111 Ky. 806 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1901
Lead Opinion
Opinion op the court by
Reversing.
This is an agreed case in equity, by the statement of facts in which it appears that by a written contract W. D. Reed, J. D. Reed and Solomon S. Reed agreed to sell, and the Woman’s Club Corporation agreed to buy, a lot of land in L'ouisville for the price of $5,200; the vendors binding themselves to convey a good and marketable title. The vendors tendered a deed for the land, and demanded payment of the agreed price, but the vendee refused to accept. The question submitted was whether the vendee should accept the deed tendered and pay the purchase money. The circuit court decreed specific performance of the contract to purchase. The objections to the title are as follows: First. The lot of land in controversy is part of a lot fronting 120 feet on Fourth street, which with other property was devised by Mrs. Jane M. Reed to the vendors and to P. B. Reed, to be equally divided between them. The vendors brought suit against P. B. Reed, praying a sale of the 120-foot lot on the ground that it could not be divided among the owners without materially impairing its value, and obtained a judgment for its sale upon that ground, for the purpose of dividing the proceeds among the owners. At the sale the lot was purchased by the vendors, the report of sale confirmed, and a deed executed "to them, retaining a lien for the share of P. B. Reed, the
The suit for a sale and division of the proceeds of the
It is further contended that section 495 does not apply to proceedings under section 490, and the opinion of Judge Pryor in Kendall v. Briggs, 81 Ky., 119 (4 R. 854) is relied on to establish this proposition. It is admitted that sectioni495 was not under consideration in Kendall v. Briggs. The sections there construed were sections 493 and 497. Those sections, so far as they were claimed to affect that case, made provision for the case of infant married women. They were held not applicable in that case, because there were no infant married women interested in it. Nor was there in that case any question of the extinguishment of any vested or contingent right of dower in any married woman. The married women in that case were joint tenants of a vested estate in possession. Section 495, which applies solely to the case of “a woman” having “a vested or contingent right to dower in land ordered to be sold pursuant to the provisions of this chapter,” was not involved, and could not have been involved, in that case. Nor can we find in the opinion in Kendall v. Briggs any reasoning or analogy to support the contention of counsel that section 495 must be construed to apply, to infant married women. Neither do we feel authorized to write into this statute, apparently designed for the protection of all women having vested or contingent rights to dower, words which shall limit its protection to infant married women. Sections 493 and 497 apply specifically to infant married women who are the owners of vested estates in real prop
The judgment must therefore be reversed, and the cause remanded, with directions to enter a judgment in accordance with this opinion.
Dissenting Opinion
dissents.
Petition for rehearing by appellee overruled, response filed (not to be reported) 23 R. 1346, 65 S. W., 862, also Judge Hobson’s dissenting opinion.