127 Neb. 325 | Neb. | 1934
This action was begun in the district court for Phelps county by Agatha M. Goodlett, as plaintiff, against the heirs of Asa Lucas, deceased, their respective spouses, and the administrator of the estate of said decedent. The object of this action is to obtain specific performance of an oral contract alleged to have been made between the plaintiff and said deceased at Hot Springs, Arkansas, about the month of March, 1912. The contract alleged is to the effect that the plaintiff should live upon the farm owned and occupied by said deceased and perform services as housekeeper for him until he died, and that in return for such services said Lucas upon his death would give to the plaintiff one-half of his estate. Performance by the plaintiff is pleaded. Lucas died intestate a resident of Phelps county on May 13, 1932, without having
The sufficiency of the evidence to establish the making of the contract alleged is involved. No evidence was offered by the defendants. The estate of the deceased Lucas consists of several parcels of real estate and also farm implements, live stock and other personal property.
Robert Goodlett, a son of plaintiff, testified that he first met the deceased at Hot Springs, Arkansas, in the winter of 1911, when he was about 12 years old; that the plaintiff moved from Hot Springs, Arkansas, to the Lucas farm in Phelps county, Nebraska, in the spring of the year 1912, and lived there until Lucas died; that he had lived on the Lucas farm with his mother and Lucas continuously from the year 1914 to the date Lucas died. This witness also testified that on September 1, 1931, while he, the plaintiff, and the deceased sat alone in an automobile, near the depot in Kearney, Nebraska, his mother wrote the following upon a blank bank check:
*327 “Sept. 1, 1931. This is to acknowledge Mrs. A. M. Goodlett as my pardner on the farm since April 1912, and has been steady and faithful for which I owe her one-half of my estate.”
This son testified that Lucas then signed his name to the check and gave it to his mother. An instrument of such import appears in the record. The portion thereof that precedes the word “which” therein appears upon the back of the check, and the balance thereof upon the face of the check. The name “Asa Lucas” appears on the line prepared upon the check form for the signature of the maker, where it would ordinarily appear if the check form had been signed when blank by Lucas in order to allow any one to complete the check by filling out the blank spaces above his signature. The son, Robert Goodlett, also testifies that in 1925 he read some letters, bearing a date in 1912, that he found in his mother’s trunk on the Lucas farm, and that they were in stamped and postmarked envelopes that were addressed to his mother at Hot Springs, Arkansas, and that these letters were in the handwriting of Asa Lucas. This witness testified that the letters stated: “Instead of going to St. Louis, come on up and be housekeeper, and do as we agreed upon, and then go fifty-fifty, and if you stay until he is through, with it, to get half of all his property.” None of these letters was produced, and both the plaintiff and her son testified that they had searched for them and could not find them.
Mrs. Florence Holzer, a sister of the plaintiff, testified that she with her son and daughter visited the Lucas farm from in January, 1929, to sometime in March, 1929, and that, on account of her desire to have her son stay upon the farm .to improve his health, she talked to Lucas, while on a trip to Kearney, Nebraska, alone with him, concerning his consent to the son’s stay. This witness testified that in this conversation Lucas said, “If it’s all right with Mrs. Goodlett, * * * it’s all right with me, because you know the agreement is that she is to get half of everything I own.”
Lew Sealing, a neighbor to Lucas for about 12 years testified that on a trip to Minden, Nebraska, with Lucas, he asked Lucas if Mrs. Goodlett would come in for half of Lucas’ property, and that Lucas replied; “Yes; she’ll come in for half.” This conversation occurred, according to this witness, when he and Lucas were alone, and only a day or two before Lucas suffered the stroke of paralysis from which he shortly thereafter died.
From the testimony of the witnesses heretofore mentioned and from that of others, the evidence fairly establishes the fact that the plaintiff did all classes of work commonly done by a farmer’s wife while living upon a farm, and, in addition, on some occasions worked in the fields, did chores, tended live stock, and did other classes of work usually regarded as being only that of a man. No evidence, other than that above outlined, relates to any admissions, declarations or statements of the deceased concerning the making of any such contract as that alleged, or concerning any provisions of such a contract. The son, Robert Goodlett, is shown to have married in 1926 and to have lived upon the Lucas farm with his wife continuously after 1926. At least, from the year 1928 to the date Lucas died, this son operated the farm and paid Lucas a portion of the crop as rent. The evidence does not show what circumstances, financial or social, surrounded' the plaintiff at the time the contract is alleged to have been made, and does not show whether or not any payment of money was made to her by Lucas during her stay upon his farm. The plaintiff is not shown to have known Lucas, except for a very short time prior to the date the contract is alleged to have been made. Lucas is not shown to have held any ill- feeling toward any persons liable to inherit his property.
Much space is devoted in the briefs to the question of whether or not sufficient proof of the loss of the letters mentioned in the testimony of Robert Goodlett and sufficient proof of search therefor existed to allow that witness to testify as to the contents of such letters. We have treated the testimony as to the contents of these letters as having been properly admitted, and therefore need not discuss its admissibility.
The decree of the district court is
Affirmed.