99 Tenn. 515 | Tenn. | 1897
This bill was filed by Wood in the Chancery Court of Cumberland County, Tenn., to set aside a contract made between himself and C.
“Memorandum of sale of the Baldwin Place to William Wood. Two hundred dollars cash to be paid down, and balance of $1,000 to be paid on or before March 1, 1896, with interest. Taxes for 1894 to be paid by Zeigler, and clear warranty deed given.
“William J. Wood,
“ C. H. Smith.
“Memorandum, March 7, 1895.”
It was alleged that Smith, as the agent of Mrs. Zeigler, sold the property to Wood on the terms indicated, and averred that Smith was acting as her agent, and had made the sale for her. The bill sought to repudiate the contract as void under the statute of frauds. In the bill the land was described and attached as the property of Mrs. Zeigler, a nonresident, and it was sought to be subjected to sale for satisfaction of complainant’s claim for return of purchase money and for improvements.
Mrs. Zeigler answered the bill. She admitted the agency of Smith and the sale by him to Wood, which
The decree of the Court of Chancery Appeals was based on two grounds, first, that it does not appear that Smith was by Mrs. Zeigler “ thereunto lawfully authorized” to sign for her as agent, and, second, because the memorandum was itself insufficient under the statute, as it did not describe or identify the property sold. The Court quotes the evidence showing that the place was usually called and known as ‘'The Baldwin Place, ’ ’ and that it was generally known by that name in the neighborhood, and then say: “It is insisted that this is sufficient to identify the property without any designation of State or county. It is manifest that this cannot be true, because, to say ‘ The Baldwin Place, ’ in such an instrument, would convey no idea unless it could be shown that the property was celebrated all over the world by that name, or at least all over the United States. Standing without being correlated to the State and county, the expression or designation is entirely without meaning.”
On appeal here it is urged that the Court of Chancery Appeals erroneously applied the law; that, from the facts stated as proven, ‘'The Baldwin
It is said by the complainant that these are findings of fact, and are conclusive upon us. In this insistence the complainant is in error. It is true the Court of Chancery Appeals finds that Smith was not lawfully authorized to sign the deed, and, if this finding depended upon evidence only, it would be conclusive upon us whatever the fact might be, but it does not depend upon the evidence in the record. His authority as agent is distinctly averred in the bill and admitted in the answer, and is therefore not a matter of controversy.
The other finding depends upon a construction of the instrument itself, for it is upon that the Court rests the finding, although it does say, speaking of absence of State or county from the description, in answer to the argument that this description was sufficient without such addition of State and county, that “it is manifest that this cannot be true, because to say the ‘ Baldwin Place, ’ in such an instrument, would convey no idea unless it could be shown that the property was celebrated all over the world by that name, or, at least, all over the United States, ’ etc.
We understand the Court of Chancery Appeals only to have meant that a description of a place by a term or phrase, in a paper which did not indicate its location in any State or county, would be
. It was held in that case that it was not absolutely necessary that the State or county should be a part of the description. It was sufficient if, upon the whole instrument, it could be fairly inferred in what State or county the land lay. The fact that the instrument in that case showed that the parties to it both resided in Hawkins County, Tenn., was taken as sufficient to indicate that the land designated was in that county. This being inferred, the statement in the instrument construed, that the prop
The paper before us neither states, in the description nor elsewhere in the instrument, the State or county in which “The Baldwin Place” can be found; it does not give the name of the owner, and a stranger finding this paper could by no reasonable inquiry ascertain the location of the land.
Limiting the language of the Court of Chancery