110 Iowa 614 | Iowa | 1900
-On tlie 17th day of May, 1897, the plaintiff herein conveyed to the defendant, who is his son, eighty acres of land, of the value of about three thousand dollars. The consideration named in the deed is one dollar ¡and love and affection. At the time of this conveyance to the defendant, the plaintiff was a widower, sixty-six years -of age, and liad six other children, — three daughters, who were in an Illinois convent; one married daughter, who> lived in Cedar county; a daughter and a son, who lived with the father. The value of the plaintiff’s entire: estate at the time was about seven thousand dollars. The defendant had left home when about sixteen years old, and had never returned 'to nor visited the plaintiff’s home during the sixteen years prior to the twenty-ninth of April, 1897. The son Thomas, who lived at home, was somewhat dissipated, and was not of much help or comfort to the father in his declining years. 'The plaintiff, through correspondence, induced the defendant to return to Iowa City, his home, and sent him fifty dollars for that purpose. The defendant arrived there with 'his wife, April 29, 1897, and on the seventeenth of May following, as we have seen,' the deed to the land in question was executed and delivered to him. The plaintiff now claims ■that the consideration for the conveyance has failed, and that it was obtained by fraud and undue influence.
Without setting out in detail the evidence supporting the first contention of the plaintiff, we may say that it tends •.strongly to sustain his claim. When the defendant first reached his father’s home, he asked for a lease of the land for a term of five years. This was agreed to by plaintiff, hut, before it was consummated, the defendant asked that the land be deeded to him. This the plaintiff at first refused to ffo,-whereupon the defendant told him, if he did not do so,