148 Mich. 183 | Mich. | 1907
Complainant Nicholas De Vries owned 40 acres of land, which cost him in 1894 $2,200, and upon which he placed a mortgage of $1,500. The farm was rented, complainant and his family living upon other land. In December, 1901, complainant agreed to sell the land at the price of $2,350, the intending purchaser, however, declining finally to take it; not because the price was too great, but for other reasons. In December, 1901, Nicholas was adjudged insane, and was sent to the asylum for the insane at Kalamazoo. There is testimony supporting the idea that his mental affliction may be ascribed to his feeling that he was not prospering financially, and that the failure to make the contemplated sale of this land increased his disorder. In August, 1902, he went home; but he was returned to the asylum in about 30 days, and there remainéd until August 29, 1904. While so temporarily at his home, and on August 23, 1902, he, his wife joining him therein, entered into a written contract with defendant James R. Crofoot to sell him this 40 acres of land for the sum of $2,350. He was to pay $50 down, $800 on or before the 24th of the succeeding March, with interest at 3 per cent, per annum, and the interest upon the mortgage from date of the contract, and a deed subject to the mortgage was to be executed by the vendors and possession given to the vendee Crofoot on or before said March 24, 1903. The 50-dollar payment was made. In April, 1903, Crofoot, the vendee in the land contract, who had gone into possession of the land, petitioned the probate court for an order for specific performance of the' contract. This order was refused upon the ground that the vendor had not been discharged from the asylum as cured at the time he entered into the contract. Thereupon a son of complainant, who was a practicing physician in Grand Rapids, who was, to some extent, advising his mother and his sister and brothers, who testifies that it was his opinion that the land should be disposed of, that the contract price was a fair one, and
Defendant Crofoot was cognizant of the purpose of the proceedings which resulted in securing for him the guardian’s deed. He understood that complainant’s son proposed to secure him the land at the contract price. The representations made by the son, added to the fact that other members of complainant’s family were either passive or, apparently, assenting, had the effect of rendering all that was done by the guardian perfunctory. Except for the purpose of making the sale, there was occasion for, and there would have been, no guardian. The guardian did not assume and did not propose to assume the duties and the responsibilities, generally, of a trustee of the property of an insane person. He did not seek for purchasers of the land. He exercised no volition so far as. determining, as guardian, whether it was for the interest
“At the time I made this petition it was about six months after the property was sold by my father. He was in the insane asylum, and I did it to clear up the contract he had made six months previous to that time. My mother and brothers on the farm were not hard up. They did not need any help from me or anybody else, and that is the reason I took pay from my mother for expenses down here. I thought she was better able to pay than I was to pay my own expenses. * * * I did this service for Crofoot because I thought it was the best way out of the condition things were in. I did not know there was nearly $1,000 worth of personal property there when I made the petition, but I knew there was enough to run the farm successfully. I knew they had money enough to live on, and that they had means to support themselves and care for themselves.”
It is due the son to say that he states his opinion to be that his father was competent to enter into the land contract. But insanity immediately previous and immediately subsequent to the act is established. There is no other evidence of a lucid interval. See 13 Cyc. pp. 573, 752; 22 Cyc. p. 1115. Defendant Crofoot, however, testified that he made the contract, although he knew Nicholas was insane at the time.
Assuming that the record of the proceedings which were taken is, upon its face, regular, it remains that the statute purpose was not the real purpose of those proceedings, and that the real purpose was known to defendant Crofoot. The facts brought to the attention of the probate judge and upon which he acted were not, all of them, true. The petition for appointment of a guardian made by UilkeDe Vries sets out that the estimated value of personal estate of his father is $200, and of his real estate $2,250 or thereabouts, subject to a mortgage of $1,500. The petition of the guardian' sets out that “the income from said estate in its present condition will not exceed the sum of $10,” that the value of the personal estate of his ward which had come to his hands was $215.
It is said for defendant Crofoot that the evidence warrants no conclusion other than that the parties were acting in good faith, there was no desire or intention to defraud' the complainant, the land sold for all that it was worth, the price which the owner himself fixed was obtained, the whole matter was, in fact, in his interest, and resulted beneficially to him. In this connection we are told that
“A legal wrong is committed whenever a man is dispossessed of his property against his will; and, if he de*189 mands his property back, and does not see fit to name a compensation for it, it is clear that nobody else can name one for him. He cannot be forced to submit to a sale at other people’s estimates of value.” Tong v. Marvin, supra.
‘“A sale may have been conducted legally in all its process and forms, and yet the purchaser may have been guilty of fraud, or may hold the property as a trustee. In this case the complainants rely upon no irregularity of proceeding, upon no absence of form. The forms of law were scrupulously observed.’ * * * Jackson v. Ludeling, 21 Wall. (U. S.) 616.
‘ ‘ Had the question of .fraud been before the probate court in any of these proceedings, and had the complainant been apprised of them, the case might have been different. This court would not try over again a case already tried, nor permit the complainant to litigate matters which he had notice of and which he had an opportunity to litigate in the probate proceedings.” Bradley, J., in Johnson v. Waters, 111 U. S. 668, 669.
See, also, Encking v. Simmons, supra. The rule thus stated is applicable here. Such a sale will always be set aside if it is for the benefit of the person non compos mentis where injustice will not be thereby done, or where the parties can be placed in statu quo. And if defendant Crofoot were now the owner of this property, such would be the disposition made of the case.
It is not claimed that the record of the proceedings is infirm, or that it carried to defendants De Kdeine notice of improper or fraudulent conduct. It is claimed that certain circumstances of the manner of their purchase from Crofoot and of their subsequent actions furnish grounds for the inference that they are chargeable with notice of what was sought to be and wás accomplished. Without denying the power of the court to compel them to restore the property and to look to Crofoot for indemnity, we are of opinion that substantial equity can be otherwise done, and therefore as to them we affirm the decree. But the defendant James R. Crofoot should not be permitted to profit by the transaction. We treat him as vendee in a void land contract, who has succeeded in enforcing it, to his
The decree below, as to defendants Crofoot, is reversed, and a decree will be entered in this court in conformity with this opinion. As all defendants joined in the answer to the bill of complaint, and have appeared by the same counsel, no costs of the appeal will be awarded to defendants De Kleine.