Sewell v. Hoffman
Sewell v. Hoffman
Opinion of the Court
— This is an application by the respondents in a suit pending in the chancery court of Elmore county, made to that court, to restrain the execution of the final decree rendered in the cause, and for the annulment of the decree and a dismissal of the suit in ac
The chancellor, on motion by the complainants to dismiss the petition and to direct the register to proceed with the execution of the decree, stated in his opinion that the petition disclosed no facts which should prevent the execution of the decree, except, possibly, the distribution of the proceeds of the sale of the lands to the complainants. He decreed as follows: “Unless Annie H. Sewell within 20 clays from the enrollment of this decree pay to the register of this court, for complainants, the said sum of $222.43, together with interest thereon from the 1st of November, 1903, together with three-fourths of the cost that has accrued in this suit on the said 1st of November, 1903, and one-fourth of all the cost that has accrued in said cause since said date, to be taxed by the register, the register be and he is hereby directed to proceed with the execution of the final decree in this cause by a sale of said lands as therein directed; and in case Annie H. Sewell pays said sum, together with the interst and cost therein provided, it is
There is no contention that the complainants, Hoffman and McWilliams, were not competent to convey their respective interests in the subject-matter of the suit to Peavy; nor is there any denial of the fact that they in good faith, as a part of the consideration of their deeds, agreed to withdraw the suit then pending against the petitioners, Annie H. and N. B. Sewell, in which suit they were seeking, in part, to have Annie H. Sewell account for rents and profits alleged to have been received by her. And in this way it clearly appears that the complainants intended, by the deeds and agreements, to abandon their claim for rents and profits, and their right to make such claim a charge on the lands, and to transfer it as fully as they might to Peavy; and it would seem to be a conclusion fully warranted by the facts averred in the petition that S. M. Peavy became subrogated to all the rights which Hoffman and McWilliams had in and to the lands. Indeed, the deeds on their faces purport to convey to Peavy “all the right, title, interest, and claim in or to” the lands. While it is true that the decree, at the time the deeds were made and the agree
The effect of the deeds, aside from the agreement to withdraw the suit, was to exclude Hoffman and McWilliams from any right to rents and profits — more especially to exclude them from having the lands charged with the payment of rents and profits, and condemned to sale to satisfy a decree in their favor for such rents and profits. —Winslow v. Rand, 29 Me. 362. The deeds and agreements were executed with knowledge, on the parts of both grantors and grantee, of the pendency of the suit, and it would seem that they were guarding against any right which might be adjudicated in favor of complainants in the cause. It cannot be doubted that, if the transaction had been made known to the chancellor before the decree was filed for enrollment, he could have molded his decree in accordance with the facts, and could have dismissed the suit in a decree taking care to provide for the payment of the costs of the suit. The deeds and agreement not having been made known to the chancellor before the decree was fild and enrolled, it became the solemn judgment of the court; and while, as has been properly held, an independent bill to enjoin the execution of the decree would not lie, yet the court, being clothed with the inherent power to control its own process, may so direct the execution of the decree as that no injustice will be done and no abuse thereof will be perpetrated.
Reversed and remanded.
Reference
- Status
- Published