Savage v. Savage
Savage v. Savage
Opinion of the Court
This appeal is from the Circuit Court for the county of Marion. The appellant commenced a suit in that court against the respondent to have a certain deed executed by the former to the latter, on the 3d day of October, 1882, to certain lands in said county, canceled, and said lands reconveyed to her. She alleged in her complaint that on and prior to the 3d day of October, 1882, she owned said lands in fee; that in April, 1882, she executed to the respondent a power of attorney appointing him her attorney in fact, to take possession and have charge of said lands, to sell the same, execute deeds to purchasers, and do all acts necessary to carry out said power; that after executing said power of attorney, she left the State and
The respondent denied the allegations of the complaint as to his attorneyship, the offer, value of the land, and fraud, and alleged affirmatively that since he purchased the land he had paid out for taxes the sum of $115.
Depositions and proofs having been taken, the case was heard by said Circuit Court and the complaint dismissed, from which decision the appeal was taken to this court. It appears from the testimony and proofs that the appellant was born and . raised upon the lands in question; that about 1875 she married and went East with her husband; that her husband having obtained a divorce from her in 1881, she returned and lived with her uncle, John Savage, Jr., on the lands until April 5, 1882, when she went back to Kansas City, Mo., where she resided, as alleged in the complaint; that she and the respondent are second cousins; that she was the owner of the lands; that about the 16th day of September, 1880, she executed to the respondent the following power of attorney: —
“ Know all men by these presents that I, Bertha E. Savage, of Junction City, Kansas, have made, constituted, and appointed, and by these presents do make, constitute, and appoint, John
[seal.] “ Bertha E. Savage.
“Pone ip presence of Arthur P. Pa vis.”
That the respondent accepted the trust and acted under said power of attorney until the execution of the deed sought to be canceled. It is claimed by the appellant that there was a subsequent power of attorney executed by her to the respondent in April, 1872, empowering him to sell and convey the property as alleged in the complaint, but that is stoutly denied by the latter, and, in the opinion of all the members of the court is not sustained by the evidence.
It further appears from the proofs that the following correspondence, at the respective times therein mentioned, took place between the appellant and the respondent in reference to the sale and purchase of said lands. —
“Kansas City, Aug. 31,1882.
“Dear Cousin John: — In a letter received from Aunt Hattie a short time ago she said you were going to write and advise my selling my property there. At the time I received her letter I thought I would never, never sell, but have changed my mind. There are splendid chances here every day to invest in city residence property which would bring me each year as much as I
“Hope this will find you all well and in the midst of a bountiful harvest with favorable weather to assist in securing it.
“If I thought ma could pay me cash for the place, and as much as anyone else would be willing to pay for it, she would be the one I would write to of my desire to sell; for I remember she once said if I sold. she would like to buy it from me; and it is only natural that she should want it. Let me hear from you as soon as possible. I am real well and enjoy myself sometimes. Have been at work this summer you know. When you write, address me at Kansas City, Missouri, as I get my letters at the postoffice. With kind regards, I am
“Yours, etc., Bertha Savage.”
The following is the respondent’s answer to the above: —
“Salem, Sept. 11, 1882.
“ Dear Cousin: — I received yours of the 31st yesterday, and was glad to hear you was well. I did not tell Hattie I was going to advise you to sell; I told her if I could not make the land fetch in more profit, you had better sell it. I only got three hundred and sixty bushels of oats and sold them for thirty-seven and one half cents per bushels and one hundred and thirty bushels of wheat. I shall sell it as soon as hauled, then I will pay Ford and Stratton and will send you what is left. I had not thought of buying your land. I was going next week to Walla Walla with my money, for I can’t let it out here any more only in small dribbs. So if you conclude to take me up at my offer I won’t go; I will give you six thousand dollars for your whole interest here; at that it will be a good while before I could get my money back. If you conclude to take me up at my offer, telegraph immediately. John is talking of buying the two other heirs out on the Miller
“ From your friend. Write often. Yours etc.
“ John Savage.”
On the same day the letter was mailed, the respondent notified the appellant of it by telegraph as follows : —
“Salem, Oregon, Sept. 11, 1882.
“Bertha M Savage:—I have written you an offer of six thousand dollars for your full interest here. If you accept, telegraph immediately. John Savage.”
On September 18, 1882, the appellant telegraphed her acceptance of the offer as follows: —
“Kansas City, Mo., 18th Sept., 1882.
“ John Savage, P. O. 330, Salem:—I accept your offer; hurry papers along as soon as possible. Bertha Savage.”
On September 22, 1883, the appellant also wrote the respondent, in which she gave directions about sending the money, and in which she requested that he would send her $500, without waiting for the deeds to be sent there, signed, and returned again. She also suggested that it would probably have been better if she had sent him a quit-claim deed — that it would have expedited the affair. The respondent upon receipt of the appellant’s telegram accepting his offer had Judge J. J. Shaw, of Salem, prepare a deed and forward it to the appellant at Kansas City, for execution, which she did at the time before mentioned, October 3, 1882, and sent it to the respondent by mail.
