Mays v. Morrell
Mays v. Morrell
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
As said by Mr. Justice Moore in Guillaume v. K. S. D. Land Co., 48 Or. 400, 406 (86 Pac. 883, 885): “The rule is quite general that if the description clause of real property, as stated in a written instrument, is vague, the construction of the language used that has been placed upon it by the parties may be shown by parol evidence as tending to identify the premises intended. * * Thus, when possession of real property is taken pursuant to an agreement of the vendor, the occupation of the premises by the vendee may render certain what otherwise would have been a vague description of the land intended by the parties.”
Again, as said by Mr. Chief Justice Watson in Richards v. Snider, 11 Or. 197, 199 (3 Pac. 177, 179):
“The intention of the parties to the agreement to contract with reference to this particular tract and no other is equally certain. There is no uncertainty as to this intention on the face of the written agreement. It is clearly a case admitting of the identification of the subject of the contract by proof of extrinsic facts. * * And the.facts admissible and effectual for this purpose, which are alleged in the complaint, and admitted by the demurrer, seem ample. The possession alone, taken under the circumstances alleged, and in view of *566 the stipulation for possession in the written agreement itself, should be held a sufficient identification.”
In McCulloch v. Price, 14 Mont. 320 (36 Pac. 194, 43 Am. St. Rep. 637), it was held that “A conveyance of all the lands, tenements, hereditaments, appurtenances of every description belonging to the grantors, or either of them, or in which they have, or either of them has, any interest, wherever such property, or any part thereof, may be situate, is not void for want of description, and transfers their title to any and all lands in which they have any interest. ’ ’
In Pettigrew v. Dobbelaar, 63 Cal. 396, a description was sustained which said: “All lands and real estate belonging to the said party of the first part wherever the same may be situated together,” etc.
In Harvey v. Edens, 69 Tex. 420 (6 S. W. 306), it was decided that “It is no objection to the certainty of description * * that it does not specifically describe each item of property conveyed. If it purports to convey all the property of the partnership firm making it, and that of each individual member thereof, wherever situate, it becomes a matter of evidence as to what particular property the partnership and each individual member thereof owned when the assignment was executed. ’ ’
The same doctrine is approved in Corvallis & E. R. Co. v. Benson, 61 Or. 359 (121 Pac. 418, 425), where other authorities are cited and reviewed. The same principle applies to Morrell’s designation of the land in question in his complaint in equity, where he states that Miller had conveyed all his land to the grantors of the plaintiff here.
The gist of Morrell’s effort in his equity suit was to bring about a certain disposition of all Miller’s land thus described. In other words, he sought to effect an alienation of Miller’s holdings by matter of record, so to speak. He compelled the plaintiff here and his pred *567 ecessors in title to come into the court in whose territorial jurisdiction the realty was situated and participate in that alienation. Throughout that proceeding he describes the land as all the laud Miller owned, and without so describing it he could not well have maintained his suit, because he would have had a remedy at law by his execution, levied on property not included in the conveyance from Miller. A transfer of Miller’s title was accomplished in a manner by that suit in equity Morrell initiated. The decree, sale and confirmation constitute a muniment of title in favor of the purchaser at that judicial sale. It avails Morrell nothing that part of the property was inaccurately described in detail. When it is plain what was meant by all the parties was the land in question, especially where it is illustrated by the grantee going into possession and remaining there, claiming title to all of the property, the false description of the holding will be rejected in favor of that which truly represents the real intention of the parties.
In Lodge’s Lessee v. Lee, 6 Cranch, 237 (3 L. Ed. 210), it is said: “A grant of an island by name in the Potomac Biver, superadding the courses and distances of the lines thereof, which on resurvey are now found to exclude part of the island, will pass the whole island. ’ ’
In Keith v. Reynolds, 3 Me. (3 Greenl.) 393, the court declared that: “Where a parcel of land is conveyed as being the whole of a certain farm, which is afterward described in the deed by courses and distances which do not include the whole farm, so much of this description will be rejected as that the whole may pass. ’ ’
Drew v. Drew, 28 N. H. 489, is an authority saying that “A devise of ‘all my homestead farm in I)., being the same farm whereon I now live, and the same which was devised to me by my honored father,’ will pass *568 the whole of the homestead farm, though it appears that a part of it was not devised by the father. ’ ’
So, also, in Piper v. True, 36 Cal. 606, the principle is enunciated thus-: “If a deed contains different descriptions, one of which applies to lands which the grantor owns, and the other to lands which he did not own, the former shall be taken as true and the latter as false.”
Likewise in Reed v. Spicer, 27 Cal. 57, it is said that: “If a deed recites two descriptions of the property conveyed, one of which sufficiently identifies the property, while the other is false in fact, the false description should be rejected as surplusage.”
The suit in equity instituted by Morrell, culminating in the judicial sale and conveyance under which the plaintiff here claims, substantially describes the property as all the property Miller owned, and although there was injected into the record the description of property which Miller did not own, it does not vitiate the effect of the proceeding to which Morrell was a party, and which operated to convey the whole of what was actually owned by Miller. Having thus brought about a conveyance of all Miller’s property, the hand of Morrell should be stayed in his subsequent attack upon the same property.
There was error in sustaining the demurrer to the complaint, and the decree of the Circuit Court is reversed. Reversed.
Reference
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- Mays v. Morrell (Or. 5-20-1913)
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