192 Mo. 525 | Mo. | 1905
This is an appeal from the decree of the circuit court of Jasper county, dismissing a bill in equity brought by the plaintiff against the defendant,
It is alleged in the petition that the plaintiff is a son of said Vincent P. Bonsai, deceased, and that the defendants Kate B. Randall and J. R. Randall are husband and wife, and that the said Kate Randall is a daughter of the said Vincent P. Bonsai, deceased, and that the defendant G-uy D. Randall is a son of Mae Randall, deceased, who was a daughter of the said Vincent P. Bonsai; that Mae Randall departed this life prior to the death of her father; that Vincent P. Bonsai died July 3, 1900, and at the time of his death was and for many years had been a resident of Jasper county; that the defendant Kate Randall was married to J. R. Randall, who is the father of the defendant G-uy Randall, since the death of her father; that the defendant G-uy Randall is a minor thirteen years of age. Plaintiff states that he, the said plaintiff, and the defendants, Kate Randall and Guy Randall, are the only heirs at law of the said Vincent P. Bonsai, deceased; that on the 29th day of April, 1899, the said Vincent P. Bonsai was the owner in fee simple of the above real estate and on that day made a deed of all of said property to the defendant Kate Randall, by her then maiden name, Kate Bonsai, and the said deed was duly recorded in the deed records of Jasper county on the 3rd day'of May, 1899, in book 146, page 243; that at the time of the making of the said deed, the said Kate Randall was living with her father upon the said real estate and so continued to live until the day of his death, July 3, 1900; that at the time of the making of the said deed, the said Vincent P. Bonsai was more than seventy-five years old and afflicted with disease and ailments, partially paralyzed,
The defendant Mrs. Randall, in her answer, denied each and every allegation therein contained, except that she was a sister of the plaintiff, the death of her father at the time set forth in the plaintiff’s petition, and the conveyance of the property from her father to her. She alleged that said conveyance was for a valuable consideration; that said consideration was services rendered by her by keeping house for him and taking care of him as long as he lived.
The minor defendant, Guy Randall, answered by his guardian ad litem, W. J. Owen, and asserted his title to the undivided one-third in the said lot. The cause was tried at the June term, 1902, on the 25th of August, and resulted in a decree for the defendant, dismissing plaintiff’s bill.
The testimony discloses that Vincent P. Bonsai, deceased, was the father of four children, the plaintiff, Isaac Bonsai, and another son Vincent and two daughters, Kate and Mae. Vincent and Mae both died before their father. ' Mae had intermarried with J R. Randall and left one child, the defendant Guy B. Randall. Vincent P. Bonsai’s wife died sometime prior to the year
Plaintiff seeks to recover in this case on the ground that the deed was obtained by undue influence. There is not a word of testimony in the case that tends to support the charge that Mrs. Randall obtained the deed by any actual undue influence or overpersuasion, but the plaintiff relied upon a presumption of undue influence on account of the relationship of Mrs. Randall to her father of patient and nurse, and insists that the burden is upon Mrs. Randall to rebut this presumption and to show that the transaction was fair beyond the reach of suspicion. It is clear to ns that Mrs. Randall did not bear the relation of nurse to her father in the sense in which the doctrine invoked by the plaintiff has been applied by courts of equity. It is true that Mrs. Randall kept house for her father, nursed him,
This court, in Hamilton v. Armstrong, 120 Mo. l. c. 615, said: “The assumption that Mrs. Bates and Mrs. McLain bofe a confidential relation to their uncle, John Hamilton, from which undue influence might be presumed, merely because they were his nieces, and the natural esteem and affection which should characterize that relation existed between him and them, unaffected by any other relationship, cannot be maintained either by reason or on authority.” And in that case, this court quoted with approval the language of Judge Maceaklane in Maddox v. Maddox, 114 Mo. 35: “We hope it will never be that the visits of a son to an aged and infirm father will be looked upon with suspicion and attributed to a selfish motive.” In Doherty v. Noble, 138 Mo. 32, it was said: “There is no presumption against a voluntary conveyance from parent to child. The burden properly rested upon the plaintiff to prove the exercise of some undue influence by defendant over plaintiff by which the deed was secured. ’ ’
We might add numerous other cases in this State to the same effect, but we deem it entirely unnecessary to cite further precedents as to the law of this State on this proposition. There was nothing in the relation of father and daughter in the circumstances of this case upon which to base any presumption of undue influence or overpersuasion of the father by the daughter. In making the deed to her, he simply carried out an intention which he had often expressed before he was afflicted. He knew that he would be unable in all probability to take care of himself the remainder of his life, and he saw fit, and it was his right, to provide for himself by deeding the lot to his daughter who had already given every evidence of her affection for him.