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Keating v. Korfhage et al., Appellants

Supreme Court of Missouri1885-10
88 Mo. 524

Summary

Holding. The agreement between Smith & Keating and August F. Korfhage regarding the party wall was valid and binding, creating an enforceable equitable charge on Korfhage's lot; Korfhage's acquiescence in the wall's construction and materials modified the agreement and estopped him and his successor from challenging it; and the trial court properly exercised equitable authority to determine the wall's cost and enforce the equities of the case. The judgment was affirmed.

Smith & Keating entered into a binding agreement with August F. Korfhage regarding a party wall between their adjacent lots. The agreement was properly executed, acknowledged, and recorded, creating an equitable charge and easement on Korfhage's lot. When Keating later purchased Smith's interest in the agreement and lot, he became the successor to all rights and equities. The defendants' challenge to the validity of the agreement failed.

The trial court found that Korfhage acquiesced in the construction methods used for the party wall, including changes to the stone foundation materials. This acquiescence operated as an estoppel, preventing Korfhage and his successor Caroline from objecting to how the wall was built. The acquiescence also modified the original agreement terms. Because the parties could not be restored to their original positions after the wall's completion, equity permitted the court to determine the wall's cost and adjust the equities between the parties.

Caroline Korfhage, who held a separate estate in the lot and whose husband acted as her agent, was bound by his actions regarding the agreement and arbitration proceedings. She could not avoid the judgment, which was characterized as a property-based equitable lien rather than a personal obligation against her as a married woman.

Summary generated by law.co from the public-domain opinion. The opinion text itself is public domain.

Key issues

  • Whether a recorded agreement regarding a party wall between adjacent properties creates a binding equitable charge enforceable against successors in title
  • Whether acquiescence by the original property owner in deviations from the agreement's terms operates as an estoppel and modification
  • Whether equity permits determination of party wall costs when arbitration fails and parties cannot be restored to their original positions
  • Whether a judgment against a married woman for an equitable lien on her separate property is valid when her husband acted as her agent

Procedural posture

The trial court entered judgment establishing an equitable charge against the Korfhages' property for the cost of the party wall, and the defendants appealed.

Authorities cited

No cited authorities resolved to law.co cases yet.

Opinion

majority opinion

Sherwood, J.

I. Under the authority of the case of Sharp v. Cheatham, ante, 498, the agreement made between Smith & Keating, and August F. Korfhage whereby they bound themselves, their heirs and vendees, in relation to a party wall between their respective lots 282 and 281, in block 29, “Old Town,” Kansas City, must be regarded as binding and creating an equitable charge, easement and servitude on the lot 281 then owned by August F. Korfhage. And this agreement having been duly executed, acknowledged and put to record and Smith & Keating having built on their lot, any one purchasing afterward from August F. Korfhage would talc with notice and subject to the equities created by such agreement. And Keating having bought Smith’s inter r est in the agreement and in lot 281, and received a deed therefor, would be the successor to whatever rights and equities Smith possessed in the premises. The claim of defendants that the agreement should be held invalid or the mere personal one of August F. Korfhage, incapable of being enforced in equity, must, on the authority of the case cited, be ruled adversely to such claim.

II. As to the character of the party wall built by Smith & Keating, as to whether it complied with the agreement, it suffices to say that there was evidence which showed to the satisfaction of the trial court that August F. Korfhage, while he continued owner of lot 281, acquiesced in the construction of the party wall, and such acquiescence estopped him and any one claiming under him from now objecting to the method or materials whereby and wherewith such wall was constructed ; and this acquiescence on his part in a change in the materials used for constructing the stone foundation of the wall, had the effect to alter the agreement in that particular and to render the agreement, as thus changed, binding on the defendant, Caroline Korfhage, who, hav ing received a conveyance-of the lot without any consideration, stood in the shoes of her husband.

III. Mrs. Korfhage, having a separate estate in the lot in question and there being sufficient evidence to satisfy the trial court that her husband acted as her agent in the matters connected with the arbitration proceedings, she must be regarded respecting her separate property as a femme sole and his acts as her acts.

IV. As there was evidence which satisfied the trial court that August F. Korfhage when acting as the agent of his wife refused to go on with the arbitration proceedings after they had been instituted and the arbitrators had failed to agree, this was sufficient to authorize equitable interposition to ascertain the cost of the wall. Indeedj under the ruling in Black v. Rogers, 75 Mo. 441, the agreement made between the original parties and the completion of the party wall was the principal thing; the computation of the cost of that wall was merely auxiliary thereto and inasmuch, owing to the completion of the party wall, as the parties could not be restored to their statu quo, it was competent for a court of equity by any appropriate procedure to ascertain such cost and otherwise adjust and enforce the equities of the case.

V. The judgment in this cause is not obnoxious to the objection that it is a judgment against a married woman. The judgment establishes no personal liability against Mrs. Korfhage. It is special and against the property burdened with the equitable charge, and for the enforcement thereof. Hoskinson v. Adkins, 77 Mo. 573.

Finding no error in the record, judgment affirmed.

All concur..