Oliver v. Epperson
Oliver v. Epperson
Opinion of the Court
— Plaintiff below, appellant here, brought her action against the defendant Epper
It is further averred that the defendant Epperson, acting in his capacity as éxecutor of the will of C. M. Coe sold the land for $3600, but because plaintiff was in the sole control and possession of the land pending her appeal to the Supreme Court, he was unable to consummate the sale or collect any of the purchase price except the sum of $100, which was paid at the time of the contract for the sale, until March 1, 1912, on which latter date plaintiff surrendered possession of the land and the defendant Epperson received the balance of the purchase price, namely, $3500; that after paying the commissions, attorney’s fees and other costs made necessary by the suit in equity which plaintiff had instituted, there were left for distribution in the hands of Epperson not to exceed some $3000, of which plaintiff’s distributive share would be $428.57, which distributive share, it is averred, plaintiff would be entitled to upon the payment of the rents which she owes
Replying to this answer in so far as it concerns Epperson, plaintiff admits that Epperson was duly appointed and qualified and acting as executor of the will of C. M. Coe, deceased, but denies that' he is now qualified and acting under the will, averring that on November 16,1911, he filed his final settlement, which was acted upon by the probate court and approved, but that Epperson was not finally discharged as executor by order of the court, ‘ ‘ on account of the said estate being in litigation. ” It is further averred that the executor has not reported the sale of the land and is not in fact or in law acting as executor under the will; admits the allegation made by defendants as to the will of C. M. Coe, and.that on April 28,1908, she (plaintiff) brought her suit in equity in the circuit court of Knox county against all of these present defendants, claiming in her petition in that case to be the owner in fee of the tract of land before referred to by virtue of a contract made
The reply to the answer of the other defendants is practically the same as is the reply to the answer of Epperson, omiting. the allegations as to him, but repeating in this reply that under the terms of the will of her father she was entitled to the use and control of the real estate for the term of one year next after the date of his decease, and that on April 28, 1908, she “was in possession of said lands and she did bring a suit in equity as alleged in the answer, claiming to be the owner in fee of said lands by virtue of contract with her said father,” etc.
The cause was tried before the court substantially on an agreed statement of facts in which, among other things, it was agreed that the rental value of the seventy-one acres of land referred to was $180 per annum, being $540 “for the three years it was occupied by plaintiff, to-wit, from March 1, 1909', to March 1, 1912;” that plaintiff is and was a married woman, living with her husband at all the times mentioned in the pleadings and is still a married woman living with her husband. The will of C. M. Coe is set out in full and provides, among other things, that the plaintiff Nancy E. Oliver, “have sole use and control of all of my real estate for one year after my death, and at the end of that year all my real estate to be sold by the executor of this will without an order from the probate court, and the proceeds of the sale be divided equally among the following named persons,” naming his liv
Over the objection of plaintiff, defendants, on the trial, in addition to this stipulation, introduced in evidence the report of the sale of the real estate filed in the probate court June 17, 1912, and approved by the probate court of Knox county. This was all the evidence in the ease.
At the conclusion of the trial plaintiff asked several declarations of law, the material ones being that on the pleadings and evidence the debt for .rents is
The court found the issues joined in favor of plaintiff on her cause of action, but further found in favor of defendants on their counterclaim and set-off, allowing the sum of $540, as the stipulated value.of the rental of the real estate from March 1,1909, to March 1,1912. The court further found that plaintiff was a legatee under her father’s will and would be entitled to her distributive share in the net proceeds of. the sale of the land mentioned in the pleadings, if she was not indebted to the estate, but that as she owed the estate the sum of $540 for rental for the three years mentioned, and as that is more than her distributive share and more than the sum claimed in her petition, and as plaintiff is insolvent and no judgment asked against her except for costs, “it is therefore considered and adjudged by the court that plaintiff take nothing by her suit herein; it is further considered and adjudged by the court, that the money sued for by plaintiff is the property of the defendants, other than the defendant Epperson and should be by said Epperson distributed to the other defendants upon his settlement of said estate.” The costs were adjudged against the plaintiff and execution ordered. Interposing a motion for new trial and one in arrest, and excepting to the action of
Appellant assigns four errors: first, that the trial court erred in finding and holding that plaintiff was indebted to the estate for the use of the lands; second, that it erred in refusing to find that the claim of the estate, if any, was simply for use and occupation, on a contract implied by law against the husband; third, in refusing to find that the debt, if any, was one in the nature of necessities for the family, for which the husband alone is liable; and fourth, in finding that the rental belonged to the estate and to the defendants, and that it could be held and applied as an offset against plaintiff’s distributive share in the estate.
It is said by learned counsel for appellant that “this case is part of the aftermath of the case of Oliver v. Johnson, 238 Mo. 359, 142 S. W. 274,” and that the executor did not complete the sale of the land which he had contracted for until March 1, 1912, after the decision of that case, and that in the meantime “the plaintiff and her husband occupied the seventy-one acres in litigation- without any contract with the executor or any one else,” that they merely held over about three years longer than contemplated by the will.
In point of fact this claim that the husband and not the'wife was the occupant of the land, is the gist of the foundation of the claim here set up by the appellant in resisting the demand of the defendants, and charging her, as against her distributive share in the estate of her father, with the rental value for use and occupation of this seventy-one acres of land. All the parties to this litigation have evidently tried it in the circuit court with the knowledge, not only on their part, but on that of the court, of the proceedings in that same court in Oliver v. Johnson, supra, and it will facilitate an understanding of all the facts in
It appears by the pleadings in the case at bar as well as by an examination of the amended petition, which it set ont in Oliver v. Johnson, supra, that during all the time of the litigation in which the present plaintiff sought to have title vested in her to the seventy-one acres, that she claimed to be in possession of it as owner in fee under contract with her father. Even in the agreed statement of facts filed in this case it is set ont that the rental value of the land “was $180 per annum or $540 for the three years it was occupied by plaintiff.” The attempt now made to claim that this was the occupancy of the husband, is not consistent with the act or conduct of the plaintiff throughout this long litigation, and the trial court very properly found that this was a debt due from plaintiff to the estate or. to the devisees. It is true that there was no express contract of rental or of landlord and tenant, but plaintiff occupying the land claimed it as her own. While.it is agreed “that plaintiff is and was a married woman "living with her husband, N. S. Oliver, at all the times mentioned "in the pleadings, and that she is still a married woman living with her said husband,” there is not a word of testimony, either by the agreed statement or outside of it, that the possession was the possession of the husband, or that he, as owner, or tenant, or otherwise than as husband of plaintiff, occupied or farmed the lands, or did so in his own right. On the contrary, the presumption is that as the wife, claimed to be owner, the occupancy of the husband was in right of the wife — an occupancy in no- manner inconsistent with his marital duty of providing her with a home. Having a home of her own in which the husband was content to also dwell, he was under no necessity to provide her another. There are many husbands in this State who are occupiers of the lands and tenements of the wife; but that occupancy does
As no suggestion is made of the improper joinder of parties defendant, we do not pass on that proposition. Surely the plaintiff having elected to sue the administrator cannot object to him as a party defendant.
It is said in argument by counsel for appellant, that the bond given on the appeal in the case of Oliver v. Johnson et al., supra, was not a supersedeas except as to costs. That point cannot be here determined, as the bond does not appear in the record. Ordinarily, however, a bond given in a case such as that referred-to, acts as a supersedeas of the whole judgment from which the appeal is prosecuted.
We see no reason to disturb the finding of the learned trial court in this case and think that it should be affirmed. It is so ordered.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.