The appellant’s counsel contends that at some period between the time the respondent received the appellant’s letter of August 31, 1882, and the date of his reply thereto, September 11,1882, a gentleman by the name of Durbin, who owns land adjoining
There is some contradiction as to the time when Mr. Durbin made said offer, and as to the quantity of land that was included in it. He was examined as a witness in the ease, and testified to the following, viz.: —
“Age, fifty-four years; occupation, stock-raiser; residence, Wasco County, Oregon.” In answer to question three he says: “ I know the tract of one hundred and twenty-four acres, and know about where the timber land is, and the dower property. They are situated on Salem Prairie, that is, the dowry and the one hundred and twenty-four acres; the other is back in the timber, east of the other property.
“ Question. 4—You may state if you ever had any conversation with the defendant about the purchase of either of those tracts of land.
“Answer—I hada conversation with Mr. Savage, I think sometime along about the 1st of September, 1882, about the tract of land—one hundred and twenty-four acres. I came to town and heard Mr. Savage wanted to see me. I inquired and looked for Mr. Savage, and found him on Commercial Street. I says, Mr. Savage, I understand you want to see me. He says yes, I wanted to know if you want to buy this piece of land or place of Bertha Savage. I says, I don’t know whether I do or not; it is owing to what she asks for it. Well, he says, what will you give for it ? I asked him how much there was
“A.—I would have given $8,000 for it; I believe I offered Mr. Savage that, less the $250 that I had offered him as bonus on the $6,000.
“Q. 6—You had offered the defendant, then, $6,000 fcr,the one hundred and twenty-four aeré tract, and $250 besides, to pay him for his trouble and expense thát he has been to; is that the fact ¡or not?
“A.—Yes, that’s the fact.
“Q. 7—During any of the time that you were negotiating with the defendant for the purchase of the one hundred and twenty-four acre tract, did he state to you whether he had the power from the plaintiff to sell the same?
“A.—He did; he said at the time we first talked of the trade he could make me a deed himself, but he would prefer that she would do it. The conversation I had with Mr. Savage in the bank here was in Bush’s Bank, Mr. Albert was behind the counter, and I forget who the other man was.”
“Cross-examination. Q. 9—State, Mr. Durbin, just what passed between you and Mr. Savage in Mr. Bush’s bank in Mr. Albert’s presence at the time you have referred to.
“A.—"Well, I asked Mr. Savage if he had heard from Bertha; he said that he had, that he was just sending her the money for the land; I says, Mr. Savage, I don’t want you to send any money for me, I have got the money myself; he says, well, I may let you have it yet; and the conversation went on; I don’t recollect what all was said, but I told him that if he didn’t give me an answer in two or three days that I would telegraph to Bertha not to accept his money for the land, that I would give $8,0013 for it, and that I would give him two or three days, I think, to give me an answer.
“ Q,. 12—Did you not go to John Savage, Jr., a short time after you found you couldn’t get the land and try to get him to
“A.—I did not; but I went to John Savage, Jr., and told him what I had offered Mr. John Savage here, the defendant, and what I understood he was getting for what I had offered for the one hundred and twenty-four acres, and as it was a brother’s child, that I thought it was his duty to look into it, and told him that anything I could assist him in I would do so, as I always thought a great deal of her father Lute. Mr. Savage says to me, John Savage has a mortgage on my farm of $2,000 and I am afraid to have anything to do with it. I told him other men had money as well as John Savage.”
The respondent was examined as a witness, and testified that the first conversation between him and Mr. Durbin in regard to the sale of the land took place on the 17th or 18th day of September, 1882, the day before appellant accepted his offer, and that Mr. Durbin’s proposition was to purchase all of appellant’s lands; that it included the three parcels referred to, the same land respondent purchased from appellant. The court has considered this question of fact fully, and concluded that the weight of the testimony upon the question is in favor of the appellant. Mr. Durbin’s testimony seems to be corroborated by the circumstances, and also by the testimony of other witnesses, and while it may not be accurate in all its particulars, or invulnerable to criticism, still I think he made the offer to buy the one hundred and twenty-four acre tract of land, and to pay the $6,000 therefor, and that the offer was made before there was any acceptance of respondent’s offer made to appellant, by the letter of September 11, 1882, and most probably before that offer was forwarded to her.
