237 Mo. 662 | Mo. | 1911
Benjamin Brown died on May 27, 1884, leaving surviving him his widow, Rachel Catherine Brown, his children, James G., John W., Sam B. Brown, Janairia I. Stokes, Millie K. Gaines, and his grandchildren, Ben and Cooper Sims and Catherine Haines, children of a deceased daxighter.
In his lifetime, Benjamin Brown owned in fee 200 acres of land in Randolph county. He and his wife as tenants by the entirety owned 327 acres more adjoining, and this last mentioned tract is the one involved in this suit. Prior to the death of Benjamin Brown all of his children had married and moved to their own homes, with the exception of John and Sam, the two youngest boys. In about three years- after the death of the father the son Sam married and moved away. During the first three years succeeding the death of the father, Sam and John purchased the interests of the other heirs in and to the 200L-acre tract above mentioned. The interests of the several heirs were fixed by the will of Benjamin Brown. On the 20th day of March, 1887, Rachel Catherine Brown conveyed the home place of 327 acres to defendant John W. Brown, retaining to herself a life estate therein. At about the. same time John W. Brown conveyed to Sam B. Brown all his interest in the 200-acre tract. The widow, Rachel Catherine Brown, likewise at the same time made a deed to Sam B. covering the 200-acre tract. Under the will of the husband she had a life estate in this tract. The estate of Benjamin Brown,
The plaintiffs, who are the heirs of Rachel Catherine Brown, before mentioned, with the exception of John and Sam, who are defendants, by bill in equity seek to have the deed of March 21, 1887, conveying the home place to John, set aside and cancelled and also ask that the said John be required to account for the rents and profits of the land from and after the death of their mother. The grounds upon which the bill seeks the cancellation of this deed are (1) mental incapacity, (2) false and fraudulent representations,. (3) undue influence and (4) coercion. The pleader in the bill clusters around these grounds a mass of supposed facts, stating them in detail, but the gist of the bill is covered as above stated. John Brown answered denying all material allegations of the bill. Sam Brown did not answer.
Trial in the circuit court resulted in a finding of the- issues for the defendants, and the dismissal of. plaintiffs’ bill. After the filing and overruling of motion for new trial, plaintiffs duly perfected their appeal to this court.
The only assignment of error urged is that the court erred in deciding the issues in favor.of the defendant and in dismissing plaintiffs’ bill in equity.
I. It is urged that the grantor was mentally incapacitated to make the deed in question. The plaintiffs ’ evidence upon this question tended to show that in 1881, the grantor in this deed, Mrs. Brown, suffered from a paralytic stroke, and was thereafter physically and mentally weak. This evidence, with but slight exceptions, comes from plaintiffs alone. Their testi
II. Upon the question of coercion the testimony is, to say the least, conflicting*. Defendants testify positively that there was none, and plaintiffs testify to some circumstances which might be said indicated that there was such action upon the part of defendants. In this, too, their testimony would appear to be largely overdrawn. The whole family seemed to be possessed of some temper, and plaintiffs appear much overwrought in their demeanor, upon the witness stand. None of them visited their mother after the year 1887. About that time an inventory was taken of the father’s estate by the mother, and the plaintiffs openly charged the mother with making a false inventory. The father had by his will cut out the grandchildren for the reason, as stated in a codicil to the will, that he hád given their mother all of his estate that he intended to go to her. The plaintiffs insisted on their mother ignoring the will and dividing the estate between them all equally. Tt would seem that at least
Under the law, the land in question was the mother ’s. She had a right to do with it as she pleased. It is more than probable under the facts that she had been well treated by the younger boys and felt closer to them. Good treatment from a son toward an old mother is not an influence which the law condemns.
But going further the acts of undue influence are denied and the circumstances seem to rebut them. First, the deed was made and immediately recorded, so that there were no dark-lantern steps upon the part of John W. Brown. Likewise were the brother’s deeds made about the same time recorded. The deed had stood for twenty-one years when the grantor died. She was fifty-seven when she made it and seventy-eight when she died. The last seven or eight years of her life she was not living with either of the defendants. She attended to her own business up to the time of her death. During these years her physicians and her neighbors say she was all right mentally. Had she been wronged into the making of this deed, she would have no doubt attempted to rectify it, and especially is this true when it is further considered that, the plain
This covers the questions of the case. The judgment of the circuit court is for the right party and is therefore affirmed.