Allen v. Allen
Allen v. Allen
Opinion of the Court
In this action plaintiff seeks to compel specific performance of an oral agreement between plaintiff and defendant concerning real property that was partitioned or given to the plaintiff in an oral mutual agreement dissolving a partnership existing between the parties, and asks for a decree quieting title to such lands in the plaintiff and for a judgment of the court decreeing the plaintiff and defendant to be the owners as tenants in common of 160 acres of land described in the complaint.
In substance the complaint alleges that in the year 1906, plaintiff and defendant, as copartners, were the owners of divers tracts of land and of personal property in Utah and in Idaho, among which land was parcel described as a thirteen-
The answer, in substance, alleges, that in the year 1898 plaintiff and defendant, and one J. C. Allen, were copartners and owned real and personal property in Utah and in Idaho, including, among others, the said thirteen-acre tract, and in that year, by mutual agreement, the firm’s assets were divided and partitioned, and the thirteen-acre tract was awarded to plaintiff; that by the same agreement a twelve-acre tract and a three-acre tract, the record title of which was in the name of Thomas Home, were awarded to defendant; that immediately after the dissolution of the former partnership the plaintiff and defendant formed a partnership for the purpose of
For a counterclaim defendant alleges the existence of the partnership dissolved in 1898 and the partition and award of lands on the termination of that partnership, the formation and dissolution of the second partnership, and agreement for the exchange of lands between himself and plaintiff, his consequent surrender of the deed to the twelve-acre tract, the fact that plaintiff had procured a new deed conveying the title of such tract to himself, the retention by plaintiff of the thirteen-acre tract, and prays that defendant may be
The reply of the plaintiff admits the partnership dissolution of 1898, the formation of a new partnership between plaintiff and defendant and its dissolution in 1906, but puts in issue the award of the twelve-acre and three-acre tracts to defendant in 1898, and denies any agreement to exchange lands with defendant,- alleges possession by plaintiff and defendant, as joint owners, of the twelve-acre and three-acre tracts and the Brawley field comprising fifty-nine acres, particularly describing it, during the existence of the partnership between plaintiff and defendant, and further alleges that he is now the owner in fee simple of the Brawley field and entitled to have his title quieted thereto; denies the abandonment or rescission by him of the agreement to purchase the 160 acres, and alleges his willingness to pay his pro rata share of the purchase price thereof.
By a supplemental complaint filed just before the trial plaintiff seeks to recover damages for the retention of the 160 acres by defendant from the time of the filing of the complaint to the trial of the action.
A trial was had before the court, and findings of fact, conclusions of law and judgment entered, finding all the issues in favor of plaintiff. From those findings and judgment defendant brings the case to this court on appeal.
Some twenty-nine assignments of error are made attacking the different findings of the court, but in appellant’s brief the numerous assignments are argued under two general heads, namely: (1) The findings are against the evidence; and (2) that the conclusions of law and judgment do not follow from and are not supported by the findings.
The following map or plat will aid in understanding this opinion as well as explain the claims of the parties hereto:
It was agreed by both parties to this action, and also by their brother J. C. Allen in his testimony, that in the partition or dissolution of the copartnership, which consisted of the three brothers, prior to 1898, the thirteen-acre tract of land described in plaintiff’s complaint, title to which he asks to have quieted in him, was, by that allotment or partition, awarded to plaintiff; that at the time and up till the trial of this action the record title to that tract stood in the name of the defendant. Respondent’s testimony is clear that in that same partition the twelve-acre and three-acre tracts were also awarded and given to him. On that particular point the testimony of appellant and of James C. Allen, one of the original partners, is that at that time the twelve-acre and three-acre tracts were partitioned to appellant, and that the record title at that particular date was in the name of one Thomas Horne. It is admitted that immediately after the dissolution of the partnership, consisting of the three brothers, in 1898, another partnership was formed between the plaintiff and defendant to carry on and continue business of the same nature as the former partnership, and that that partnership continued until about the year 1906, when it was dissolved by mutual consent.
