232 P. 763 | Cal. Ct. App. | 1924
This action was instituted by the plaintiff Frank J. Goodwin, as administrator of the estate of William H.H. Goodwin, deceased, to set aside an agreement of exchange and a grant deed, executed by the said William H.H. Goodwin during his lifetime in favor of the defendant *100 Jonathan Snyder, on the ground of the unsoundness of mind of the said William H.H. Goodwin at the date of the execution of said instruments. By the said agreement of exchange the said William H.H. Goodwin agreed to convey to the said Snyder certain real property owned by him and situated in the county of Los Angeles, in consideration of the conveyance by the said Snyder to the said William H.H. Goodwin of two certain pieces of real property owned by the said Snyder, one situated in the county of San Bernardino and the other in the county of Riverside. The grant deed sought to be set aside was made in pursuance of said agreement of exchange and purported to convey to said Snyder said two pieces of real property owned by Goodwin and situated in the county of Los Angeles. It was alleged in the complaint that the said William H.H. Goodwin, was at the time he executed said agreement and deed, and for a long time prior thereto had been, of unsound mind, and that said Snyder at all of said times knew of the mental condition of the said Goodwin and of his mental incapacity to transact business. Upon a trial of the action the court gave judgment in favor of the defendant Snyder and plaintiff has appealed therefrom.
[1] The first point made by appellant in support of his appeal is that the evidence is not sufficient to support the finding of the court that said William H.H. Goodwin, at all times during the transactions leading up to and at the time of the consummation of said exchange, was competent to transact his business and said exchange of property, and understood and appreciated the nature and character of said transactions with the defendant Jonathan Snyder.
The trial of this action lasted eight and one-half days. A large number of witnesses were called and testified in the case. Much of the testimony centered around the issue as to the soundness or unsoundness of mind of the said William H.H. Goodwin at the time of his business dealings with the defendant Snyder and which culminated in the execution of the exchange agreement and the grant deed which plaintiff seeks to have set aside. Many of these witnesses testified that Goodwin, on account of his advanced years, was of unsound mind and had been unable for that reason to transact business for a number of years prior to the first day of November, 1919, the date of the execution of the grant deed, and that this unsound condition of his mind continued down *101 to the date of his death, which occurred on the sixth day of May, 1920. On the other hand, at least five witnesses, called on behalf of the defendant Snyder, testified in substance that Goodwin's mind was sound at the date of the execution of the deed and for some time prior thereto, and that at the time of his negotiations with the defendant Snyder he was perfectly capable of transacting business and understood the nature and character of the negotiations he was then carrying on with the defendant Snyder. In addition to the testimony of these five witnesses there was offered on behalf of the defendant Snyder, and read in evidence, a transcript of the testimony of the said William H.H. Goodwin, given by him on June 23, 1919, at the trial of an action in the superior court of said county of Los Angeles (this action had no connection with the present action), wherein the said Goodwin was one of the witnesses. The testimony of the said Goodwin, given in said last-mentioned action, covered over twenty pages of the transcript on appeal in this action. It appears from said testimony that the said Goodwin testified in said action on his own behalf and was cross-examined at length by opposing counsel. This testimony tended at least to show that the said Goodwin was of sound mind on June 23, 1919, less than five months prior to the date of the grant deed sought to be set aside in this action. Proof of the condition of Goodwin's mind on June 23, 1919, would be competent and material evidence as to its condition on November 1, 1919. Especially would this be true when it was alleged in the complaint, and when many of the witnesses, testifying in favor of the plaintiff, gave as their opinion, that Goodwin had been of unsound mind for a number of years prior to his death. It is very evident from this brief review of the evidence given in the case that appellant's contention of the insufficiency of the evidence to sustain the finding of the court that Goodwin was of sound mind at the time of his negotiations with the defendant Snyder cannot be sustained. The evidence is ample to support said finding.
