147 Iowa 707 | Iowa | 1910
In 1905 this plaintiff and his wife, who had for some years been living apart, entered into an arrangement for a division of property between them, in pursuance of which a joint deed, blank as to consideration and grantee, describing the land to which this controversy relates, was put into the possession of the wife, and similar joint deeds, ulso blank as to consideration and grantee, describing other parcels of real property, were put into the possession of the plaintiff, the intention of the plaintiff and his wife being to thus enable each party to transfer
It appears, as already stated, that the arrangement between plaintiff and his wife was made with the full purpose and intention on the part of each of them that the parcels of land as to which each received, respectively, blank deeds signed by both should be disposed of by means of the filling in of names of purchasers as grantees, and that on 'each side this arrangement was carried out, and the deeds which had been executed in blank were delivered to such purchaser, the wife’s deed, as already stated, being delivered to Griffith, as trustee, in pursuance of the trust arrangement, and the deeds received by plaintiff being delivered to purchasers for valuable considerations. The understanding between the two, which was no doubt erroneous, was that in this manner each would be enabled to dispose of the property described in the blank deeds free from any dower right of the other, without any subsequent action by way of joinder in conveyance,' or otherwise; neither party wishing to be obliged to have the consent of the other to pass a fee simple title free from dower right. This mutual arrangement and understanding was acted upon by each party; the belief of the plaintiff being that he could convey the tracts as to which he held blank deeds free from his wife’s dower interest contingent on her surviving him, just as she under
The decree of the trial court is therefore affirmed.