Llewellyn v. Lewis
Llewellyn v. Lewis
Opinion of the Court
This suit is brought by-George E. Llewellyn against his four half sisters for specific performance of a contract claimed to have been entered into between plaintiff and these defendants, it being alleged that defendant's, notwithstanding the terms of this contract, have failed and refused to comply with it, ‘‘ that is to say, have failed and refused to pay plaintiff the value of the life estate of Eugene Waples aforesaid, to-wit, the sum of $835.12.” The interest of plaintiff is alleged to have arisen under and by virtue of a certain deed from defendants to plaintiff, of date January 29, 1904, by which defend
Defendants, appellants here, pleaded the judgment and decree rendered in the case of Charles T. Llewellyn, appellant, v. George E. Llewellyn, respondent, 122 Mo. App. 467, 99 S. W. 809, in bar of the present suit, and pleaded fraud in the procuring of the conveyance from themselves to respondent. The defendant Edith A. Llewellyn, now married and answering under the name of Edith A. Johnson, in her separate answer, in addition to the above, pleaded her minority at the time of the execution of the above-mentioned deed. There was a reply to these answers denying the plea of res adjudicata, following this by a general denial of each and every other allegation in the answer.
It is not necessary to recite the evidence in this case in detail, it being sufficient to say that plaintiff introduced evidence tending to show the conveyance to him above referred to, the real consideration for it, performance by him, and receipt by defendants of $835.12 from the executor of the estate of Jacob W. Llewellyn, as also other facts not necessary to here set out. Defendants introduced evidence tending to show that at the time of the execution of the deed of
By reference to the opinion of our court in Llewellyn v. Llewellyn, supra, and which was given in evidence at this trial, it will be seen that certain real property, the disposition of which, or more accurately, of the proceeds of which is here involved, was owned by John W. Llewellyn. He died intestate December 16, 1886, leaving surviving him as his heirs at law his father, Jacob W. Llewellyn, two brothers, three sisters of the whole blood, and four sisters of the half-blood, the latter defendants below, appellants here, one of these brothers being this respondent. As said in the opinion in the case above referred to, the land was inherited in eig’ht undivided interests, six of them going to the heirs of the whole blood, two of them to the heirs of the half-blood. One of the sisters of the whole blood, Josephine Waples, purchased the undivided interest of her father, Jacob, as also those of her two brothers, and of one sister of the whole blood, Mrs. Waples thus becoming possessed of an undivided five-eights interest in the fee. Thereafter Mrs. Waples
The executor, Charles T. Llewellyn, not having been able to sell Jacob W. Llewellyn’s interest in the land, a suit was brought to partition it. It was while this partition suit was pending that the quitclaim deed, of date January 29, 1904, was executed by the defendants here to the plaintiff. In this partition suit, the court found the interests of the respective parties,
In that case we said: “The question for decision is, whether or not the quitclaim deed of the younger children of Jacob W. Llewellyn (these defendants) conveyed such an interest in the sixty-eight acres in controversy as to entitle George E. Llewellyn to be paid the value of the interest out of the proceeds of the sale.” We held that to permit the deed to so operate would be to defeat the plain intention of the will of Jacob W. Llewellyn, by which will it was provided that his widow should enjoy the income from the proceeds of the sale of this and other property until his youngest daughter arrived at full age. We further there held that the interest of Jacob W. Llewellyn, deceased, in this land was to be treated in equity as personalty, applying the equitable doctrine of conversion. We also said that it mattered not that the executor had failed to sell; that it was reasonable to conclude that one of the purposes of the testator was to prevent a sale, or division of his interest by the children. The conclusion in Llewellyn v. Llewellyn, supra, was that the executor, Charles T. Llewellyn, “is entitled to the disputed pro
This quitclaim deed, of January 29,1904, purports to convey all of the right, title and interest of these defendants which they then had in and to this tract of land, as well as all of their right, title and interest in and to the estate of John W. Llewellyn, both real and personal. The deed does not purport to convey the respective distributive shares of these defendants in the estates of their father, Jacob W. Llewellyn. The fund here in controversy is derived from the proceeds of the sale of the life interest of Eugene Waples, which the father, Jacob W. Llewellyn, owned in the real estate above mentioned. Such proceeds were in fact paid to Charles T. Llewellyn, both as the executor of the will of Jacob W. Llewellyn and as testamentary trustee, in accordance with the mandate of this court in the above named Llewellyn case.
Plaintiff’s contention here is, that he is entitled to these proceeds by reason of the quitclaim deed from these defendants to him and above mentioned. The land, it is to be borne in mind, had not then been sold. It is true that these defendants then had an interest in the land as the heirs of their brother, John W. Llewellyn, and as heirs of Josephine Waples, their half-sister, but that is the only interest they then had in the land itself. They took no interest in the land, as such under the will of their father, Jacob W. Llewellyn; all of his interest passed to his executor and testamentary trustee by the seventh clause of his will, that interest to be sold along with other property, real and personal, for the purpose of creating a common fund and Jacob W. Llewellyn bequeathed that fund and its income as money. By force of that clause of the will, as we held in the former case, the interest of Jacob W. Llewellyn in the land became personal property by virtue of the operation of the doctrine of equitable conversion.
It follows that the judgment of the trial court here before us is erroneous. Other questions are presented by counsel but in the view we take of the case, it is unnecessary to consider them.
The judgment of the circuit' court is reversed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.