Case Title: Giesbrecht v. Smith

Citation: 397 So. 2d 73

Docket Number: 

State: mississippi

Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Date: 1981-03-25T00:00:00Z

Document:
397 So. 2d 73 (1981) Milton GIESBRECHT et al. v. Mary Ann Barbieri SMITH et al. No. 52264. Supreme Court of Mississippi. March 25, 1981. Rehearing Denied May 6, 1981. *74 Charles M. Merkel, Holcomb, Dunbar, Connell, Merkel, Tollison & Khayat, Clarksdale, for appellants. Lomax B. Lamb, Jr., Larry O. Lewis, Caldwell & Lewis, Marks, for appellees. Before ROBERTSON, P.J., WALKER and BOWLING, JJ. ROBERTSON, Presiding Justice, for the Court: Milton Giesbrecht and wife, Modessa K. Giesbrecht, the Federal Land Bank of New Orleans, and Harry F. Beacham, Trustee, appeal from the December 17, 1979, Decree of the Chancery Court of Coahoma County canceling as clouds on the title of Mary Ann Barbieri Smith, et al: In its decree, the court also found that Milton Giesbrecht and his wife owed rent on the 80 acres of land (the subject of this litigation) to the complainants "from and after the death of Tony Morris on April 13, 1977;" and that Milton Giesbrecht and his wife were not entitled to any reimbursement for extensive improvements made by them to the 80 acres of land. The court stated in its decree that its decision was mandated by the opinion of this Court in Smith, et al. v. Bank of Clarksdale, et al., (Cause No. 51,097), 374 So. 2d 776 (Miss. 1979): The defendants-appellants have assigned as error: In Smith, supra, the only party named as a Defendant, in Mary Ann Barbieri Smith's original Petition "To Declare Null and Void the Decree Reopening Estate Allowing Election of Real Estate and for Other Relief", was Bank of Clarksdale, Executor of the Estate of Tony Morris, deceased. By "Amendment of Petition" filed April 6, 1978, which opened with this language: she added Milton Giesbrecht and his wife, Modessa K. Giesbrecht; The Federal Land Bank of New Orleans; Harry F. Beacham, Trustee; Rocco G. Morris and his wife, Dorothy L. Morris, as the owners of certain mineral interests; and Joe Morris and Louis Morris, the two living remaindermen under the will of Tony Morris, deceased. In neither the Petition nor Amendment thereto did she describe any particular land. She charged that she was the owner of all lands owned by Angeline A. Morris at her death, and she dealt with all lands as a whole. The only place in the amendment to the petition that the Giesbrechts are mentioned is in the opening paragraph. Smith did not pray for any relief against the Giesbrechts, praying only that: In Cause No. 51,097, Smith, supra, on the page before the court's opinion, is this Motion made by Mrs. Smith's counsel: The court sustained this joint motion and rendered its interlocutory opinion and amended interlocutory decree without taking any testimony. The record in Cause No. 51,097 consists of a total of 97 pages. It consists only of the pleadings in Cause No. 16,528, the complete U.S. Estate Tax Return (consisting of 21 pages) filed in 1968, and the court's opinion and amended interlocutory decree on "the issue of the legal effect of the Court Orders entered in the Angeline A. Morris Estate" as asked for in the joint motion. No pleadings in Causes numbered 21,318 and 21,343, which causes were to be consolidated for trial (according to the joint motion) were in the record of No. 51,097, Smith, supra. When No. 51,097 was decided by this Court, causes numbered 21,318 and 21,343 were not even before this Court. In its "Amended Interlocutory Decree" of June 21, 1978, all that the chancery court in Smith, supra, decided was: *76 This complete history of Smith, supra (Cause No. 51,097), is repeated to show beyond peradventure that neither the chancery court nor this Court had before it, in Cause No. 51,097, the defense of bona fide purchaser for value without notice as to the Giesbrechts, or the defense of bona fide encumbrancer for value without notice as to The Federal Land Bank. When attorneys for the Giesbrechts and for The Federal Land Bank checked the title to this 80 acres in January, 1977, there was of public record in Will Book 11 at Page 475 the Last Will and Testament of Angeline A. Morris, deceased, who departed this life on March 13, 1968, and whose last will and testament was probated in common form on October 14, 1968. That will provided, among other things: There was also of public record the complete administration of the Estate of Angeline A. Morris, deceased, from beginning to end by the same chancellor of the same chancery court (which had unquestioned jurisdiction of the subject matter and the parties). The decree of January 23, 1970, closing the estate and discharging the executor had been of public record since its date. The petition to reopen and to make a matter of record the selection of real property to complete the specific bequest and devise of the maximum marital deduction allowable under Federal estate tax laws to Tony Morris, the husband of Angeline A. Morris, and the detailed decree granting all the relief prayed for in the petition had been a matter of public record since September 1, 1972, when the decree was recorded in Minute Book 72 at Page 52 and also in Deed Book 421 at Page 177 of the Land Deed Records of Coahoma County. This decree clearly and unequivocally found and ordered that the 80 acres (now in dispute) was the property of Tony Morris in fee simple. There was also of public record: *77 8 Thompson on Real Property, § 4312, (1963), states: In 77 Am.Jur.2d, Vendor and Purchaser, § 633, (1975), we find this language: Another fatal defect in the case at bar is that the general warranty deed from Rocco G. Morris and wife to Llewellyn E. Nickel and his wife, Rhonda Gaye Nickel, and the general warranty deed from them to the Giesbrechts, are canceled and the Nickels were not even named or summoned as parties defendant. To the Giesbrechts' and The Federal Land Bank's motions to amend their answers in order to assert their respective defenses of bona fide purchasers for value without notice, and bona fide encumbrancer for value without notice, petitioners made oral general and special demurrers, which were sustained by the lower court. The lower court was in error in sustaining the oral general and special demurrers to the motions to amend answers; and the court was in error in holding that its decision in the case at bar was mandated by the decision of this Court in Cause No. 51,097, styled Smith, et al v. Bank of Clarksdale, 374 So. 2d 776 (Miss. 1979), and in effect holding that this matter was res adjudicata. The decree of the lower court is reversed and the cause remanded for a trial on the merits. REVERSED AND REMANDED. PATTERSON, C.J., SMITH, P.J., and SUGG, WALKER, BROOM, LEE, BOWLING and HAWKINS, JJ., concur.