If this be the correct view of the facts, it becomes important to inquire whether the respondent was under any legal obligation to inform the appellant of Durbin’s offer for the said parcel of land before purchasing it himself in the manner he purchased it. Ordinarily, where there is no fiduciary relation between the parties, and no confidence is reposed by the vendor as to the particular contract, no duty rests upon the vendee to disclose facts
Mr. Pomeroy, in his work upon Equity Jurisprudence, section 902, says that “all the instances in which the duty exists, and in which concealment is, therefore, fraudulent, may be reduced to three distinct classes. The first class includes all those instances in which, wholly independent of the form, nature, or object of the contract or other'transaction, there is a previously existing definite fiduciary relation between the*parties; so that the obligation of perfect good faith and of complete disclosure always arises from the existing relations of trust and confidence, and is necessarily impressed upon any transaction which takes place between such persons.” And he gives as examples, contracts and other transactions between a principal and agent, a client and attorney, a beneficiary and trustee, a ward and guardian, and the like. “The second class embraces those instances in which there is no existing special fiduciary relation
The respondent was the agent of the appellant for a certain purpose, but it is doubted whether it was such an agency as is contemplated in the proposition laid down in Sugden, or as comes within the first class of cases mentioned by Prof. Pomeroy. That depends upon what the reason or foundation of the rule is, which incapacitates or restricts the right of the party to purchase the property in such cases. If it is solely because the agent is under an existing contract with the principal to aid and assist him to the best of his ability in the disposal of the property, then I would suppose that a mere agency to rent property and collect and pay over the proceeds would not preclude the agent from purchasing it as freely as a stranger might do. The agent, in such a case, does not contract to discharge a duty connected at all with the sale of property. But if the obligation arises out of the trust and confidence which the relation shows was reposed in the purchaser by the vendor, then it is immaterial Avhether the authority empowered the purchaser to sell or rent the property. The relation proves a trust and' confidence in either base. In the case of attorney and client, I apprehend that it would make no difference, if the former purchased property of the latter, whether he was employed in a matter concerning the property, or concerning some other affair of the client; that he would be as much obligated in the one case as the other to disclpse every fact that would tend to enhance its value, and that
The parties are relatives; the appellant was living out of the State; she had made the respondent her agent, as before mentioned, and he was acting in that capacity when the offer of Durbin was made for the property. And I think, under these circumstances, it was his duty to have informed the appellant of the offer. It is true she wrote him to make her an offer, but it is evident, from the tenor of her letter, that she expected to get as much from him as anyone else would give. She says in her letter of August 31, 1882: “If she thought ma could pay her cash for the place, and as much as anyone else would be willing to pay for it, she would sell it to her.” She did not intend to let it go to anyone for less than it would bring, and if the respondent had communicated to her the offer Durbin had made, she certainly would not have accepted the respondent’s offer. The tenor of the respondent’s letter was calculated to induce her to accept his offer. It contained a statement of the yield of the land that season, and the account was far from encouraging; besides, it conveyed the idea that if he made the purchase it would be a very slow investment, says, “I will give you $6,000 for your whole interest here; at that, it would be a good while before I could get my money back.” Now, if Durbin had already made him an offer of the same amount of money for the one hundred and twenty-four acre tract alone, as I am inclined to believe, from the testimony, he had, the statement was not candid. He should, in any event, have communicated to the appellant. the fact of Durbin’s offer, though made after he transmitted his proposition to purchase. He acquired the knowledge of the fact from his connection with her affairs, and honesty and fair dealing,' under the circumstances of the case, required him to give the information. The parties were not dealing “at
I think the said deed should be canceled upon the appellant’s doing equity. She must, of course, first restore to the respondent what he has paid her, the §6,000. Her attorney made some kind of written offer before the spit was commenced to pay him back the money, less §1,200, the rental value of the premises, but I do not think the offer was sufficient. She had had the use of the money, and that in my opinion was worth as much or more than the use of the lands; consequently she should not be allowed costs. The respondent claims to have paid taxes upon the property, but the taxes upon the money which she was liable to pay, and probably did pay, is a fair stand-off. The respondent should have interest upon the §6,000, at the rate of eight per cent per annum, and be charged with the rents and profits.
The decree should be that upon the appellant’s paying to the respondent the sum of §6,000, and interest at the rate aforesaid, less rents and profits, within ninety days from the date of the entry of the decree in this court, with interest thereon at the rate of eight per cent per annum from the date of such entry, the respondent reconvey to her the entire lands conveyed to him by the said deed. That the deed of reconveyance contain a covenant against any acts of the respondent, done or suffered, except the non-payment of taxes levied during the year 1885, and that the original deed from the appellant to the respondent be thereupon set aside and canceled. The respondent could, after the suit was begun, have made an offer under section 511 of the Civil Code, to allow a decree to be given against him for the relief granted herein, and have recovered costs from the time of the service of the offer, but not having availed himself of the benefit of that provision, he should not be entitled to recover costs.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- BERTHA SAVAGE v. JOHN SAVAGE
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- 2 cases
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- Published