193 Ky. 267 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1921
Opinion op the Court by
Affirming.
From the evidence it appears that H. C. Huffaker, a direct descendant of George the Third of England, died intestate at his home in Wayne county in 1917 at the age of eighty-four years, survived by a wife, six daughters and five sons. Before his death the old man conveyed to his son, B. C. Huffaker, on November 3rd, 1914, two-thirds of all the royalty which the father had reserved in a twenty-acre tract of land, conveyed by the father on March 26, 1901, to said -son. This litigation was commenced by Ella Brammer and other children of Huffaker against B. C. Huffaker and his grantees, Joe Eagan and C. S. Huffaker, to cancel and set aside said deed of conveyance from H. C. Htfaker for said mineral right to the son, B. C. Huffaker, on the grounds (1) that at the time of the execution of said deed on September 15th, 1914, the father, H. C. Huffaker, was insane and incapable of making such a deed or contract; (2) that said deed was procured by said B. C. Huffaker from his father
For some years before his death TI. C. Huffaker, a minister of the gospel and farmer living some miles from Monticello in Wayne county, owned about 250 acres of land, under and on which he contended there were deposits of valuable minerals and oil. The children were all married and did not live, in the parental home. In 1901 he conveyed to his son, B. C. Huffaker, twenty acres of the home farm, reserving three-fourths of the royalty from the' minerals in and under the said twenty acres. Thereafter he conveyed to the other children small parts of the home farm without making reservation of the minerals under their respective parts. All these conveyances were made upon a consideration recited in the deeds. At the time of the making of the deed to B. C. Huffaker in 1901 it is admitted that the father was mentally capable of conveying the property and that he was not unduly influenced to do so, although he was an old man at that time. Being desirous of selling a part of the twenty acres which his father had conveyed to him, B. C. Huffaker, on September 15, 1914, obtained from his father a deed for the three-fourths of the royalty which the father had reserved in the former deed, whereupon B. C. Huffaker conveyed to his brother-in-law, Joe Ragan, a part of the land and mineral which he had obtained from his father and another part to his brother, C. S. Huffaker, but B. C. Huffaker reserved to himself
Mere mental weakness is not sufficient to invalidate a conveyance if the grantor have sufficient mental capacity to understand the nature, object and purpose of the contract or deed; but if he be so mentally incapacitated as to be unable t'o understand and appreciate the nature, object and effect of the contract or deed, it is unenforcible, for it does not express his purpose and is not his deed but the purpose and deed of another, he not having sufficient capacity to enter into such -contract. Nor does a judgment of a court of -competent juiisdiction finding a grantor -at a day subsequent to that on which the deed is made, to be an imbecile, make out a prima facie case of incapacity on the part of the testator to make a deed on a day anterior to that of the inquest. Such finding'is only primia facie evidence that grantor was incapacitated to make a deed or contract on-the date of such inquest and on subsequent dates not too remote, but this presumption may be overcome by evidence. An enfeebled mind, though n'o-t totally incapacitated to enter into contract, is. always an easy prey to a stronger and more vigorous mind with which it comes in -contact and is therefore always liable to be unduly influenced or overreached by designing persons.' We generally refer to undue influence as an influence obtained over the mind of another to such an extent as to destroy free agency and to constrain him to do against his will what he would otherwise refuse to do. One may exercise influence over another by acts of kindness, by appeals to the feelings, reason or understanding, without -such influence becoming undue
Every grantor is presumed to have mental capacity sufficient to effectuate his deed or contract, but this presumption is rebuttable. The presumption is frequently indulged that a deed made by an aged or infirm person-to a grantee who is -strong and vigorous in mind and body without consideration or a fanciful consideration,'is obtained by the exercise of undue influence by the grantee over the grantor. Especially is this true where the parties stand in a trust or confidential relation and the grantor is under obligation to the grantee or under the grantee’s dominion or influence. In the case of Davidson v. Davidson, 180 Ky. 390, we held that a grantee of one physically infirm in the custody or in the home of the grantee is under the'necessity of showing that the transfer from such old and infirm person to the one having him in custody or in his home was free from fraud and undue influence, and that a deed so obtained will be cancelled unless the grantee sustains the burden of proof by showing that the transaction was freely and voluntarily entered into by the grantor, and that the grantor had capacity to make the deed and did so without the exercise of undue influence over him by the grantee. It is a rule in this jurisdiction that a young, active, vigorous ¡person who obtains a conveyance from an old and infirm person who is closely related to him by blood or marriage or where there is a dependence of one upon the other, there being no sufficient valuable consideration, the burden of proof is upon such grantee to show the good faith of the transaction and that the grantor freely and voluntarily executed the instrument, else the said instrument will be cancelled at the suit of persons interested in the estate of the grantor. Davis v. Creech, 180 Ky. 804; Willoughby v. Reynolds, 182 Ky. 1. The grantor in the instant case was eighty-two years of age and we are convinced by the evidence that his mind was more or less deranged for some months before the execution of the deed in question, and that he was not on September 15,1914, of such mental alertness as to understand, comprehend or appreciate the nature and effect of the transaction which is evidenced by the deed of that date. • The grantee was a young, vigorous man of more than ordinary mental astuteness and power. He had
The other appellants, C. S. Huffaker, a son, and Joe Ragan, the husband of a daughter of the grantor, are in no better attitude than the original grantee, B. C. Huffaker, for as they were living in the immediate neighborhood of H. C. Huffaker at the time of the making of the questioned deed and for many years before and were constantly associated with him and the immediate members of the family, they were charged with knowledge that the old man was too infirm mentally and bodily to make a valid and binding obligation in September, 1914.
The chancellor having arrived at these conclusions and entered a judgment accordingly, it is affirmed.