Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/113/756/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 02:49:18+00:00

Document:
No rule can be laid down in reference to amendments of equity pleadings that will govern all cases. They must depend upon the special circumstances of each case, and in phasing upon applications to amend, the ends of justice must not be sacrificed to mere form or by too rigid an adherence to technical rules of practice.
made by the bill and sustained by the proof. The bill, with the prayer thus amended, was in the form in which it might have been originally prepared consistently with the rules of equity practice.
The case distinguished from Shields v. Burrow, 17 How. 130.
Although the debt for unpaid purchase money was barred by limitation under the local law, the lien therefor on the land was not barred, for there was no such open adverse possession for the period within which actions for the recovery of real estate must be brought as would cut off the right to enforce the equitable lien for the purchase money.
This was a bill in equity to set aside a conveyance of lands, or (as amended below) in the alternative for payment of the purchase money and to make it a lien on the lands.
The main question on this appeal relates to the alleged error of the circuit court in permitting the complainants at the hearing to amend the prayer of their bill so as to obtain relief not before specifically asked, and which, appellants contend, is inconsistent with the case made by the bill. To make intelligible this and other questions in the cause, it is necessary to state the issues and the general effect of the evidence.
On the 28th day of March, 1871, John D. Ware executed his title bond to William D. Hardin reciting the sale to the latter of certain lands in Crittenden County, Arkansas, for the sum of $20,000, one-half of which was to be paid at the delivery of the bond and the remainder on the 1st day of January thereafter in county scrip or warrants, and providing for a conveyance to the purchaser when the purchase money should be fully paid. Ware died at his home in Tennessee on the 6th day of December, 1871. In the same month, the Probate Court of Crittenden County appointed L. B. Hardin (a brother of the purchaser) to be administrator of Ware, and on the 15th of January, 1872, his bond having been on that day filed and approved, letters of administration were directed to be issued. Under date of the 23d day of January of the same year, L. B. Hardin, in his capacity as administrator, executed to the purchaser an absolute conveyance of all the right, title, and interest of Ware in the lands. The deed recited the payment by the grantee to the said administrator of $10,000 in Crittenden county scrip and warrants, and that the deed was made in conformity with an order of the probate court.
"When any testator or intestate shall have entered into any contract for the conveyance of lands and tenements in his lifetime which was not executed and performed during his life and shall not have given power by will to carry the same into execution, it shall be lawful for the executor or administrator of such testator or intestate, with the approval, in term time, to execute a deed of conveyance of and for such lands, pursuant to the terms of the original contract, such executor or administrator being satisfied that payment has been made therefor according to the contract and reciting the fact of such payment to the testator or intestate or to such executor or administrator, as the case may be, which deed may be acknowledged as other deeds and shall have the same force and effect to pass the title of such testator or intestate to any such lands as if made pursuant to a decree of court."
Act Feb. 21, 1859; Gantt's Dig. 180.
collusion between the purchaser and his brother, to a claim which they, acting together, fraudulently procured to be allowed in favor of W. D. Hardin against Ware's estate, when in fact no such indebtedness existed; that all the papers relating to the estate of Ware were destroyed by Hardin, while in his custody as clerk of the probate court, for the purpose of concealing his fraudulent scheme to obtain the lands without paying for them; that the deed from Hardin to his wife was without consideration, and that Hardin, after he took possession of the lands, appropriated to his own use all the rents annually accruing therefrom.
"the said bond for title and the said deeds made by Lucian B. Hardin to said William D. Hardin, and by the latter to said Lida Hardin, his wife, may be set aside for fraud; that an account may be taken of the said rents and profits, and of the value of the county warrants delivered by said William D. Hardin, and that your orators may have a personal decree against said defendants for any balance that may be found to be justly due to them; that a decree may be rendered quieting the title of the plaintiff herein to said lands against said claims of the said defendants, and for such other relief as equity may require."
Hardin and wife filed separate answers, and also pleas relying upon the statute of limitations in bar of the suit. They also demurred to the bill upon numerous grounds.
