193 Pa. 605 | Pa. | 1899
Opinion by
In 1878, Robert Coleman, of Philadelphia, died in Paris, where he had resided for some years. He left surviving him, a widow, Rosalie Parant Coleman, a native of France, and one son, George Dawson Coleman, born October 15, 1862. He died testate, his will having been executed in Paris and bearing date July 23,1878. While he had some property in France, the bulk of his estate was in Pennsylvania, consisting principally of an interest in the Cornwall ore banks in Lebanon
We concede the case is not without difficulty, but we are of opinion, on the facts, that it is distinguishable from the cases cited by appellant, deciding that a deed to one. occupying a fiduciary relation to the grantor is presumably void because of that relation. The able counsel for appellee has exhaustively examined all these cases, and furnished us with a very fair and judicial criticism upon them, which we have verified by examination of the reported cases :
In Worrall’s Appeal, 110 Pa. 849, a grantor set aside his deed obtained from him for $15.00, conveying property worth $13,000. The deed was made within five weeks after grantor was of age. He was sick. It was to take the place of a will. The grantor recovered his health. In Darlington’s Estate, 147 Pa. 629, a man eighty-four years old, feeble and infirm, had signed a promissory note for $7,000 in favor of his agent. It was not shown that he had read the note or knew the amount of it. The note was claimed to have been given for past services and those to be rendered in the future. There was no evidence that there had been any past service, and the amount of the note was clearly in excess of any probable future service the agent might render. The total value of the estate of the principal was but $9,000. In Unruh v. Lukens, 166 Pa. 324, a deed to the grantor’s physician, who was also her attorney in fact, was set aside. The deed had never been delivered to defendant, but
The weight of opinion deducible from all the cases is that of Reehling v. Byers, 94 Pa. 316: “ Business dealings between parents and children and other near relatives are not per se fraudulent; they must be treated just as are the transactions between ordinary debtors and creditors, and where the bona fides of their transactions is attacked, the fraud must be clearly proved.” And, as says Stoky, “ To consider a parent disqualified to take a voluntary deed from his child without consideration on account of their relationship is assuming a principle at war with all filial as well as parental duty and affection : ” 1 Story’s Equity, sec. 309.
Now take the facts as found in this case, and notice how different they are from those in the cases cited by appellant: The son disliked his relatives, 'and was averse to having the property go to them; his habits were those of a spendthrift; he gave himself up to wild extravagance and dissipation; in 1884, his mother paid a single debt contracted by him of 160,000 francs ; she paid outstanding judgments against him; he borrowed from one of his agents over 120,000 francs; he frequented the races, owned a stud of horses and a yacht; he said to his cousin he had been unsuccessful in every venture, and had run up debts; that his mother was a good business woman, and had saved his affairs; he abhorred business; and sought only pleasure. These facts, of themselves, it seems to us, sufficiently account for the action of the son. Is any further scrutiny into the relations of the mother and son, or into the character of the transaction, necessary to show that it-was a reasonable and proper one ? The grantor himself, conscious of his infirmities, and wisely apprehensive that in a short time his 'entire estate would be dissipated, conveys it to his mother, to whom he seems to have been most tenderly attached, stipulating for what most persons would consider a liberal annual income. If
As to the deeds being a fraud upon the wife’s marital rights, the deed of November 10,1888, was executed before there was any engagement to marry; the third one, made afterwards, differs in no substantial particular from the second; it, therefore, deprives her of no right, nor defrauds her of any marital prospect.
There is nothing calling for notice in the other assignments of error which has not properly been passed upon by the auditing judge and the court below. All are overruled, and the decree is affirmed.