90 Iowa 695 | Iowa | 1894
The defendants, ’William Richmond and Q-eorge W. Fulton, for some years carried on a •commercial business at Council Bluffs under the- name ■of the Boston Tea Company. James T. Lee, a son of the plaintiff, was employed by them as clerk for about three years. In July, 1888, and while he was so employed, the defendants caused him to be arrested on .a preliminary information which charged him with the crime of embezzlement. While he was under arrest, and before the examination was held, he had an interview with Richmond, in which he admitted that he was guilty of the offense charged, but expressed a desire to settle the matter, and agreed to telegraph to his father, who resided at Keokuk, to come to Council Bluffs. On the next'day, ¡Saturday, July 14, he learned that his father could not come, and informed Richmond of the fact. On Sunday, the defendants visited him at his home, and spent several hours there. On the same day, Richmond, James T. Lee, and his wife started for the home .of the. plaintiff, where they arrived Monday. An interview was there had, at which the plaintiff and his wife, the son and his wife, and Richmond were present during all or a part of the time. It resulted in the execution by the plaintiff and his wife to Richmond of a deed for three lots in the town of Atlantic for the specified consideration of two thousand dollars. The deed was given to Richmond, and was recorded in the office of the recorder of Cass county. The plaintiff asks that the deed be canceled, and for general equitable relief. The district court decreed the deed to be void, and that the title to the lots was vested in the plaintiff.
The plaintiff alleges that the deed was executed in consequence of the representations of Richmond, for himself and Fulton, that James T. Lee had embezzled a large sum of money; that they had filed an informa
It is said that, if the claims of the plaintiff be well founded, he conveyed his property for the purpose of compromising a criminal prosecution, and that, as that object was illegal, the law will leave all parties to the transaction where it finds them. We should hesitate long before refusing the plaintiff relief on that ground, in view of the weakness of his body and mind, the threats made, and the fear he was under when the deed was given. Meech v. Lee, 46 N. W. Rep. (Mich.) 397. But we prefer to place, our conclusion upon the ground that the condition on which the deed was given to Richmond was never complied with, and that the deed was not in law delivered, and, therefore, has not taken effect as a conveyance. We refer to the condition that, the deed and the notes surrendered by the son should be received in full settlement of the claims made against-the son by the defendants. Conceding that some of' the provisions of the agreement were illegal, yet the deed was not to be regarded as delivered, unless the