57 Conn. 565 | Conn. | 1889
This is an appeal from the doings of the commissioners on the estate of Sheldon Clark, late of Beacon Falls, deceased, in disallowing a note payable to Charles B. Clark for the sum of seven hundred dollars. The Superior Court made a finding of facts and reserved the question for the advice of this court.
The note in controversy was made on the 29th day of August, 1887. On the 6th day of October following Sheldon Clark made his will and on the 19th day of the same month he died. The execution and delivery of the note was proved, or was admitted, and as it is expressed to be for value received it would primé facie be a valid claim against the estate of its maker and should be paid.
The finding is not very explicit and perhaps not entirety free from doubt, but, taken in connection with the will and with the note itself, it appears that Sheldon Clark, who was unmarried and sick with the consumption, of which disease he died, lived in the family of Charles B. Clark a good part of the time from about January 1st, 1886, to the last of January, 1887—boarded there, and in a sort made it his home there—not continuously but at intervals. There was a price for board which was paid. Charles and his wife, however, rendered services to Sheldon outside the regular contract for board—washed and mended his clothes, attended upon
The appellees urge two reasons why the note ought not to be allowed against the estate of Sheldon Clark:—that it was, and was intended to be, a testamentary gift; and that it was without consideration. The view we have taken of the case makes any reference to the first reason unnecessary; for if the note was made and delivered upon a sufficient consideration it is valid and binding, and should be paid irrespective of that objection.
We think the note was made on sufficient consideration. Prof. John William Smith in his lectures on the law of
The case of Worth v. Case, 42 N. York, 362, is a case very similar in many respects to the one now in hand. It was brought against-the defendant as the executor of Theron B. Worth, on a note for $10,000. The plaintiff and Theron were sister and brother. The plaintiff resided in Corning, not keeping house but living in a furnished room. Theron lived in Southold. He visited the plaintiff at her residence several times. At a visit in January, 1864, he was very ill there. She gave up her room and bed to him, and he spent his entire time in them. She nursed him, bathed him, and rubbed his limbs every morning during his sickness. She also brought his meals to him from the hotel and rendered other attention to him while he was sick. He paid the bill at the hotel but paid her nothing for her service. Several times during his stay he spoke to her about paying her, and said he would pay her well. On the day he left her house, January 30, 1864, he handed her a sealed envelope indorsed: “Mary C. Worth. This is not to be unsealed while I live and to be returned to me at any time I may wish it. T. B. Worth.” The plaintiff was not informed and did not know what the envelope contained, until she opened it after her brother’s death in 1867, and found in it the note on which the suit was brought. Theron left a will by which he gave to the plaintiff the sum of $1,000. The plaintiff had a verdict for the amount of the note; in sustaining which the Court of Appeals said:—“ The note was given for services rendered and if the note speaks truly he then considered those attentions worth $10,000. He chose for these services to execute the note. We have no pecuniary standard by which we can weigh or measure- their value to him. He estimated them then and continued to do so at $10,000. And those who stand in his shoes have no right to repudiate the contract which he made.” Dean v. Carruth, 108 Mass., 242, is another case of like kind.
The case of Wolford v. Powers, 85 Ind., 294, was brought
Earl v. Peck, 64 N. York, 596, was a case brought on a note for $10,000 executed by the defendant’s testator. The plaintiff had been in the service of the deceased for some six or seven years as his housekeeper and he was indebted to her for her services. The note was made only about two
The services rendered by Charles Clark and his wife to Sheldon Clark and for which this note is the promise to pay, if they should be drawn out on a book in the form of an account, with times and dates, and the thing done, and prices, might not amount to seven hundred dollars. But to Sheldon Clark, alone in the world, unmarried, without family or near kindred to make a home for him, sick of a wasting disease, who can measure their value so well as he ? He put his own estimate upon them, deliberately and without “speck of imposition.” If he chose to pay for the services rendered a much larger sum than they were apparently worth, he had the right to do so. The note was not a gratuity or a testamentary gift. There is no standard whereby courts can limit the measure of value in such a case; and the note is not wanting even partially in consideration because the value of the consideration is less than the obligation.
The Superior Court is advised to render judgment for the appellant to recover of the estate of Sheldon Clark the amount of the note.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.