Heritage v. Heritage
Heritage v. Heritage
Opinion of the Court
Appellee, who was plaintiff below, brought this action in ejectment against appellant, to recover possession of 51-J acres of land located in Madison county, Indiana. The court made a special finding of facts and pronounced conclusions of law thereon favorable to appellee. Appellant excepted to the conclusions of law at the time, and thereafter the court rendered judgment in favor of appellee. The only error assigned on appeal is that the court erred in its conclusions of law. The facts specially found by the court are, in substance, as follows: that William E. Heritage, the father of plaintiff and defendant, died on the 21st day of October, 1908, the owner of 617 acres of land, of which the land in controversy was a part; that, prior to his death, the father leased to Oliver M. Heritage 151½ acres of said land, which lease was to expire on the first day of March, 1910; that on the 17th day of February, 1909, a granddaughter of said William E. Heritage brought a suit to partition the lands of which her grandfather died seized, making both plaintiff and defendant parties defendant; that both plaintiff and defendant filed answers in general denial to said complaint, and that no averment was contained in the complaint in reference to the lease or tenancy of appellant, and such facts were not presented by any answer filed in the case; that pursuant to the complaint .and the issues tendered by the general denials thereto, the court awarded partition, and appointed commissioners to make division of the land, that said commissioners filed their report, setting off to appellant 100 acres of the 151½-acre tract on which he held the lease given him by his father, and setting off to appellee, as a portion of his share in said lands, fifty-one and one-half acres of the tract covered by said lease. On the filing of said report, the court entered judgment confirming the same, which judgment is in part as follows: “That the partition of said real estate so made and reported and as above set out by said commissioners, be and the same is hereby confirmed and made firm, stable and effectual be
On the foregoing facts the court pronounced the following conclusions of law: “1st. That the plaintiff has been damaged in the sum of $1. 2nd. That the defendant holds possession of said 51½- acres described in the plaintiff’s complaint without right. 3rd. That the plaintiff have immediate possession of said 51½ acres described in the complaint herein. ’ ’
The position of appellant is that he has a right under the lease from his father to hold possession of the 51½-acre tract, set off to his brother in said partition' suit, until the expiration of said lease; while appellee contends that he is entitled
It is very clear that the land of the ancestor, 'William E. Heritage, descended to his heirs subject to the lease in favor of his son Oliver M. Heritage, and that said lease would have remained in full force and effect as against said heirs until it expired, were it not for the judgment in the partition suit, set out in the special finding of facts. The question to be decided is, Did the decree in the partition suit have the effect to terminate the rights of appellant under his -lease so far as it affected land set off to other parties to said partition suit? And, Is appellant estopped by said decree from setting up or asserting any claim under said lease ?
In the case of Crane v. Kimmer (1881), 77 Ind. 215, the court, in discussing the question, said; “In all cases of par
In the ease of Green v. Brown (1896), 146 Ind. 1, 44 N. E. 805, it is held that the question of title is not ordinarily in issue in partition proceedings, and that the presumption in such cases is that title is not in issue.
In the later case of Irvin v. Buckles, supra, it appears that the widow of Wayne Scott, deceased, was the owner of a certain forty-acre tract of land, by reason of the fact that she and her husband held it at the time of his death as tenants by the entireties. She also owned the undivided onetliird of 180 acres, of which her husband died seized in his own right. After the death of her husband, the widow brought a suit in partition against the other heirs of her deceased husband, alleging that he died the owner in fee simple of 220 acres of land, described, and in which was included the forty-acre tract owned by said widow. She also alleged that she was the owner in fee simple of the undivided one-third of the lands described, and that her four children were the owners of the undivided two-thirds thereof. Partition was decreed according to the averments of the petition, and sixty acres, including the buildings, were set off to the widow as her full interest in said real estate, and 160 acres were set off to the four children, including the forty-acre tract, which at the time of the death of the ancestor was held by him and his wife as tenants by the entireties. Afterward the 160 acres set off to the four children were partitioned among them, and the forty-acre tract in question was set off in severalty to Jennie Buckles, one of said children. Later, the widow, having intermarried with Hamer Irvin, brought an action in ejectment against Jennie Buckles to recover the forty-acre tract in question, on the theory that she became the owner thereof at the death of her husband,
The decision in the case of Finley v. Cathcart (1898), 149 Ind. 470, 48 N. E. 586, 49 N. E. 381, 63 Am. St. 292, was based on the following state of facts: William Cathcart died the owner of fifty acres of land leaving, as his sole heirs seven children, of whom Mrs. Finley, the appellant, was one. In 1892, after the death of her father, Mrs. Finley purchased from two of the children their undivided two-sevenths of said real estate, and had the deeds properly recorded, and the next year she purchased from her brother, Daniel Cathcart, his undivided one-seventh therein, but failed to have his deed recorded. In 1896, Walter Mabry and Stephen S. Mabry, having acquired the interest of William F. Cathcart, another heir of William Cathcart, deceased, filed a petition for partition, making Mrs. Finley, Daniel Cathcart, John M. Cathcart and Minnie Cathcart defendants, alleging that each plaintiff owned the one-twenty-first part in value of said real estate, and that Mrs. Finley owned three-sevenths and each of the other defendants one-seventh, when the truth was that Mrs. Finley owned four-sevenths and that Daniel E. Cathcart owned no interest in the land, having previously conveyed his undivided interest to his sister Mrs. Finley. All the defendants were duly notified of the pend-ency of said proceedings, and failed to appear and were defaulted. Thereupon the court decreed partition among plaintiffs and defendants in the shares set out in the petition. Commissioner’s were appointed, who divided the land accordingly, and set off to Daniel E. Cathcart eleven acres, as his share therein. Mrs. Finley brought an action against Daniel E. Cathcart to quiet her title to eleven acres set off to him in such partition proceeding. The trial court gave judgment for the defendant, and on appeal to the Supreme Court this judgment was reversed, and it was held that appellant was entitled to have the title to the real estate, set off to Daniel E. Cathcart in said partition proceeding, quieted in her.
