Hadaway v. Smith

Miller, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This is an action of "ejectment, brought on the 3rd of January, 1888, by Mrs. Caroline Hadaway, a married woman, by her son and next friend, against Lavin'ia Smith, for a tract of land in Kent County, containing about one hundred and thirty-two acres, which was devised to the. plaintiff by her father, John P. Smith, who died in January, 1811. Prom the pleadings and admissions in the record, the following facts upon which the defence is based, appear to be. undisputed: On the 1st of October, 1812, the plaintiff, with other parties, executed two mortgages of this and other lands to Richard Hynson, one to secure the sum of $10,000 payable on the 1st of October, 1815, with interest payable semi-annually, and the other to secure the sum of $3,500, payable on the 1st of October, 1816, with interest also payable semi-annually; and each contained a power of sale in case of default in payment of principal or interest. Under these powers of sale, Hynson, on the 20th of June, 1816, sold all the mortgaged property, including the land in controversy, to the defendant, who became the purchaser thereof, and this sale has been duly reported to the Circuit Court for Kent County for confirmation, where it is now awaiting the action and decision of that Court.

Under this purchase the defendant entered upon the land and ejected the plaintiff. The husband of the plaintiff did not unite with her in the execution of either of these mortgages, but in each it is recited that she is the “wife of James ³²¹ H. Hadaway, who is a lunatic, or insane, and has been so found upon an inquisition in the Circuit Court for Kent County, and said finding remains unreversed and in force. ” The plaintiff was married in 1853, and in 1858 her husband was indicted and tried in the Circuit Court for Kent County for an assault with intent to kill one James E. Clark. At the trial the plea or defence of insanity was set up, and the jury returned a special verdict “that the traverser, at the time of the commission of the offence for which he is indicted, was insane, and that he still is insane;” and thereupon the Court ordered him to be confined in the Maryland Hospital for the insane, at the expense of the county, (it appearing by the evidence that he is without any property,) “until he shall have recovered, and Tin til he shall have been discharged in due course of law;” and he lias remained so confined in the Hospital under this order from that time to the present. This proceeding in the criminal case is expressly authorized by the Act of 1826, ch. 191, now embodied in the Code, Art. 59, secs. 4 and 5.

Upon this state of facts the Court below decided that the mortgages were binding