68 N.J. Eq. 666 | N.J. | 1905
Lead Opinion
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The nature of the controversy between the parties and the facts submitted at the hearing are very fully set out in the opinion of the learned vice-chancellor before whom the case was tried. It is unnecessary to state them in full. - Briefly, the following case is presented: In the spring of the year 1880 Llewellyn James, the complainant, conveyed to his children, defendants herein, his homestead property in the village of High Bridge, reserving to himself the right to occupy it so long as he should- desire to do so. At the same time he assigned to them two mortgages aggregating $4,200. In the autumn of the year 1881 he gave to his daughter, Lydia Aller, certain notes and other securities amounting to $4,000. In making these several gifts he reserved to himself no power to revoke them. In June, 1902, he filed his bill in this cause seeking to annul these several transactions. In it he rested his right to relief as to the conveyance of his homestead and tire assignments of the mortgages upon the ground that he was induced to sign these papers by Mrs. Aller and her husband, through false representations made by them to him as to the character thereof, and without any knowledge of their real nature. His contention as to the notes and other securities given to Mrs. Aller in the autumn of 1881 is that they were delivered to her to hold in trust for him. The defence set up was that the conveyance of the homestead and the assignment of the mortgages were made by .the complainant to his children as a gift at the time of his second marriage, for the purpose of making pro
A mass of testimony was taken in the case, from a consideration of which the learned vice-chancellor reached the conclusion that in making tire conveyance of the homestead and the assignments of the mortgages the complainant thoroughly understood the nature of the papers which he was signing; that his purpose in executing these several papers was to make a gift to his children of the property which they transferred; that no influence whatever was exerted upon him by his children to induce him to make this gift, and that lie made the transfers voluntarily and deliberately, after consultation' with his counsel. He held that a gift made by a father to his children, under these conditions, -when not unreasonable in amount (and this he considered was not), was irrevocable to the donor, and that the complainant was not entitled to relief upon this part of the case.
As to the transaction of the autumn of 1881, the vice-chancellor concluded from the proofs that the notes and other securities were given by the complainant to his daughter, Mrs. Aller, for the benefit of herself and her sisters; that the gift was made freely by the father to carry out his wishes expressed at the time, and without the exercise of any influence on the part of the daughters, and that no power to revoke the gift was reserved b}r him. The vice-chancellor considered, however, that the gift was improvident, because, by making it, the complainant divested himself of all the property then owned by him, and held that for this reason it wasi inequitable for the defendants to retain this gift, after a demand for its return made upon them by the complainant, and decreed that they should pay back to him the amount thereof, less certain moneys which had been advanced by them to him prior to the time of the filing of the bill. From that portion of the decree which annuls the gift of 1881 the defendants have appealed.
Mr. James, at the time of making the gift which -was set
The portion of the decree appealed from should be reversed, .and a decree entered in conformity with the view herein expressed.
Dissenting Opinion
(dissenting).
I am unable to agree with the view taken by the majority of the court in this case.
I agree with the opinion of Vice-Chancellor Emery in its entirety, and vote to affirm for the reasons given by him in the court of chancery.
Judge Vrooni concurred in this dissent.