64 So. 329 | Ala. | 1913
In the year 1889 J. T. Sellers Avas the owner of the surface of the S. W. % of the S. E. % of section 13, toAvnship 18, range 3 west, in Jefferson county. During that year he executed a quitclaim to S. L. Weaver, for, it is averred, the purpose of securing said Weaver and Charles P. Jones their compensation for legal services to him. By the payment of $75 to Weaver he quitclaimed back to Sellers. But, in response to the claim of Jones, Sellers, in July, 1903, made to said Jones and his partner, Hume F. Jones, a quitclaim to an undivided half interest in said land, upon the recited consideration of $75. This conveyance we letter, for convenience, “a.” Subsequently, and at the dates indicated, the following conveyances, touching this land, purport to have been executed by and to the parties named:
(b) J. T. and P. C. Sellers (his wife) to John F. Knight, May 9, 1904, quitclaim.
(c) John F. Knight and Avife, mortgage to J. T. Sellers, May 9, 1904, to secure unpaid purchase money.
(d) H. F. Jones and C. P. Jones and wife to C. A. Knight, August 12, 1904, quitclaim.
(e) J. T. Sellers to P. C. Sellers and Mary Copeland, “foreclosure deed” under the Knight mortgage ante, August 12, 1905.
(f) P. C. Sellers and husband, J. T. and Mary Copeland and husband, W. B., to C. A. Knight, February 19, 1906, quitclaim.
(g) C. A. and J. F. Knight to J. H. Davis and B. C. Burkhart, by warranty deed, three-fourths undivided interest and one-fourth undivided interest, respectively, March 10, 1906.
(h) J. H. Davis to C. B. Patrick, July 2, 1906, warranty deed, three-fourths undivided interest.
(j) Patrick and wife to P. S. Webber, warranty deed, August 9, 1906, 10 acres on east side.
The bill, several times amended, is filed by Sellers against the Knights, Webber, Patrick, Burkhart, and Davis. Its object is to avoid and have canceled these conveyances that stand as a barrier between his right and title to the land, to the end that the title -be restored to him, J. T. Sellers.
To state them generally, and as we understand them, there are set forth in the amended bill three theories, much commingled in statement, upon which the stated cancellations are sought, viz: (a) That Sellers’ conveyances and those resulting in and from the mortgage foresclosure were induced by fraud on the part of John P. Knight, who was his attorney and his advisor in that relation, wherefrom John P. Knight secured the transmission of title to his brother, C. A. Knight, in every instance at a grossly inadequate value for the subject of each conveyance; (b) that Sellers was, when he conveyed, incapable of contracting, because of a mind impaired by the excessive use of intoxicants, or was, at the time, so completely intoxicated as that he could not afford legal assent to a contract, in consequence of which his interest in the land was sought to be secured at a grossly inadequate value, or that because of this state of his mind he became or was a favorable subject for the imposition of such fraud; (c) that the conveyances, lettered “a,” “b,” “f,” token one transaction, and that the original agreement between complainant and John P. Knight was illegal, for that the engagement of Knight was to represent complainant in a then pending cause against Dallas et al. and pay the cost that might accrue, and to pay a definite
Webber and Patrick constituted their answer and pleas a cross-bill, and thereby sought the quieting of their respective titles in the premises. The chancellor denied relief sought by both the original and the cross complainants.
The view of the cause which prevails here renders it unnecessary to note or to discuss a number of questions elaborately argued in the briefs. The record is very voluminous. We confine the opinion to the decisive matters to be mentioned.
It is manifest that if the complainant has not shown himself to be entitled to have his first deed to Knight or the mortgage from Knight to him (lettered paragraph “c”) canceled or the quitclaim from P. C. Sellers and others to C. A. Knight (lettered paragraph “f”) canceled, he could not prevail in this cause, whatever was ruled with respect to other antecedent instruments purporting to affect the title to the land in question. The burden of proof was upon the complainant to sustain the impeachments of the conveyances he assailed; and this rule is not at all qualified in this cause by the mere disclaimer of John F. and C. A. Knight, without other answer, of any interest in the subject of the litigation, for that other respondents did interpose sufficient answers to put the complainant to proof of the affirmative allegations of the original and amended bills. Of course John F. Knight’s competency as a witness to testify in refutation of the charges against the validity of the conveyances assailed was not reflected upon, or the credibility of his testimony impaired, by the fact that his response to the bill only disclaimed interest in the lands involved in the contest.
In Oakley v. Shelley, 129 Ala. 467, 29 South. 385, it was said, Justice Sharpe writing: “Unlike general and permanent insanity and idiocy, drunkenness does not create such- legal incapacity as will alone render a contract wholly void. Though it may furnish the party suffering from it ground for rescission, yet, being voidable only, the contract may be affirmed and made binding by him after he becomes sober.”