The court in the case we are reviewing did not place its decision on the ground that the decree of the court fixing the
We do not think that these two cases can be distinguished or reconciled on the ground that in the later case the question arose between two parties who were both defendants to the partition suit, while in the earlier ease it arose between the person who was plaintiff in the partition suit and one of the defendants. We can hardly think that a different conclusion would have been reached in the case of Irvin v. Buckles, supra, even though it had appeared that a like decree had been rendered in a partition suit in which Mrs. Irvin and' Mrs. Buckles had both been defendants, and wherein neither had filed a cross-complaint.
There is an apparent conflict in the decisions of our courts on the question under consideration, and we are unable to deduce therefrom any rule of uniform application on which all of such decisions can be reconciled, but we believe that this case can be properly decided by the application of the principle of the common law, whereby an implied warranty as between co-tenants was annexed to every involuntary partition of lands.
In the case at bar, the title of appellant and appellee and the other heirs of William E. Heritage to the real estate partitioned among them was derived by inheritance from the common ancestor. They took as tenants in common, but the interests which they severally took in such land were acquired by descent or act of law, in the same manner as the estates of co-parceners were acquired in England by the rule of the common law. The right to compel partition of lands in England existed only between parceners, until the statutes of 31 Hen. VIII, by which such right was extended to joint tenants and tenants in common. Prior to the passage of this statute, joint tenants and tenants in common could parcel the land among themselves only by agreement, and there was no reason why the law should annex any implied warranty in such cases, because the parties making such partition were perfectly competent to protect themselves against future losses by liens or paramount titles by the terms of the conveyances; but since the right of compulsory partition has been given to tenants in common by statute, the courts have uniformly held that the law annexes an implied warranty in all compulsory partitions, wherein lands derived by inheritance are parcelled among tenants in common. This implied warranty does not, however, apply to partition among tenants in common who have become such by purchase, or in any other way than by descent from a common ancestor, and the warranty which the law implies extends only to defects which existed in the title of such common
The decisions seem to be in conflict as to whether this implied warranty extends to cases where tenants in common by conveyances voluntarily partition the lands of their ancestor. Strohecker v. Housel (1872), 3 Clark (Pa.) *327; Rogers v. Turley (1816), 4 Bibb (Ky.) 355; Beardsley v. Knight (1838), 10 Vt. 185, 33 Am. Dec. 193; Huntley v. Cline (1885), 93 N. C. 458; Venable v. Beauchamp, supra; Davidson v. Coon (1890), 125 Ind. 497, 25 N. E. 601, 9 L. R. A. 584; Dawson v. Lawrence (1844), 13 Ohio 543, 42 Am. Dec. 210; Picot v. Page (1858), 26 Mo. 398; 30 Cyc. 167, and authorities cited.
As the law makes each partitioner the warrantor of every other, to the extent of the portion allotted to him, and as no principle of law is better settled than that a warrantor cannot assert a claim against his own warranty, it clearly seems to follow that no party to a partition can be permitted to assert an adverse claim or title 'for the purpose of ousting another party to the same partition from the portion allotted to him.
In the case of Davidson v. Coon, supra, it was held that an heir who joined in a conveyance by which partition was made of the lands descended from his ancestor, could not afterwards maintain an action to subject the land so partitioned to a lien in his favor for an unpaid legacy, which, by the terms of the will of such ancestor, was made a charge on the land. In that case the court said: “The appellee is in this dilemma: If his deed is to have its usual effect it conveys his interest in the land, and releases his lien; if it is not to have its usual effect, it is because it was executed by him' as one of several owners in common, but if it was executed by him as one of several owners he cannot assert his lien since that was buried or merged in his character of an owner.
Judgment affirmed.
Note. — Reported in 99 N. E. 442. See, also, under (1) 23 Cyc. 1331; 30 Cyc. 306; (2) 30 Cyc. 311. As to the effect of compulsory partition, see 101 Am. St. 864.
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