[2] In this connection we might further add that the plaintiff joined with said action against the defendant Snyder an action against defendant Jennie Cook to set aside two deeds, executed by the said William H.H. Goodwin on January 27, 1920, in favor of said Cook, to the two pieces of real property conveyed to him by the defendant Snyder. *102
These deeds, it was alleged, were given without consideration except a purported agreement on the part of the defendant Jennie Cook to care for the said Goodwin during his lifetime, which agreement the court found was never carried out by the said Jennie Cook, and that it was never her intention to carry out said agreement. It was sought to set aside these two deeds on account of the unsoundness of mind of said Goodwin at the date of their execution, and it was alleged in the complaint that the said defendants Snyder and Cook, knowing of Goodwin's mental condition, entered into a conspiracy to induce and persuade the said Goodwin to make said exchange of properties with the defendant Snyder, and thereafter to convey to the said Cook the two pieces of real property received by him from Snyder. The court found that no conspiracy existed between said defendants; that Goodwin was of sound mind on and prior to November 1, 1919, when he executed the deed to the defendant Snyder, but that at the date of the execution of said two deeds to the defendant Jennie Cook, and prior thereto, that said Goodwin was of unsound mind, and that the said Jennie Cook knew of the unsound condition of his mind at the time she received from him the two deeds above referred to. It is now contended by the appellant that the court having found that the said Goodwin was of unsound mind at the time he executed the deeds in favor of the defendant Cook and prior thereto, that this finding is inconsistent with and contradictory to the finding that the said Goodwin was of sound mind on and prior to the first day of November, 1919. There is nothing inconsistent nor contradictory in these two findings. The court having expressly found that the said Goodwin was of sound mind on November 1, 1919, the further finding that he was of unsound mind on and prior to January 27, 1920, cannot by any possible construction be held to be that he was of unsound mind on November 1, 1919. [3] "Findings are to be liberally construed in support of a judgment and, if possible, are to be reconciled so as to prevent any conflict upon material points, and unless the conflict is clear, and the findings are incapable of being harmoniously construed, a judgment will not be reversed upon the ground of a conflict in the findings." (Ames v. Cityof San Diego,
The appellant makes the further point in support of his appeal that the court erred in refusing to grant his motion for a new trial. The motion for a new trial was based upon the ground of newly discovered evidence, and in support thereof appellant prepared and presented three affidavits, one by himself, one by Milton Carlson, a handwriting expert, and one by Mrs. Gertrude Lloyd, who testified as a witness at the trial. [4] No rule is better settled in the courts of this state than that motions for a new trial upon newly discovered evidence are not favorably regarded, and that appellate courts will not disturb the action of a trial court in refusing to grant a motion of this kind, except where it clearly appears that there has been an abuse of discretion. (Fresno Estate etc. v. Fiske,
The affidavit of Mrs. Lloyd as to new matter set forth facts of doubtful materiality in so far as they relate to the action against the defendant Snyder, and the showing as to why these facts were not brought out at the trial, to say the least, is not entirely satisfactory. Appellant lays great stress upon the facts set forth in Mrs. Lloyd's affidavit, to the effect that Mrs. Cook appeared somewhat depressed on one occasion when she told Mrs. Lloyd that they were unable to get Goodwin to sign the agreement of exchange, and that on another occasion Mrs. Cook appeared greatly elated, and stated on this later occasion that Goodwin had signed the agreement of exchange. As far as this action against the defendant Snyder is concerned, evidence of these facts, if admissible at all against the defendant Snyder, could only be considered in connection with the allegation that a fraudulent conspiracy existed between the defendants Cook and Snyder to induce Goodwin to make the exchange with the defendant Snyder. The court found against the appellant on this issue, and at the hearing of the motion for a new trial, the trial court undoubtedly took into consideration all the evidence produced at the trial upon this issue, as well as the purported facts set forth in the affidavit of Mrs. Lloyd, *107 and after a consideration of all of such evidence and facts, denied the appellant's motion for a new trial. We are not able to say that there was any abuse of discretion on the part of the court in so denying appellant's motion. Another circumstance set forth in the affidavit of Mrs. Lloyd, and which in the opinion of the appellant is entitled to serious consideration, is that relating to the efforts of Mrs. Cook and others to induce Goodwin to sign the agreement of exchange. She states in her affidavit that she attached so much importance to this incident that she made a memorandum of the date thereof on a shoebox. When she testified at the trial she referred to a meeting between Goodwin, Snyder, Mrs. Cook, and others, where there were papers, and where the question under discussion was the trade between Goodwin and Snyder. Evidently this was the same meeting as that referred to in her affidavit, yet at the trial she said, "I did see papers there. I didn't pay any attention to them. I knew Mr. Goodwin was asked to sign them. When he was asked on this matter he simply said something about the weather — he said it was a nice day." The purported new matter as detailed by her in her affidavit, when considered in connection with the testimony already given by her at the trial, would not, in our opinion, be of any determining weight in the decision of any of the issues involved in this action. We have no doubt that it was given due consideration by the trial court at the time of its ruling upon the motion for a new trial, and if after considering it the court disregarded it in toto, we see no legal reason for the appellant to complain.
We find no error in the record and are of the opinion that the judgment should be affirmed, and it is so ordered.
Conrey, P.J., and Houser, J., concurred.
A petition by appellant to have the cause heard in the supreme court, after judgment in the district court of appeal, was denied by the supreme court on February 2, 1925.
All the Justices concurred. *108