In substance, phases of the allegations before summarily stated would invoke this doctrine, which we appropriate in effect from that set down in the concrete in Holland v. Barnes, 53 Ala. page 88, 25 Am. Rep. 595, where a contract is executed on an insufficient consideration by one enfeebled in body and mind by disease and long-continued drunkenness, and who at the time of the execution of the contract is under the influence of intoxicants, a presumption of fraud arises which must be overcome by evidence of a fair consideration and fair and honest dealing on the party who claims the validity of the contract. The' burden to establish the predicatory conditions to the presumption the law thus raises is on him who would avoid the contract.
When the whole evidence is considered, these conclusions of fact from the conflicting testimony seem to us to be clearly established: That J. T. Sellers was not intoxicated when the conveyance of May 9, 1904, to John F. Knight was executed; or when the mortgage of that date, from Knight to him, was executed; or when Sellers demanded of Knight payment of the mortgage debt; or when he engaged Messrs. A. C. and H. B. Howze to foreclose the Knight mortgage; or when he
The charges of fraud made in the bill are not sustained by a review of the entire evidence touching that subject. There is evidence susceptible of an interpretatibn that would support the charges so made; but the numerous circumstances disclosed in the evidence, as a whole, together with the acts of the parties and the positive testimony to the contrary, at least neutralize the effect of that phase of the evidence going to support the charges. Much of the evidence and argument for a finding favorable to the charges of fraud rest upon a contrast of what Knight paid or was to pay J. T. Sellers, and what complainant’s evidence shows was a fair value for the land. This evidence and argument does not take due account of several conditions that naturally might have affected the value of this 40 in 1903, 1904, and 1906. The market value or salable value of land is necessarily materially affected by the perfection of the
Another factor of probable consideration when the evidence of this 40’s value is to be weighed is the fact that there has been a severance, in title, of the mineral from the surface, though it may he assumed, for the occasion only, that the Joneses and Knight viewed the land in 1903 and 190-1 as being unsevered, in title in this respect. Whether with that area (40 acres) the possibility that the owner of the mineral “close” would find thereunder the subject of his title, and by usual processes entered upon its extraction, would affect the value of the surface is not a matter with particular reference to which the evidence on value was taken.
Again, at the time of the conveyance to Knight, May 9, 1904, a bill was pending, filed by Sellers and Jones, to quiet the title, and there was extant a deed from the auditor, based upon what purported to be a tax sale.
On the whole evidence, Ave cannot affirm that the values appearing in the instruments last mentioned, and sought to be annulled, were then so grossly inadequate as to, from that source, impute fraud to the Joneses, to the Knights, or to any others. Evidence of value is necessarily opinion evidence. It is not conclusive on courts or juries, even when without conflict. — Andrews v. Frierson, 144 Ala. 470, 39 South. 512. The complain
Where a contracting party has fair understanding— mental capacity to contract— and his act is not the result of duress or fraud, in any of its varied forms, the fact that his bargain is rash, improvident, or hard will not justify the courts in setting it aside.- — Juzan v. Toulmin, 9 Ala. 662, 685, 44 Am. Dec. 448.
There is another view of the case that leads to the same result, namely, that J. T. Sellers, by his conduct, affirmed — ratified—the deed of May 9, 1904, to John F. Knight. If it is assumed, as we do for the occasion only, that it was voidable merely, Sellers not being shown by the weight of the evidence to have been so generally incapacitated as to render his act wholly void, his conduct, some of which we describe, in respect of; demand upon Knight for the payment of the mortgage debt, a fact testified to by Sellers; his voluntary delivery of the mortgage to the Messrs. Howze, with the direction to foreclose it under the power; his voluntary execution of the “foreclosure deed,” after full information of its purport, as testified to by Henry R. Howze; his voluntary inducement of, and arrangement with, W. B. Copeland to buy at the foreclosure sale; and his
If, as complainant testified, John F. Knight promised Sellers to convey to Mrs. Sellers 10 acres of the land as an inducement for the execution of the Copeland-Sellers deed to C. A. Knight, and this promise has been breached or left unperformed, that cannot, of course, warrant the cancellation of that conveyance. The remedy, if any, would be for the breach of the engagement, if made.
The charge that the conveyance of May 9, 1904, to Knight was affected with the champerty or mainte
Our conclusion accords with that of the chancellor, that original complainant has not shown his right to relief. In that particular the decree is affirmed.
On the cross-appeal nothing can be taken by cross-appellants for that the cross-bill was predicated of defensive matter only; no independent equity being shown. The decree, in the particular that the cross-bill was dismissed and the costs apportioned is therefore dismissed.
The costs accruing on the appeal will be taxed against the appellant, Sellers.
Affirmed.