Hennessey v. Woolworth

by John Marshall Harlan

United States Supreme Court

128 U.S. 438

Hennessey  v.  Woolworth

The appellees, S. B. Woolworth and Clara Woolworth, his wife, the plaintiffs below, claiming to have been for more than 10 years prior to the 13th of June, 1883, in the constant, actual, and lawful possession of lots 4 and 9, block 20, Robert & Randall's addition to St. Paul, Minn., and averring that the appellant, the defendant below, wrongfully asserted an interest therein adverse to them, brought this suit in one of the courts of the state for the purpose of obtaining a decree adjudging that the defendant had no right, title, estate, lien, or interest in those lots, and for such other relief as was proper. The suit was based upon a statute of Minnesota providing that 'an action may be brought by any person in possession, by himself or his tenant, of real property, against any person who claims an estate or interest therein, or lien upon the same, adverse to him, for the purpose of determining such adverse claim, estate, lien, or interest; and any person having or claiming title to vacant or unoccupied real estate may bring an action against any person claiming an estate or interest therein adverse to him, for the purpose of determining such adverse claim, and the rights of the parties respectively.' Gen.St.Minn. 1878, p. 814, c. 75, § 2. The suit was subsequently removed into the circuit court of the United States. The original complaint having been ordered to stand as a complaint in equity in the circuit court, the defendant filed an answer controverting all of its material allegations, and, also, by leave filed a cross-bill, seeking a decree for the specific execution of a written agreement, which was put upon record, and is alleged to have been made between him and the plaintiffs on the 23d of December, 1881, for the sale and conveyance by them to him of the lots in question. That agreement is as follows:

'Received at St. Paul, Minn., this 23d day of December, 1881, of David J. Hennessey, of Dubuque, Iowa, the sum of fifty dollars as earnest and in part payment of the price of lots four (4) and nine, (9,) in block twenty, (20,) of Robert and Randall's addition to St. Paul, Minn., which, as the authorized agent of Clara Woolworth and S. B. Woolworth, her husband, of the last-named city and state, I have bargained and sold to the said Hennessey for ten thousand dollars, to be paid, and which the said Hennessey stipulates to pay, as follows, to-wit: Twenty-five hundred dollars, less aforesaid earnest money, on delivery to the said Hennessey of good warranty deed, with full covenants, which shall convey to the said Hennessey from the said Woolworths good, clear, and perfect title, except as to the notes and mortgages hereinafter mentioned, to said property and to all improvements and appurtenances thereunto belonging, and after the said Hennessey shall have been furnished by the said Woolworths with a complete, official, and certified abstract of title to the said property, which shall show title in them thereto as aforesaid, and nineteen hundred dollars on or before one year, and nineteen hundred dollars on or before two years, and nineteen hundred dollars on or before three years from the delivery as aforesaid and the giving to said Hennessey possession of said premises and the emoluments, with interest at the rate of seven per centum per annum, payable annually, except in case of a note taken up before due, and the three last-mentioned sums are to be secured by mortgage back on the said premises, and the said Hennessey is to assume, from and after the last-mentioned date, and from and after that date only, a certain note and mortgage for eighteen hundred dollars, which [plaintiffs] made August 10, 1880, and running from Seth B. Woolworth and Clara Woolworth to Edwin W. Rice, which said mortgage is recorded in the office of the register of deeds of said Ramsey county, in Book 59 of Mortgages, on page 218, and which the said Hennessey agrees, under and in accordance with the said stipulations herein contained, and each of them, to pay when due.

'It is, moreover, agreed that if there are any clouds or defects in the title to the said property they and each of them shall be removed and cured with becoming diligence by the said Woolworths, and if not removable or curable the aforesaid fifty dollars is to be refunded, and this contract to be null and void, at the option of the said Hennessey, and to be void, also, at the option of the said Hennessey, in the event of the neglect or failure on the part of the said Woolworths to remove or cure the clouds or defects which may be on said title.

'P. T. KAVANAUGH,

'Agent of Clara Woolworth and S. B. Woolworth.

'DAVID J. HENNESSEY.

'Witnesses:

'H. A. ESTES.

'H. M'CARTHY.'

Replications to the answer and cross-bill were filed by the plaintiffs, and a decree rendered dismissing the cross-bill, and giving them the relief asked by the original bill or complaint. By that decree it was among other things adjudged that the instrument of December 23, 1881, was not authorized by the plaintiffs, or either of them, and was void; that the defendant had no right or interest in said lots in virtue of that writing. The defendant and all persons claiming under him were enjoined from asserting any interest in the lots as against the title or possession of the plaintiffs, or either of them. It was in proof that the plaintiffs, under date of December 8, 1881, executed and delivered to Kavanaugh a writing as follows:

'ST. PAUL, Dec. 8, 1881.

'P. T. Kavanaugh: We hereby authorize you to sell for us lots 4 and 9, block 20, Robert & Randall's Addition to St. Paul, for ten thousand dollars net to us.

'CLARA WOOLWORTH.

'S. B. WOOLWORTH.'

There was some evidence tending to show that when Hennessey purchased there was exhibited to him a writing purporting to be signed by the plaintiff, and which authorized Kavanaugh to make sale of these lots upon substantially the terms embodied in the written agreement of December 23, 1881. The lots, it should be stated, were the property of Mrs. Woolworth, having been purchased with her means.

M. F. Morris, for appellant.

I. V. D. Heard, for appellees.

Mr. Justice HARLAN, after stating the facts, in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the court.

Notes