54 Mich. 543 | Mich. | 1884
This is an action of assumpsit, brought by the plaintiff in the Macomb circuit court, to recover a balance of $465 claimed to be due for his services as rector of Grace Church at Mt. Clemens. The case was tried in the court below by Judge Stevens without a jury, and a judgment rendered in favor of the defendant.
Special findings were made and filed by the judge, from which it appears that for several years prior to 1867 and up to the year 1871 there was a congregation in Mt. Clemens known as Grace Church which worshipped according to the forms, usages and religious belief of the Protestant Episcopal church, and elected a vestry and wardens, employed a clergyman and transacted the affairs of the church, but without being incorporated under the statute providing for the organization of such churches; that in October, 1867, Arthur J. Pobertson conveyed lot 4 of said Pobertson’s addition to the village of Mt. Clemens to Pobert P. Eldridge, Charles Wood, Thomas M. Crocker and William Longstaff, who paid therefor, and in December, 1867, they conveyed said lot to Grace Cliurch of Mt. Clemens, for the purpose of a site upon which to construct a church building. The deed was made and delivered for the purpose aforesaid, without any other consideration. That soon after the receipt of said deed the congregation took possession of the lot, built a church on the west half thereof, and up to the time of the commencement of this suit have continually used and occupied the premises for church purposes, the east half of said lot remaining a vacant space, lying east of the church. That in 1872 said Charles Wood, being about to leave Mt. Clemens, executed a quitclaim deed of said lot to Eldridge, Crocker and Long-staff. That in 1871 the defendant was regularly organized
We think this finding of law by the court, from the facts above stated, is correct. The plaintiff claims he got no title under his deed of November, 1876, because of the deed made to the church in 1867, and therefore he has received no pay for the claim he makes in this suit. The defendant in this case was organized in 1871, under the statute providing for the organization of Protestant Episcopal churches, which says: “It shall not be lawful for such church to acquire the title to any property until such articles are recorded” (meaning organizing articles of agreement). How. Stat. § 4661.
There was no conveyance to the church after its organiza- - tion. The deed relied upon by the plaintiff as divesting the grantors of their title was executed several years before there was any legal organization of this church. It is a well-settled rule of the common law that a deed running to a grantee not in existence is a nullity. 2 Bl. Com. 296; 4 Kent’s Com. 462; Jackson v. Cory 8 Johns. 385; Hornbeck v. Westbrook 9 Johns. 73; Co. Litt. 3a; Co. Litt. 26b; 2 Washb. Real Prop. 566, 567. We know of no rule changing the common law upon this subject. The defendant could not, therefore, hold the property, and had no title thereto under the deed of 1867. Eldridge, Crocker and Longstaff still held the legal title to the property, notwithstanding such conveyance. The church acquired the right to take the title as soon as it was legally organized in 1871, and to make a legal contract for the services of its rector; and it appears that it was under such a contract that the liability of the defendant was incurred.
It further appears that the grantors in the first deed never repudiated their act or the intention to convey by their deed lot 4 to the church, and when a proposition was made to the church to pay the balance due its rector for clerical labor, by deeding to him the east half of the lot, he took such deed, and on ascertaining that the legal title was still in Eldridge, Crocker and Longstaff, the warden and vestry of the church, knowing that the actual interest was in the church, by a vote directed these three gentlemen holding the legal title, to make
The judgment of the circuit court must be
Affirmed with costs.