Plaintiff contends, and the court found, that all the real estate which had been partitioned or given to both plaintiff
At the time of the dissolution of the partnership it is agreed by both plaintiff and defendant that the thirteen-acre tract, marked (20) on the plat, as well as the thirty-acre tract, marked (16) on the plat, and the fifty-two-acre tract, marked (10) on the plat, and the fifteen-acre tract, marked (4) on the plat, were all a part of one inelosure, and had been jointly used and cultivated by the partnership from 1898 up until the date of its dissolution. The plaintiff testified that at the time of the partition and dissolution of the partnership between him and defendant a line was drawn dividing the property, which line was a division line running east and west immediately north of the twelve-acre tract, marked (7) on the plat, the thirty-acre tract, marked (16) on the plat, and the thirteen-acre tract, marked (20) on the plat, and that he gave defendant the right to take either the part of the land lying north or the part of the land lying south of that line and west of the county road. He testified that the defendant first selected the land lying south, which would include the thirteen-acre, the thirty-acre, and the twelve-acre tracts, and that plaintiff immediately took possession of the land lying north of the division line; that within a few days thereafter appellant returned to respondent and stated that he was not satisfied with the division, and thereupon plaintiff gave him the option to exchange, if he so desired, and the exchange was made; and the plaintiff then took possession of the land lying south of the line drawn by plaintiff, and he has continued in possession of the same up until the institution of this action, and that at the same time appel
It is contended by plaintiff, and the court so found, that from the year 1898 to the year 1906, the taxes on all of the land' referred to herein, and other land similarly occupied by the partners, were paid from the general or partnership fund, and that the land was cultivated jointly and the harvests sold and the proceeds used by the partnership in carrying on the partnership business; that since 1906 plaintiff has paid all taxes assessed against, and been in the open possession of, the lands partitioned to him, or all of the lands lying south of the division line, and that during all that time defendant had been in possession of the land lying north of the division line, and has paid all taxes assessed against that land; that at no time did appellant make any claim to the thirteen-acre tract, and that the plaintiff had no knowledge or information that the title to that tract was in appellant until about the year 1910 or 1911, at which time he approached the defendant and asked for a conveyance, and his testimony is that the defendant promised to make a conveyance, but failed to do so, and thereafter, in 1912, for the first time, made claim to this land and attempted to eject plaintiff and his workmen therefrom, and that this suit was immediately started thereafter. It is also disclosed that these parties owned other lands located in Cache County, Utah, as well as in the state of Idaho, which they cultivated and farmed during the continuance of the partnership, and that during the continuance of the partnership a sixty-acre tract located in Cache County, the legal title to which was in the name of plaintiff, was sold and the proceeds immediately deposited to the credit of the partnership, and was invested in sheep which belonged to the partnership, and both plaintiff and defendant participated in the profits of the sheep purchased with that money.
The defendant maintains, as alleged in his answer and counterclaim, that under the original partition among the three brothers the twelve-acre and three-acre tracts were given to him, and that thereafter, in about the year 1899, an oral
Appellant contends that, even though the findings are supported by the testimony, the conclusions of law of the court are contrary to the findings as made. He insists that if it appears in this case that the property here in question is partnership property, an action affecting only a part of that property cannot be maintained, and that the plaintiff’s remedy would be to ask for an accounting and the closing up of the entire partnership affairs before any relief can be
The finding of the court concerning the 160 acres purchased from the state of Utah is not only supported by the evidence,' but that finding would seem to be the only conclusion that could have been arrived at from a consideration of the testimony offered relating to that particular phase of the case.
The respondent has filed cross-assignments of error and complains that the court erred in retaxing costs on defendant’s motion, and of the failure of the court to allow the plaintiff damages for the use of the 160-acre tract from the year 1909,
"We are satisfied that the findings of the lower court are supported by the evidence, and that the findings support the conclusions and judgment. It therefore follows that the judgment should be affirmed. Such is the order. Eespondent to recover costs.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.