Stevens v. McCoy
Stevens v. McCoy
Opinion of the Court
The litigation below arose in a proceeding in the probate court commenced by McCoy, assignee of C. W. Price, to sell lands. Stevens and Russell Kent were made parties. Each claimed a lien on the land prior to the-other; Kent under an execution on a judgment and Stevens under a mortgage that had been transferred to the land by a decree of rescission in a suit between Price and one Beck and others. The matter in dispute between these parties was appealed to the common pleas. That court on the hearing made a finding stating its conclusions of law and fact separately, and rendered a judgment in favor of Kent, giving him priority over Stevens. The latter prosecuted error to the circuit court where the judgment was affirmed, and error is prosecuted by him in this court, to reverse both the lower courts on the finding made in the common pleas.
On January 30, 1891, Price commenced a suit in Perry county common pleas to obtain a rescission of the exchange that had been made between him and Beck, on the ground of fraud, claimed to have been practiced by Beck and his associates. But as the mortgage he had executed precluded a rescission, unless it could in some way be removed, he entered into an agreement with Stevens whereby the latter stipulated, that if a rescission could be had by the removal of his mortgage, he agreed that it might be cancelled on the Ashtabula lands, on condition, however, that it should, by the decree of the court, be removed to and made a lien upon the Perry county lands, that should thus be restored to Price. By amendment this agreement was introduced and made a part of his petition by Price. On the hearing of the case, fraud was found and a decree of rescission made; and, in accordance with the agreement between Price and Stevens, and as a part of the decree,
It is claimed for Kent, that Price by reason of the fraud practised on him, remained the owner of the land; and that, as a consequence, his judgment became a lien on the land at the time his transcript was filed in the clerk’s office, or else at the date of the first levy, and if not then, at the date of the second, levy after the judgment had been rendered in the circuit court decreeing a rescission; and that the lien of Stevens is at most an equitable one. And particular importance is attached to the fact, that the circuit court, in the suit for rescission, found that, by reason of the fraud practiced, there was no consideration for the conveyance from Price to Beck, and that the title did
It must, however, readily occur to one familiar with legal distinctions, that the finding of the court, that the title did not pass, but remained in Price as if no conveyance had been made, is not' a finding of fact, but a legal conclusion from facts about which there is no dispute, and, as we think, an erroneous conclusion. It is not disputed that Price in making the exchange, executed and delivered a deed to Beck for his lands in Perry county, given in exchange; and that it was in consideration of a deed made and delivered to him at the same time by Beck for his lands in Ashtabula. It needs no citation of authorities to show that the deed executed by Price passed the title to the lands so conveyed, and that the lands received by him in exchange constituted a consideration, and that nothing but the decree of a court could divest that title. They were subject to the equitable right of Price for a rescission; but they were no longer his lands in the sense that they could be levied on by any of his creditors, nor in the sense that a judgment rendered against him would become a lien thereon. Haynes v. Baker, 5 Ohio St., 253. We may go further and say, that the right that was in Price for a rescission was a right personal to himself, and could not be availed of by creditors, for’ it is not an equity in the land, but a mere right of action personal to the grantor, over which no one else has control. He alone can maintain it, for he alone can comply with the requirement of placing the opposite party in his former position, by executing a reconveyance of the lands obtained by him, and returning whatever else he may have received in exchange. And to
The case may be presented in another view. All that was restored to Price by the decree was the land he had exchanged subject to the mortgage. This was all that in equity he had a right to; for by executing the mortgage on the Ashtabula lands he had affected the value of his ownership therein to that extent. Hence the thing restored to him was simply an equity of redemption in the lands, and this was all that the levy of Kent’s execution could attach to. True, Price had the legal title when the levy was made, but it was subject to the lien imposed on the land by the very decree by which the land was restored. There can be no doubt of the power of a court, in the exercise of its equity jurisdiction, to make such a decree, when
In considering the case, it must be constantly kept in mind that Kent, prior to the rescission, had no right, legal or equitable, against the land; and hence the advantage he claims, if it were allowed him, would be in the nature of a wind-fall. He desires to reap where others have sown, without a particle of merit in his favor. He cannot then question the power of the court in administering equity, to make the decree it did; and by which Steven’s mortgage was cancelled on the Ashtabula land and transferred to the land restored to Price;
Judgment reversed and judgment for the plainpiff 4n error.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.