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138 Ind. 219

Copeland v. Summers

Indiana Supreme Court

Decided November 27, 1893

Indiana Supreme Court · decided 1893-11-27

<p>Party in Interest. — Bight to Sue. — Contract.—Delivery.—A person for whose benefit a contract has been made may bring suit on the same, and it is not necessary that the contract should ever have been delivered to him.</p> <p>Contract. — For Benefit of Minor. — Acceptance.—Where a party for whose benefit a contract has been made is a minor, it is not necessary that he should accept the same, as the law puts in an acceptance for him.</p> <p>Same. — For Benefit of Another. — Acceptance.—If a person in whose favor a contract has been made was at the time an adult, the subsequent bringing of an action based on the contract is a sufficient acceptance of the same.</p> <p>Same. — Construction with Will, and Deed. — Title.—Testamentary Disposition. — From the fact that a deed, a contract, and will should all be construed together, for the purpose of ascertaining the intention of the parties, it does not necessarily follow that all such instruments executed at that time are to be regarded as a testamentary disposition of the property named therein, and that title to the property named in the deed did not pass to the grantee.</p> <p>Trust. — Conveyance.—Beal Estate. — Contract.—Where A conveyed to B certain land, and took from B an obligation to pay to C et al. certain sums named therein, B was thereby made a trustee for C et al.</p> <p>Same. — When can not be Altered. — And the trust being once created and accepted, it can not be altered, either by the donor or trustee, without the consent of the beneficiary.</p> <p>Same.— Title. — Grantor and Grantee. — In such case, on the delivery of the obligation, the title vested in the grantee.</p> <p>Pleading.— Theory of. — ■A pleading must proceed upon a definite theory, and if bad upon that theory it can not be sustained upon some other.</p> <p>Tender.— When Available as a Defense. — To make a tender of any avail, it is generally necessary to keep it alive lor the use ol the party to whom it is made.</p> <p>Opinion on petition for rehearing hy Coffey, J.</p>

Relies on Mescall v. Tully · Chicago, St. Louis & Pittsburgh Railroad v. Bills · First National Bank v. Root

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1893-11-27

How this case has been cited

Cited by 45 later decisions — most recently April 1994 · most notably Knight & Jillson Co. v. Castle (1909), Oolitic Stone Co. v. Ridge (1908)

2 federal appellate · 43 state decisions

12018931900191019201930194019501960197019801990decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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¶1On Petition for Á Rehearing.

Coffey, J.

¶2A petition for a rehearing is filed in this case, supported by an earnest and able brief, in which it is contended that this court erred in holding there w;as no question of fraudulent conveyance involved.

¶3After another careful examination of the pleadings, we still entertain the belief upon this subject expressed in the opinion heretofore handed down. It is true that in the ;first paragraph of the answer of Milton L. Copeland, as executor, it is shown that the testator, after the execution of the contracts in suit, did not have sufficient property left to pay his debts, and that such debts still remained unpaid, but the answer proceeds upon the distinct and definite theory that such contracts and the will of the testator constituted a testamentary disposition of the property named in the contracts, and that the title to such property did not, therefore, vest in the appellees until the death of the testator, and was, for that reason, part of the assets in the hands of Hie executor, subject to be used in the payment of such debts. In holding that the title to the property mentioned in the contracts vested in those for whose benefit the contracts were made, at the time of their execution, we necessarily held that this answer was bad upon the theory upon which it proceeds. It is well settled that every pleading must proceed upon some single, definite theory, and if bad upon the theory on which it proceeds, it can not be sustained upon some other theory. Platter v. City of Seymour, 86 Ind. 323; Mescall v. Tully, 91 Ind. 96; Western Union Tel. Co. v. Young, 93 Ind. 118; Chicago, etc., R. *227R. Co. v. Bills, 104 Ind. 13; First Nat’l Bank, etc., v. Root, 107 Ind. 224; Pearson v. Pearson, 125 Ind. 341.

¶4As there is no pleading in the record, drawn upon the theory that the property sought to be recovered by the appellees was transferred to them in fraud of the rights of creditors, there is no question of this character involved in the case.

¶5It is also claimed by the appellant Milton L. Copeland, as executor, that this court erred in failing to pass upon the sufficiency of the second paragraph of his answer as an estoppel.

¶6This paragraph avers, substantially, that the appellee Eliza C. Summers, at the death of Milton L. Copeland, Sr., had full knowledge of the contract upon which she sues, and her rights thereunder; that Milton L. Copeland, Jr., the maker of said contract, on the 10th day of February, 1886, tendered to her the full amount due under such contract, and that she, with such knowledge, refused to accept the same, and repudiated the contract, and so continued to refuse the same up to the time of the commencement of this suit; and that the assets of the estate of the said Milton L. Copeland, Sr., are not sufficient to pay the debts and expenses of administration.

¶7We are unable to perceive any element of estoppel in this answer. To make a tender of any avail whatever, it is generally necessary to keep the thing tendered for the use of the party (to whom the tender is made. It certainly is not the law that money tendered to a creditor, if refused, becomes the property of the debtor, and that he may keep it and refuse to pay the debt.

¶8The court did not err in sustaining a demurrer to this answer.

¶9The petition for a rehearing in this caséis overruled.

¶10Filed. June 19, 1894.

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