Griffith v. Godey

by Stephen Johnson Field

United States Supreme Court

113 U.S. 89

Griffith  v.  Godey

This is a suit in equity to charge the defendants as trustees of certain property in which the complainant was interested, and which they received and disposed of. The facts out of which the case arises, briefly stated, are as follows:

For some years previous to 1870 the complainant, Ellis Griffith, and his brother, John Griffith, were partners, engaged in the business of cattle raising, and resided in Kern county, California, where they occupied what is called a stock range, a tract of country on which cattle are permitted to roam and graze. It may be termed the feeding ground-the pasture land of the cattle. Although the title to the land constituting the range was in the United States, and the land was not inclosed, the right of the Griffiths to use it for the pasturage of their cattle was recognized and respected by their neighbors and other stock raisers in the county. It had excellent springs, furnishing water to cattle roaming over a large extent of country, and was capable of supporting from one to three thousand head. It had, therefore, a great value, proportionate to the number it could support. In April, 1870, one Pedro Altube, a member of the firm of Peres & Co., large cattle dealers in California, who was familiar with Kern county and with the character of the range, desired to purchase it for his firm, and offered for it, with the stock, $12,000.

John Griffith died on May 21, 1870, intestate, leaving surviving him two brothers, the complainant and Morris Griffith, his only heirs at law. The partnership property of the deceased and the complainant remained in the latter's possession. It consisted, principally, of horned cattle, horses, and the range mentioned. The brother Morris, who would have been a proper party complainant, declined to take part in the suit. Ellis Griffith, the surviving partner, was a man of weak mind, without any knowledge of business, and barely able to read and write. Among his neighbors were the defendants, Godey and Williams. Godey was an old resident of the county, a man of means, and had the entire confidence of the complainant. On the ninth of June, within a month after the death of the intestate, Altube spoke t Godey about purchasing the range, and stated that he would give for it, with the stock, $12,000, the sum he had offered previously in April; but Godey then had no control over the range, and could therefore give no title to it. The complainant and deceased were aliens, and on the fifteenth of July, 1870, upon the advice of Godey, the complainant declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States, and soon afterwards, upon similar advice, filed an affidavit in the office of the clerk of the county to the effect that he had taken up 160 acres of the range where the springs were. This proceeding was had under a statute of California passed in 1852, which gave the claimant a standing in the courts of the state, and enabled him to maintain possession as against any one not having the title of the United States. The bill alleges that the complainant did not know the nature of the affidavit he had filed, but supposed that by the statement he had made in court he had become a citizen. On the day following, July 16th, Godey filed in the probate court of the county a petition for special letters of administration on the estate of the deceased, and on the nineteenth of July he was appointed special administrator.

The complainant, as surviving partner, was entitled to wind up the affairs of the partnership; but he consented that Godey should receive full letters of administration, and, as administrator, settle the estate of the deceased, without prejudice, however, to his rights as surviving partner to an undivided half of the proceeds of the estate, after the payment of its debts and the expenses of administration. Godey thereupon resigned as special administrator, and was appointed full administrator. He seems to have considered the consent of the complainant as authorizing him to settle up the partnership business as administrator, and accordingly he at once took possession of all its personal property. In August following he filed his inventory, accompanied with his affidavit that it was a statement of 'all the estate of the deceased' which had come to his knowledge and possession. He did not include in it the range or any land. The property mentioned was valued by appraisers appointed by the court at $3,283.50, and consisted of 142 horses, valued at $9 each; 127 cattle, valued at $15 each; a wagon and harness, valued at $100; and a branding-iron, valued at 50 cents. On the sixteenth of that month, upon representations of Godey, an order was obtained from the court that the horses and cattle be sold, as perishable property; and on the twenty-seventh of the same month they were accordingly sold, together with 31 horses not mentioned in the inventory, but subsequently found to belong to the partnership, and a few articles of little value also omitted from the inventory, all of which were bid off by the defendant Williams for $2,077.50. No portion of this sum was paid by Williams at the time. Three weeks afterwards he paid $600 on account. The balance was not paid until after the sale to Altube, as hereinafter mentioned. The sale was, however, reported by Godey under oath to the probate court as having been made for cash.

On the seventeenth of September, 1870, the complainant executed a conveyance of his claim of 160 acres to the defendant Godey for the sum of $500. In the bill he alleges that he did not know the contents of the instrument, but signed it at Godey's request, without intending to convey any interest in the range, and that he received no consideration for it. He was not then, nor at any other time, informed of the offer made for the range and stock by Altube, of the firm of Peres & Co. Soon after this conveyance Godey informed Altube that he and Williams would sell him the range and stock for $13,000. Altube accepted the offer on condition that a certain squatter on the land should be removed. They bought off the squatter for $500, and on the seventh of November, 1870, Altube paid the $13,000 for the range and stock, which sum was equally divided between them.

In the accounts filed by the administrator, the sum bid by the defendant Williams, and the amount of $450 obtained from the sale of cattle in another county, were stated as the proceeds of the whole estate, and they were applied to various claims, the largest of which was held by the administrator, and to meet sundry expenditures, until a balance of only $453.05 was left. On the eighth of July, 1872, the probate court made a decree approving of the accounts, and directing that three-fourths-that is, $339.78-be awarded to the complainant, a receipt for which was given by Mr. Brundage, who appears to have been an attorney, acting under an agreement that he should receive as his compensation one-half of what he should collect. No money was actually paid to the complainant, but the amount was indorsed on a note of his held by Godey.

The present bill was filed to charge the defendants as trustees of the partnership property which came into their hands, and compel them to account for the proceeds obtained by them on its sale to Altube. Its prayer is not in form for this specific relief, but for an accounting for the value of the property, or such other relief as may be just. The court below was of opinion that as the two Griffiths, who composed the partnership, were both aliens and had never taken any steps to become citizens of the United States, and as the range was on unsurveyed public lands of the United States, which they had never inclosed, they had in it no such property interest as to require the administrator to include the claim in his inventory of the property of the deceased. The court also held that the proofs did not sustain the allegations as to the misappropriation of the other property, or of its sale at an inadequate price. The bill was accordingly dismissed, and from the decree the case is brought by appeal to this court.

F. W. Hackett, for appellant.

No appearance for appellee.

FIELD, J.

Notes