76 Iowa 105 | Iowa | 1888
II. Numerous errors are assigned upon the rulings of the court on questions relating to the admission of evidence, and to instructions to the jury given and refused, as well as upon other actions of the court. It is impossible to consider separately all of the assignments of errors, and the importance of the questions raised on them does not demand it.
III. The defendant insists that the property in question belongs to the father and mother, and is subject to their debts, while plaintiffs insist that, as it was produced from the land held by their mother, as trustee for them, by their own labor, the property belongs to them, and cannot be taken upon an execution against their parent's. It is plain that if the plaintiffs resided in the family of their parents, as members thereof, and contributed by their labor as members of the family to the acquisition of the property, the title thereof is in their parents, and it is subject to the judgment against them. The fact that the land was conveyed to the mother in trust for the children per se would not prevent the parents cultivating it on their own account by the labor of the family. The purpose for which the land was conveyed to the mother, whether its occupancy by the family was contemplated by such purpose, the family relation of the children, whether they were all members of the family with the father and mother as the head thereof, the amount of labor contributed by the children and the parents to the production of the property, all these matters, and others, were properly to be considered in order to determine who were the real owners of the property. These matters could be shown by the acts and declarations of the parties interested. If the parents and children united in regarding the father and mother as the head of the family, of which the children
YI. The court refused to hear a witness testify as to the person making payment to him of money borrowed by plaintiffs’ father. The grounds of the exclusion do not clearly appear. But we are inclined to think it was for the reason that the court thought quite enough evidence of that character had been introduced. But whatever was the ground of the exclusion, we are unable to declare that, if it were erroneous, defendant was prejudiced thereby.
YHI. It is insisted that instructions given by the court as to the effect of the abandonment of the family by the father, with a purpose on his part not to return, to constitute the mother the head of the family, and as to the effect of the acquisition of wages by the son after his emancipation, are erroneous, for the reason that there is an absence of evidence to which they can be held to be applicable. But we think there is evidence upon these points. The fact that the husband soon returned after the family removed to the farm is not evidence that he had not abandoned his family, but rather that, when he found fortune had favored them, and they had become in easier circumstances, he
X. The court gave to the jury an instruction stating that the emancipation of a minor need not be in writing, but may be inferred from, the circumstances that the parent gives the minor to understand that he is to take care of himself, and is not to look to the parent for support, and permits him to contract for his own labor, and from other matters stated in the instruction. It is not urged that the instruction constains an incorrect rule of law; but it is insisted that there is. an utter absence of evidence tending to establish the facts upon which the instruction is based. We do not concur in this conclusion. In our opinion many facts and circumstances developed by the evidence tend to authorize the conclusion that the farm was carried on by the children for their own benefit, with the consent of the parents.
XI. Other instructions are objected to on the ground that there is no evidence to which they are applicable. These objections are not argued. It is sufficient for us to say that we do not concur with counsel.
Affirmed.