Action to set aside a deed to 156 acres of land situated in Nemaha county, Nebraska, made to the defendant, Frederick E. Hoover, by his mother, Harriet Hoover, executed, acknowledged and delivered on the 24th day of October, 1898. The defendant had the judgment, and the plaintiffs have appealed.
It appears, without question, that Harriet Hoover, who was a widow about 68 years of age, on the 14th day of July,
It further appears, without dispute, that Mrs. Hoover and her husband purchased the land in question as early as the year 1857, and took title thereto in her name; that Doctor Hoover died, leaving her a widow with four children, in 1876; that from that time until her death, with some short intervals, she together with her family, including the plaintiffs, made this land their home until the early spring of 1898; that she permitted the defendant and his brother Edward (who died some years ago), together with the plaintiffs, to farm certain portions of the homestead and take the proceeds thereof for themselves, with the exception of her own support and maintenance, which seems to have been furnished to her by the defendant; that when the plaintiff, Mrs. Hacker, married the first time, she brought her husband, whose name was Bucheneau, to the family home, where they remained for some time before they left for a home of their own elsewhere; that Bucheneau was a man of profligate and dissipated habits, and his wife procured a divorce from him, when she and her three small children returned to the family home, where her children were raised and practically educated by the bounty of their grandmother, which came from the proceeds of the farm; that this state of affairs continued until after Mrs. Hacker married her present husband. It also appears that, in the year 1879, Hattie Hoover, the other daughter of the grantor, married one Linder Bradfield, who seems to have
To reverse the judgment of the district court, the plaintiffs contend: First, that Mrs. Hoover was incompetent by reason of her mental condition to execute the deed in question; second, that the deed was procured by the undue influence of the defendant.
As to the first question, the plaintiffs attempted to show that their mother was an habitual user of opium, and that by its excessive use she had so weakened her mental faculties that she was incapable of transacting any business and was mentally incompetent to make the conveyance. It appears that Mrs. Hoover was in the habit of taking small quantities of gum opium from time to time during, most of her life; but, notwithstanding the evidence produced by the plaintiffs, it seems clear that the amount which she took was so small that it did not affect her mental capacity to any extent whatever. Doctor Bell Andrews, who was the family physician, and who testified most strongly
Plaintiffs’ second contention presents a more difficult question for our determination. Ordinarily a deed or gift from a parent to a child does not raise a presumption of undue influence; but in the instant case the circumstances and the relations between Mrs. Hoover and her son, who is the defendant, were of such a nature that, taken with her disposition of the property, seem to require him to assume the burden of proving that the making of the deed in question was not caused by any undue influence on his part. Gibson v. Hammang, 63 Neb. 349. The law, however, is well settled that if the grantor was competent to convey, and the conveyance was her voluntary act and deed, it is valid, no matter how inequitable it may appear to the court. In this case the land was Mrs. Hoover’s, and, if she acted freely and intelligently in the matter of disposing of it, she could do with it as she pleased. Therefore the only remaining question is: Did the defendant have such influence over his mother that he induced her to deed the property to him against her real wish and desire, and contrary to what she Avould have done if he had not abused her confidence by using his influence to induce her to convey to him what she really desired to divide between all of her children alike?
The mere fact that she gave him the property is not
From a careful consideration of all of the evidence, we conclude that the trial court did not err in holding the deed in question valid. There is contained in the briefs some discussion of the statute of limitations, but our conclusions, as above stated, render it unnecessary to consider that question. We are of opinion that the judgment of the district court was right, and it is therefore
Affirmed.