238 Mo. 706 | Mo. | 1911
Action in equity to set aside a deed to certain real estate in Pike county, made July 2, 1903, by Emily Bralley to her son James E. Griffith and his wife, Kate Griffith, and to partition the said lands. The petition also speaks of a will executed at the same time. The charging part of plaintiffs’ bill in equity, in so far as is material, is as follows :
“Plaintiffs further represent to the court that soon after the death of the said George L. Bralley, the said husband of the said Emily Bralley, deceased, the said defendant, James E. Griffith, moved from Bowling Green, Missouri, to the city of Louisiana, Missouri, and into the home of his mother, Emily. Bralley, and continued to reside in said home until the death of his mother, Emily Bralley. That said'Emily Bralley was quite old and directly under the influence of the said defendant James E. Griffith; that the said de-. fendant, James E. Griffith, contriving and designing to surreptitiously divest and deprive plaintiffs, who, with the exception of James A. Goodman, A. D. Cloyd and M. M. Gillum, are the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the said Emily - Bralley, deceased, of any interest in her estate, by false and fraudulent representations, and by a systematic course of either remaining with her, or having some member of*711 Tiis family do so, during all the time, thereby trying to prevent the said Emily Bralley, deceased, from having open and free communication with her kindred and friends, and especially her daughter, Clarissa Eugenie Goodman, and by undue influence, did, on the 2nd day of July, 1903', persuade, entice and induce the said Emily Bralley to. make to said defendants a deed to the following described real estate, which said deed is in words and figures as follows, to-wit: [Deed omitted and will omitted.]
“That said defendant James. E. Griffith, for the purpose of carrying out his unfair designs and the control and influence he had over his said mother, persuaded and influenced her to go, and he did take her, to the city of Bowling Green, Pike county, Missouri, to the home of J. E. Thompson, son-in-law of defendants, and a lawyer by profession, and while she was there at the home of said Thompson, he prepared and in connection with the said defendant James E. Griffith, persuaded and induced the said Emily Bralley to execute said deed and said last named document called a ‘will.’ That said pretended deed and said pretended will were executed on the same day and at the same time and simultaneously one with the other.
“Plaintiffs further state and charge that there was no consideration paid the said Emily Bralley for the execution of said pretended deed, and that the said pretended deed and said pretended will, when so executed as aforesaid, were left in the possession of said J. E. Thompson and were to be returned to the said Emily Bralley when she so directed, but that said Thompson and said defendant, James E. Griffith, though often requested to return said pretended deed and said pretended will, refused so to do, but retained the same, and immediately upon the death of the said Emily Bralley, the said Thompson had said deed re*712 corded in the recorder’s office of Pike county, Missouri.
“That said defendants, especially the said James E. Griffith, acted as above stated in conjunction with the said J. E. Thompson for the purpose of inducing his said mother to deed and will to defendants her property, for the purpose of defrauding his sister and nephews and nieces, the plaintiffs in this cause, out of their share in the estate of the said Emily Eralley, deceased.”
The prayer was that said deed be set aside and for naught held and that partition be made of the real estate described.
The answer was (1) a general denial, and (2) the defendants averred the due execution and delivery of said deed and that the same was the free and voluntary act of the grantor therein, for the consideration in such deed recited.
Upon a trial the judgment was for the defendants, fully sustaining said deed. Such judgment elaborately goes into the facts of the case, and makes a finding upon all disputed matters, but the above will suffice 'for the present. After an unsuccessful motion for new trial the plaintiffs bring the case here by writ of error.
The assignments of error cover, (1) the admission of incompetent evidence, and (2) that the judgment was for the wrong party. This sufficiently states the case.
I. Defendants in error raise the point that the writ of error was not sued out within time, i. e., within one year. They have lodged herein proper motions to quash the writ for that reason. There are minors as well as adults in the case. Defendants say that the writ should be quashed as to all. An interesting-discussion is made, but with the view we have of the merits of the case we shall not spend force upon this question.
“By the Court: I will state that since adjournment last evening, in reviewing some of the objections made to the admissibility of testimony, to-wit, the testimony of Judge Thompson, I am satisfied that his testimony with reference to the drawing of the will and the deed should be regarded as having been under the relation of attorney and client as between him and Mrs. Bralley, and his testimony as to those facts, that is, as to the information received from Mrs. Bralley in connection with that matter, would be incompetent; I call attention to it now, I think that is always fair on the part of the court, so if the parties desire to introduce further testimony by reason of the court’s views on that line of the case, they would have the privilege of doing so.
“Mr. Ho,stutter: The court only holds his testimony as to what transpired between him and Mrs. Bralley is incompetent.
“By the Court: Yes.”
