41 S.C. 163 | S.C. | 1894
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This was an action to have a deed of 484 acres of land declared void and set aside, for alleged imposition, misrepresentations, and fraud, the deed having been made by the plaintiff, a very old lady, being at the time of the trial eighty-two years of age, infirm, illiterate, not being able to write her name, and ignorant of her rights, to the defendant, Harrison H. Hall, her nephew and son-in-law.
The complaint alleged, that in settling the estate of her deceased husband, J. J. Hall, who died intestate, she became indebted to the defendant, H. H. Hall, who was the administrator of the estate, in the sum of $349.70, and to secure the same, gave him a mortgage of the land (484 acres) which had been assigned to her as her part of the lands of her deceased husband, and upon which was her home. This was in 1877; but as soon as the mortgage debt became due (1880), the defendant informed the plaintiff, and made her believe, that her right of redemption under the mortgage was forfeited by reason of the fact that the debt secured thereby was past due, and that he had a right, therefore, to the possession of the land; but if she would sign another paper, she should be allowed time within which to pay the debt. Being thus misled, and not being able to read or write, the plaintiff signed and executed an instrument of writing, which was then and there presented by the defendant, which she has since learned was an absolute deed of conveyance by her to the defendant; that there was no consideration moving between the plaintiff and defendant in the exe
The cause came on for trial by his honor, Judge Witherspoon, who heard the testimony, which is all in the record. The defendant himself was not sworn. His honor, in his decree, among other things, said, that “The plaintiff has failed to sustain the allegation of fraud, and I find as matter of fact that the defendant did not procure the execution of the deed by the plaintiff by means of misrepresentations and deceit. * * * It is claimed that plaintiff was induced to sign the deed through the importunity and on account of representations therein made to her by her son, called Bud Hall; but the evidence does not satisfactorily show that the defendant had knowledge of, or authorized, the statements made to plaintiff by her said son,” &c.; and he dismissed the complaint. From this decree, the plaintiff, after being refused a new trial on the grounds of “surprise” and “after-discovered evidence,” appeals to this court upon numerous exceptions, which are all printed in the “Case;” but from the view which the court takes, it will not be necessary or proper to consider any of them except those numbered 1, 3, and 4, which substantially make but a single point, viz: “Upon whom rests the burden of proof, that the purchase of the equity of redemption by the mortgagee from the mortgagor was a fair transaction for a sufficient consideration1?”
Now, here the defendant was the mortgagee, and obtained a conveyance of the equity of redemption from the feeble old lady, the mortgagor, without paying anything more for the land than the satisfaction of the old debt secured by mortgage.
The judgment of this court is, that the judgment of the Circuit Court be set aside without prejudice, and that the cause be remanded to the Circuit Court for a new trial, according to the conclusions herein announced.