A good deal of evidence was taken touching the physical and mental condition of Ware at and before the execution of his title bond, as well as upon the issue as to whether Hardin had paid for the lands according to contract. Without detailing all the facts, it is sufficient to say that according to the weight of the evidence, the payment to Ware of $5,400 in county scrip or warrants was the only one ever really made on Hardin's purchase of these lands, and that the alleged payment subsequently of $10,000 in like scrip or warrants to L. B. Hardin, administrator, was not intended to be a payment on the land, because the proceeds of their sale were, by collusion between him and W. D. Hardin, appropriated by the latter on a fictitious claim asserted by him against Ware's estate.
"Or, if thought proper, that the court give a decree for the purchase money due on said lands, and that the plaintiffs be decreed to have a lien on said lands for the payment thereof, and that said lien be foreclosed."
This amendment was allowed, and the defendants excepted. And thereupon the court, having heard the evidence and the argument of counsel, rendered a final decree adjudging that W. D. Hardin was indebted to B. P. Boyd, administrator of Ware, in the sum of $17,150 on the purchase money for the lands, and that complainants have a lien thereon for its payment, relating back to the date of the title bond. The deeds from L. B. Hardin, administrator, to W. D. Hardin, and from the latter to his wife, were cancelled for fraud, and the land ordered to be sold in satisfaction of the lien, no sale, however, to take place until the heirs of Ware should file in court a warranty deed for the lands. The court refused to give a personal decree for the balance of the purchase money, "the same being barred by the statute of limitations." Subsequently, the heirs of Ware filed the required deed in court, and the decree was made absolute.
Hardin appealed to this Court. After the appeal was perfected, he departed this life, and by consent it was revived in the name of Mrs. Hardin, as his administratrix. After the submission of the cause here, the heirs at law of Hardin appeared, and by consent they were made co-appellants without opening the submission.
the case, when fully stated and correctly applied to the proper parties, sufficient to warrant a decree."
"The instances, however, in which this will be done are confined to those where it appears from the case made by the bill that the plaintiff is entitled to relief although different from that sought by the specific prayer; when the object of the proposed amendment is to make a new case, it will not be permitted."
Whether the amendment in question changed the substance of the case or made a new one we proceed to inquire.
but without any suggestion of surprise or any intimation that he was able or desired to produce additional proof upon that issue. Apart from the allegations in reference to fraud in obtaining the title bond, the bill made a case of nonpayment of the greater part of the purchase money. To amend the prayer of the bill so as to justify a decree consistent with that fact did not make a new case, nor materially change the substance of the one actually presented by the bill and the proofs. It served only to enable the court to adapt its measure of relief to a case distinctly alleged and satisfactorily proved. The complainants could thereby meet the objection which otherwise might have been urged that the nature of the specific relief originally asked precluded the court from giving under the general prayer the particular relief which the amendment and the proof authorized.
It is a well settled rule that the complaint, if not certain as to the specific relief to which he is entitled, may frame his prayer in the alternative, so that if one kind of relief is denied, another may be granted, the relief of each kind being consistent with the case made by the bill. Terry v. Rosell, 32 Ark. 492; Colton v. Ross, 2 Paige 396; Lloyd v. Brewster, 4 Paige 540; Lingan v. Henderson, 1 Bland 252; Murphy v. Clark, 1 Sm. & Marsh 236. Under the liberal rules of chancery practice which now obtain, there is no sound reason why the original bill in this case might not have been framed with a prayer for the cancellation of the contract upon the ground of fraud, and an accounting between the parties, and, in the alternative, for a decree which, without disturbing the contract, would give a lien on the lands for unpaid purchase money. The matters in question arose out of one transaction, and were so directly connected with each other that they could well have been incorporated in one suit involving the determination of the rights of the parties with respect to the lands. The amendment had no other effect than to make the bill read just as it might have been originally prepared consistently with the established rules of equity practice. It suggested no change or modification of its allegations, and in no just sense made a new case.
"To strike out the entire substance and prayer of a bill and insert a new case by way of amendment leaves the record unnecessarily encumbered with the original proceedings, increases expenses, and complicates the suit; it is far better to require the complainant to begin anew. To insert a wholly different case is not properly an amendment, and should not be considered within the rules on that subject."