(b) The next contention as to the admission of evidence is that the court admitted improper evidence as to the consideration of the deed. The defendants introduced evidence tending to show that James E. Griffith had done much for his mother in the way of looking after her and her business matters for a long period of years.’ It was also shown that the mother said, after the death of her last husband and she became repossessed of her quite large estate, that she was now in position to repay James E. for his trouble, and expected to do it. This is the evidence objected to by counsel for plaintiffs, and faintly presented by assigned error here.
This evidence is competent upon .more than one theory of the case. The question of undue influence is an issue, and it was competent upon that issue. Again, the deed recited a consideration of ‘1 one dollar and other good and valuable considerations to be paid by the said parties of the second part.” The actual
This disposes of all assignments of error except the general one that the finding and judgment should have been for the plaintiff in error.
III. Going now to the merits of this case, the contention of counsel may be thus stated: The deed in question is bad because (1) it was the result of undue influence upon the part of the grantees therein, (2) it was procured by false and fraudulent representations, (3) it was .without consideration, and (1) it was never delivered. Of these contentions in reverse or-', der.
(a) That there was a delivery of this deed under the evidence we think cannot well be questioned. Excluding the testimony of Judge Thompson who wrote • the deed, we have the undisputed evidence of Mrs. Thompson, his wife, and J. S. Fitzjerrell, the attorney and notary who took the acknowledgment of the deed. Both of these witnesses say that the grantor directed that the deed be delivered to James E. Griffith, and that he be requested not to record it until after her death. The grantor explained to them why she made the request as to the recording. Her reason was that she did not want to be harassed by the plaintiffs in error. The deed was in fact delivered to Mr. Griffith the day after its execution in accordance with the directions given by the grantor. • The only evidence opposed to the positive testimony of these witnesses is the statement by some of the plaintiffs that the grantor, after the making of. the deed, had said that Judge Thompson had told her that she could recall the deed at any time or something to that effect. Their statements were not competent to prove the fact. It is”
(b) The other three questions can best be considered together. They each call for disclosure of •more facts. At the time of making the deed the grantor was about eighty years of age, but in the possession of full mental vigor. She lived two years or more thereafter, and having Bright’s disease her mind failed her several months before her death. It is not urged that the grantor was not mentally capacitated to make a deed in July, 1903, and were it urged such contention would be overwhelmingly refuted by the evidence. Mrs. Bralley had been married three times. The first husband was Noah Griffith, the ancestor of the plaintiffs and of the defendant James E. Griffith. The second was John Griffith, a cousin of the first husband, and the third was Dr. Bralley. No children resulted from the second and third marriages. By the second husband a considerable amount of property was acquired by the wife. The third marriage was stormy for awhile, but presently Dr. Bralley got possession of the money, and things moved more amicably. There were two or more separations and as many reconciliations. Shortly before the making of the deed in question Dr. Bralley, the third husband, died, leaving a will, by the terms of which the widow became repossessed of all her property and its accumulations if any. There was a farm of 230' acres worth $9000', and the property in dispute, worth from $5000 to $7500, according to the testimony, as well as other -property, including - a good-sized judgment against the Goodmans. The evidence shows that defendant James E-. Griffith had promised his father upon his death-bed that he would look after his mother.
Just after the son had moved to Louisiana to care for his mother she repeatedly said that, now she was in a position to do it, she was going to repay Jim Ed. (the defendant) fox his trouble and kindness. Shortly following these expressions came the deed and the will we have described. The evidence also shows that the mother had in a financial, way assisted the other children. Two had died before the mother, leaving the grandchildren who are plaintiffs here. Mrs. Goodman and James E. Griffith were the only surviving children'. Judgments were pending against Mrs. Goodman and her husband. Under these circumstances Mrs. Bralley went from Louisiana to Bowling Green with Mr. and Mrs. Griffith. They visited the family of Judge Thompson, whose wife was a granddaughter of Mrs. Bralley, and. the daughter of these defendants. At the dinner table Mrs. Bralley stated to Judge Thompson that she wanted to talk to him about some business and asked when she could see him. He said they could talk then. Accordingly they and
Was there undue influence in this case? The evidence discloses that the grantor in the deed was a self-willed woman. It is true that in her previous trouble she advised with her son. It is true that the son had at times acted as the agent of the mother, but not for some years prior to the death of Dr. Bralley the husband. It is true that after the death of Dr. Bralley, at the request of the mother he came to. her’ home to care for in her old age, and whilst we are not fully convinced that the relationship thus created was sufficient to be called a fiduciary relation, yet we shall consider the case as if such a relation did in fact exist. The evidence shows that this son had sacrificed much for his mother. The evidence shows her oft