants have, within the last 25 years, made any claim there was anything due on said contract, or brought action to recover possession, or attempted to make entry thereon. Answer under oath is demanded, no offer is made to pay any sum found due, and prayer for an accounting is omitted. Decree for conveyance is asked, in default of which it is prayed that the decree, when properly recorded, shall operate as a conveyance. The bill also contains a general prayer for relief.
Defendants set up 16 separate grounds of demurrer, some special and ultra technical; others, more general and comprehensive, directed against the merits and equities of the bill as a whole. Epitomized they are as follows:
Complainant’s bill presents a somewhat double aspect, inconsistently alleging possession taken and held under a land contract and full performance of that contract on his part, entitling him to specific performance by defendants, and also adverse possession ripening into a title under which it is claimed the bill should be maintained as one to quiet title. Counsel say:
“This bill could be maintained under section 448 of Miller’s Comp. Laws providing for quieting titles in courts of chancery. This court in passing upon this statute has held the object is to reach cases like the present.”
In this case there is no allegation that defendants make, or have set up, or are “setting up a claim thereto in opposition to the title claimed by complainant.” The contrary appears from the language of the bill. Counsel for complainant, in confirmation of this, state in their brief:
“ The complainant is not seeking to take anything from the defendants that they have in their possession, or have had in their possession, or that they, prior to the filing of the bill in this case, made any claim to.”
A bill to quiet title cannot be successfully launched against defendants not charged and shown to hold or claim any title or interest in the property involved. The only recognizable equitable allegations to be traced in complainant’s bill tend to mark it as a bill for specific performance of contract. The story told, much of it on
It is argued by defendants that the allegations in complainant’s bill on their face raise the statute of limitations against him, and in this State a general demurrer will lie where such infirmity appears on the face of the pleading;
In suits for specific performance, while courts of equity have regard to statutes of limitation, and by analogy are inclined, as a general rule, to conform therewith when considering and applying the doctrine of laches, they are by no means absolutely conclusive and are often disregarded. Laches may be declared to be a bar long before the statute has run, or, where equitable reasons for delay have been shown, relief may be granted at a time beyond the statutory period.
Under complainant’s allegations of purchase, possession taken under such purchase, and continuously maintained since, and full payment of the purchase price, the statute ■of limitations becomes of minor significance either way, ;and his claim of adverse possession is wholly untenable.
“ Such holding and occupancy could not in a hundred years ripen into an adverse holding and the complainant would be equitably estopped from so claiming.” Township of Jasper v. Martin, 161 Mich. 336 (126 N. W. 437, 137 Am. St. Rep. 508).
On the other hand, it is well settled, as applied to the ■remedy ■ of specific performance, that, if the vendee of land takes and retains possession of premises with the vendor’s consent and makes payment therefor, mere delay in bringing suit, however long continued, will not defeat his remedy, unless special conditions have intervened and the relations of the vendor to the land have so altered that a specific execution of the agreement becomes impossible or inequitable. Pomeroy on Contracts, § 404; Waterman on Specific Performance of Contracts, § 468; 36 Cyc. p. 732. The principles applicable to such a case are very succinctly stated in an opinion written by Justice Tucker in the early case of Williams v. Lewis, 32 Va. 686. Williams filed a bill in 1822 for specific execution of a land contract made with Lewis’ father in 1774. Williams had been in possession of the premises since the
“ Still less does it become him or them, to set up the defense of the length of time in bar of this equitable title. It is not admissible on the part of a vendor against his vendee. The relation in which they stand to each' other forbids it. The former is a trustee for the latter; and the trust can never be determined but by a conveyance of the title. The vendor can never be permitted to set up his own omission to make a deed, against the right of the vendee to demand one. Yet less can he invoke the aid of those cases, which discountenance -the assertion of a stale equity, by a party out of- possession, against an adversary claimant in possession.- For hqpe Williams has been in continued and uninterrupted possession from about the year 1774 to the present day; in the peaceful enjoyment of this equitable right, which has thus acquired strength by the lapse of time and acquiescence, instead of being weakened and impaired. If, indeed, we could look upon the parties in the light of adverse claimants, Williams’ possession alone would sustain him in a writ of right. But, as he is in fact a claimant under Lewis, he could not at law be permitted to defend himself, as an adverse claimant, by the statute of limitations. It is, then, but just that in this court the same relation should protect him from a similar defense on the part of Lewis.”
This bill of complaint is, however, in its present form contradictory, wanting in specific allegations and averments and clearly demurrable. It does not state a cause of action against these defendants in law or equity. It makes claims by contract rights and by adverse possession. It fails to allege that defendants ever owned, held title to, or claimed the land in question. It is silent as to the present condition of the record title, and does not Bhow that Susan H. Beckel ever owned or held any title to the property, except as the fact might be surmised from her having, through her agent, contracted to sell it. No liability or obligation under the contract could attach to defendants except as traced through title to, or interest in, the land as her heirs.
“The bill must show such a relation of defendants to
We are of opinion that the demurrer should be sustained. The order overruling the same is reversed, with costs, and the case remanded with leave to file an amended bill within 30 days.