Long v. Eisenbeis
Long v. Eisenbeis
Opinion of the Court
The history of this case is a long one. One Henry Bash purchased from Mary Eowler and others, in August, 1888, certain land situated in Jefferson county, known as the “Eowler Tract,” containing 237.85 acres. Bash had previously, in the same month, obtained a contract of sale of the land from the grantors, and a deed of conveyance pursuant to the contract was obtained. About that time Bash entered into a written contract with Eisenbeis, whereby they agreed to acquire, hold, sell, and dispose of the land jointly, Eisenbeis to furnish the money for purchasing and platting the land, and to hold the title in his own name, and to reimburse himself from the proceeds of sales, the net balance of all moneys received from sales to be divided equally between them. This agreement was subsequently modified orally to cover an increased purchase price demanded by the grantors as to a part of the tract. On the 31st of August, 1888, Bash and wife conveyed all the land by deed to defendant Eisenbeis, pursuant to their contract. Eisenbeis entered into possession, and subsequently sold a greater portion of the land. He received all the money, and reimbursed himself for all outlay, and divided the net proceeds with respondent Bash. The parties, however, disagreed upon their accounting and upon the ownership of the unsold land, and in September, 1893, Bash and wife instituted a suit against the defendants, setting out substantially the foregoing facts, asking that the contract be rescinded and an accounting had of all the affairs of the trust, and that the lands remaining unsold be divided in accordance with the rights of the parties. Hpon the tidal of that action specific findings of fact were made by the court. It appears that all the land had been platted except 81.61 acres. The court in that suit found that the unsold land should
It must have been determined by this court that one-half the land in dispute had been found by the findings of fact in the prior case to belong to Eisenbeis, and that Eisenbeis was a trustee of Bash, holding said lands for
(1) The court below erred in permitting the plaintiffs to file their supplemental and amended complaint in this cause over the objections and exceptions of defendants; (2) the court erred in overruling the demurrer of defendants to said supplemental and amended complaint filed by plaintiffs; (3) the court erred in retaining jurisdiction of this cause after the filing of said supplemental and amended complaint, and in refusing to dismiss this cause for want of jurisdiction; (4) the court erred in refusing to dismiss this cause after it was shown at the hearing of said demurrer that there were necessary and indispensable parties, who had not been made parties to this cause, and without whom no decree would be rendered which would determine the whole question involved; (5) the court erred in refusing to sustain said demurrer to said supplemental and amended complaint upon the ground that said supplemental and amended complaint did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action; (6)
Outside of any question of res adjudicada, in the case, we are satisfied from all the records that Bash was entitled to one-half of the 84.61 acres. This amount added to 153.24 acres, land which was platted into- lots and blocks, makes the amount of 237.85 acres, the land deeded by Bash to Eisenbeis, and the amount which was the subject of the written contract.. We are also very firmly of the opinion that the complaint stated a cause of action, and that it would be a narrow and illiberal construction of the contract to hold that Bash would not be entitled to an equitable division of the property upon the refusal or inability of Eisenbeis to sell the same. He was entitled to have the property sold in accordance with the contract, and, upon the failure of Eisenbeis to do this, he was entitled to- his equitable relief, viz., a restoration of his portion of the property and a decree restoring the legal title to him. The case is not different from thousands of adjudicated cases where the contract was substantially as the contract in this case. This disposes of' the sixth assignment, that the court erred in refusing to sustain the said demurrer upon the ground that the cause was barred by the statute of limitations; for it is conceded that, if the action was an action in relation to interest in real estate, or to- remove the cloud from title, the six year statute does not apply. The first, second, third and fourth assignments of error are based upon the amended complaint. We do not think the court erred in permitting the plaintiffs to- file their supplemental and amended complaint. Our Code provides for a liberal allowance of
There appearing to be no error committed by the court, and substantial justice demanding that the plaintiffs be awarded the relief prayed for, the judgment will he affirmed.
Reavis, Fullerton and Anders, JJ., concur.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- B. M. Long v. Charles Eisenbeis
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- EQUITY-RECOVERY OF LAND-SUFFICIENCY OF COMPLAINT. SAME — -LIMITATIONS-WHAT STATUTE APPLICABLE. Such an action is one involving an interest in real estate, and not the breach of a written contract for a division of profits, and hence is governed in respect to the limitation upon the time in which it may be commenced by the statute relating to actions for the recovery of real property. PLEADING-AMENDMENT OE COMPLAINT-DISCRETION OE COUBT. The power of the trial court to- permit filing of an amended and supplemental complaint is largely discretionary with it, and its action will not be reversed, when the defendants were not taken by surprise nor any injury done them by the supplemental matter alleged. ACTION INVOLVING MONET IN REGISTRY OF FEDERAL COUBTNECESSARY PASTIES. In an action by plaintiff to procure a decree awarding him title to a half interest in certain lands held by defendant, the filing of a supplemental complaint, setting up that since the commencement of the action the lands had been condemned by the United States for governmental purposes; that one-half the value thereof had been paid over to defendant and the other half had been deposited in the registry of the United States court, awaiting a determination by the state court of the question of who was entitled to the same, and praying that plaintiff be decreed the owner of the money so deposited, would not render it necessary to make the United States a party to the action. APPEAL-ERROR PREJUDICIAL TO RESPONDENT CANNOT BE URGED BY APPELLANT. On an appeal by a party from a judgment declaring the ownership in the adverse party of money in the registry of a federal court, which was claimed by both of them, the appellant cannot urge against the validity of the judgment that the federal court may not respect the judgment of the state court and may refuse to disburse the money pursuant thereto, as such objection to the judgment affords no ground of injury to appellant.