The circumstances of the present case are entirely different from those in Shields v. Barrow. The amendment here did not introduce new allegations, nor make additional parties, nor encumber the record, nor increase the expenses of the litigation, nor complicate the suit, nor make new issues of fact. It simply enabled the court, upon the case made by the original bill, to give the relief which that case justified. Neale v. Neales, 9 Wall. 8; Tremolo Patent, 23 Wall. 518; Burgess v. Graffam, 10 F.
219; Battle v. Mutual Life Ins. Co., 10 Blatchford 417; Ogden v. Thornton, 30 N.J.Eq. 573; McConnell v. McConnell, 11 Vt. 291.
We are of opinion, for the reasons stated, that the amendment of the prayer of the bill was properly allowed and that there was no error in adjudging that Ware's estate had a lien on the land for the balance of purchase money. The deed to W. D. Hardin and the deed of the latter to his wife having been properly cancelled, the legal title remained in the heirs of the vendor. They are not bound to surrender that title except upon the performance of the conditions upon which their ancestor agreed to convey, viz., the payment of the purchase money. According to the local law, they occupied the position of mortgagees, for "the legal effect of a title bond is like a deed executed by the vendor and a mortgage back by the vendee." Holman v. Patterson's Heirs, 29 Ark. 363; Martin v. O'Bannon, 35 Ark. 68. The heirs of Ware held the title in trust for the purchaser, while Hardin was a trustee for the payment of the purchase money. Shall v. Biscoe, 18 Ark. 157; Moore v. Anders, 14 Ark. 629; Holman v. Patterson's Heirs, 29 Ark. 363; Bayley v. Greenleaf, 7 Wheat. 50; Boone v. Chiles, 10 Pet. 225; Lewis v. Hawkins, 23 Wall. 126; 1 Story Eq.Jur. § 1217 et seq.; 2 Sugden Vendors 375, c.19, n. d.
equitable principles, such as estoppel, he can only interpose the bar of adverse possession of the land for such time as would bar the action at law for its recovery."
"is a wholesome one for both parties, as it enables the mortgagee (or vendor by title bond) to rest securely on his legal title, and indulge the mortgagor or purchaser, while the latter can easily, upon payment, procure the legal title, or have satisfaction of the mortgage entered of record under the statute, and even if he should neglect this, a court of chancery would not entertain a stale demand for foreclosure after many years without clear proof rebutting the presumption of payment; or if the mortgagor should die and the heirs should enter without recognition of the mortgagee's rights, the statute of limitations would commence to run as in case of adverse possession."
to the conveyance to his wife, that showed such open, notorious adverse possession of the land as was requisite to change the relations originally existing between the vendor and purchaser, or between the latter and the heirs of the former. Hardin's possession under the deed of the administrator was simply a continuation of the possession originally obtained with the consent of his vendor. If it be said that Mrs. Hardin's possession under the deed from her husband was, upon her part, an assertion of title adverse to any claim that Ware's estate had, it may be answered that such possession commenced less than seven years prior to the bringing action or suits to be brought within which the statutes of Arkansas require action or suits to be brought for the recovery of real estate.
It is objected to the decree that the value of the county scrip or warrant, which the court found had not been delivered by Hardin in payment for the land, should have been ascertained upon the basis of value as alleged in the original bill, namely, ten cents on the dollar, and this, although the answer placed their value at seventy-five cents. According to the preponderance of evidence, they were worth about seventy cents on the dollar of their face value. The court was not obliged to accept the allegations of value in the pleadings, and should have been controlled on this point by the evidence. We do not perceive any error in the aggregate amount ascertained to be due, taking the two installments of purchase money at the market value of the scrip or warrants, in which they were payable at the time they were respectively due, and giving interest upon those amounts from the maturity of each installment.
upon the failure of the petition to disclose the circumstances under which the papers alleged to have been lost were found, it is sufficient to say that the granting of a rehearing was a matter within the discretion of the court below, and not to be reviewed here.

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