Turpin v. Miles

Burke, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The record shows that E. Stanley Toadvin was appointed by decree of the Circuit Court for Wicomico County, passed in a chancery proceeding instituted in that Court, to sell certain real estate. He sold the property and reported the sale as having been made to John W. Turpin and H. Gale Turpin. The sale, as reported, was finally ratified and confirmed.

On. the 20th of September, 1895, Mr. Toadvin, as trustee, executed and delivered to John W. Turpin a deed for the prop ⁶⁷⁹ erty. The deed recites that the entire property known as the Ben Truitt Farm containing 350 acres of land, more or less, was sold by him to John W. Turpin for the sum of twenty-nine hundred and fifty-five dollars, and that the purchase money had been fully paid. On the same day John W. Turpin executed .a mortgage covering the whole farm tó James C. Dirickson to secure the sum of fifteen hundred dollars which was applied as part payment of the purchase money. The mortgage recites that the land therein conveyed was the Ben Truitt Farm, and was the same land which was conveyed to Turpin by E. Stanley Toadvip, trustee, by deed of even date.

Turpin took possession of the farm under the deed, and remained in the undisturbed and continuous possession or control of the same until the 28th of August, 1900, when, being financially embarrassed, he executed and delivered on that day a deed of trust for the benefit of his creditors to Alonzo L. Miles of all his estate and property of every nature, kind, and description. Mr. Miles accepted the trust created by the deed, filed an approved bond as trustee, and upon his petition the Court assumed jurisdiction over the administration of the trust. On the 19th of January, 1901, the trustee sold a portion of the Ben Truitt Farm, containing 186 acres, to William K. Leatherbury and Daniel J. Elliott; and another portion to L. Earnest Williams and John D. Williams, trading as L. E. Williams and Company, and reported these sales to the Court for its ratification. The first report of sale was made on the 18th of April, 1901; and the second on July 6th, 19.01.

H Gale Turpin on May 31st, 1901 filed exceptions to the ratification of the first sale reported upon the ground that he was the joint owner with John Wesley Turpin, as tenants in common, of the property so sold, and that the trustee, with a knowledge of this fact, sold the property as the property of John Wesley Turpin, selling all of the property, instead of the undivided half interest of John W. Turpin therein. He did not except to the second report of sale; nor did John W. Turpin except to either sale. On the 9th of July, 1901, the purchasers filed exceptions to both sales in which they alleged ⁶⁸⁰ that they purchased the land in good faith and in the belief that John W. Turpin was the sole owner thereof in fee; that since the purchase they have been informed that there is an apparent defect in th.e title, in that it appears from the record of proceedings in the case of Truitt et. al. v. Taylor et. al., that E. Stanley Toadvin, trustee, reported the property as sold to John Wesley Turpin and H. Gale Turpin, and subsequently conveyed the whole of the property to John Wesley Turpin; that since the purchase of the property Daniel J. Elliott and William K. Leatherbury have been threatened with proceedings to dispossess them of said property, and that H. Gale Turpin has filed exceptions to the ratification of the sale to them. Their exceptions further allege that they have no disposition to set aside the sale, but they object to the ratification thereof for the reasons stated, and to the end that the sufficiency of their title, and whether the same be a clear and marketable .title may be determined by the Court.

The trustee filed an answer to the exceptions of Turpin and the purchasers in which, among other things, he denied that H. Gale Turpin was a joint owner with John W. Turpin of the property sold as reported; that the report made by E. Stanley Toadvin, trustee, to John Wesley Turpin and H. Gale Turpin as the purchasers of the property was an error, and that, as a matter of fact, John Wesley Turpin was the sole purchaser of the property so