61 Iowa 180 | Iowa | 1883
No appeal was taken by tbe defendants. The questions to be determined relate solely to tlie controversy between plaintiff and tbe intervenor. We will proceed to state tbe facts which are conceded, or which, in onr opinion, are fully established by the evidence, without reviewing the testimony of the witnesses.
There is no sufficient evidence in thé case showing that the conveyance of the forty acres from F. M. Denny to her daughter was intended as an advancement. On the contrary, there is much in the record tending to' show that such was not the intention, and that it was payment to her for money she had at various times advanced to her father and mother. If she had made no contract with the plaintiff whatever, she could have held the forty acres actually conveyed to her by her mother, which is shown to have been of as much or more value than the forty acres intended to be conveyed. Or she could, possibly, have had the deed reformed and the mistake corrected, so as to hold the land intended to be conveyed. In addition to this, she would have been entitled to an equal share'with the other heirs in the remaining land. We think the evidence fairly establishes the fact that she did not agree to surrender her share in the estate in consideration of the correction of her title to her forty-acre tract by the plaintiff. We judge from the nature of the decree that the court below found that the plaintiff did purchase the share of the heirs for $500 each, and that such was the contract with Mary S. Parr. If this was not the finding, it must have been that there was no consideration whatever agreed to be paid to her for her share in the estate.
Aeeirmed.