66 So. 448 | Ala. | 1914
We make the statement of the facts in this case from the allegations of the bill of complaint. The case is here on appeal from a decree of a court of equity overruling a demurrer to the bill of complaint.
The complainant is the daughter and only child of Joseph Manegold, who died in November, 1898. Complainant’s mother died several years before the death of the father, and she was only 11 years old when her father died. Joseph Manegold married about a month before his death, and at the time of his death his widow, Clara J. Manegold, and complainant were the only members, of his household. After his death the residence in which he died was set apart to said widow and minor daughter to live together in said home. They continued to live together in said home, and the relations of mother and daughter appear to have been fully established between them. Indeed, shortly after the death of her said husband, the said Clara J. Manegold qualified as the guardian of her said stepdaughter and assumed legal control of all of her pecuniary affairs. On the 18th day of February, 1901, the said widow, Clara J. Manegold, married George. Manegold, the
Some time in the latter part of the year 1906, it developed that her said guardian, the stepmother, had in her hands $12,316.46 of complainant’s funds; that $3,-300 of this money was properly invested in notes secured by mortgages; and that the balance of the fund had been loaned by her to Joseph Manegold & Co., a mercantile firm composed of said George Manegold and the said Clara J. Manegold, without security. In other words, it then developed that the stepmother and guardian and her said husband, the uncle of complainant, were then using about $9,000 of complainant’s funds in a mercantile business, and there had been taken for the ward no independent security therefor. Shortly after this development, the said Clara J. Manegold resigned her guardianship and delivered into the registry of the court the said mortgages and $12,316.46 in cash, which represented all with which, as guardian, the said widow, Clara J. Manegold, was chargeable. She Avas thereupon discharged as guardian, and George Manegold, the husband, Avas appointed guardian in her
The decree is based upon an account which was filed in said city court and that account is credited with $14,357.15 as having been paid by the guardian to the ward on October 20', 1908.
The complainant was married to W. H. Beaven on November 25, 1912, and moved from Montgomery to Birmingham, the place where she and her husband, since her marriage, have resided. This bill was filed on September 11, 1913, less than 12 months after complainant’s marriage.
It appears from the bill of complaint that, from the time when her guardian married her stepmother until the marriage of complainant, she not only resided in the same house with said guardian and her stepmother, but that these two people possessed that full confidence and affection which they would have possessed if they had been her own father and mother. It further appears that on August 5, 1909, nine or ten months after complainant became of age, the said George Manegold, without any actual consideration, but upon a recited consideration of $2,750, procured her signature to a deed conveying to - the stepmother complainant’s remainder (dependent upon the life estate of the stepmother) in the homestead, and that, in fact, said $2,750 has never been paid to complainant.
The above general statement of the facts, when read in connection with the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth paragraphs of the bill which the reporter will set out, will place the reader of this opinion in
1. This bill is not a bill of review. It is a bill to impeach a decree for fraud. An -application for leave to file a bill of review must be made within three years after the rendition of the decree (except in cases of infants and persons of unsound mind, who may apply within three years after the termination of their re-' spective disabilities), but this provision of our code (see Code 1907, § 3178) d'oes not, by its terms, extend to a bill to impeach a decree for fraud. This court has, by analogy, applied the above section to bills to impeach decrees for fraud.—Gordon’s Adm’r v. Ross & Wife, 63 Ala. 363.
In the above case, however, the court plainly intimated that the above statute would not be extended so as to embrace cases where there resided in complainant an excuse which was reasonably sufficient to explain the delay. In that case the court said: “No reason is assigned, no excuse is offered, for the delay in filing the present bill; and by analogy it must be deemed barred.”
In the instant case the bill of complaint shows that attainment by complainant of her majority and the rendition of the final decree settling the guardianship had no actual effect upon the relation of trust and confidence which the marriage of her guardian to her stepmother and his constant management of her business affairs as her guardian had created. After the attainment of her majority, and after the final decree which her guardian procured the court to render for the purpose of relieving his bondsmen of liability, he continued, as a matter of fact, the relations which the marriage and, by his appointment as guardian, the law it
2. From what we have above said, it is evident that we are of the opinion that the bill of complaint contains equity. There are but few relations in life in which there can be such a complete surrender by one person to the dominance of another as naturally result from the relations which exist between a girl (a young lady) and her father. If a young lady cannot look to her father for protection (if she cannot accept as the very words of truth what he tells her), then the relations between such a young lady and her father are strange indeed. The bill in this case alleges that the complainant entertained for her uncle and guardian the same affection that she would have entertained for him if he had been her father. She was alone in the world, and he was, naturally, the one person to whom, until her marriage, she must look and upon whose words she must rely. She says in her bill that he took advantage of her and deceived her, to her hurt. If he did, he was guilty of a fraud, and a court of equity will give her relief. A court of conscience will not permit such a fraud upon one who is a peculiar object of its jurisdiction, and especially where the court itself has been used as one of the instruments to accomplish the fraud.—Willis v. Rice et al., supra; McDonald v. Pearson, 114 Ala. 630, 21 South. 534; Rittenberry v. Wharton, 176 Ala. 390, 58 South. 297; Pickett v. Pipkin, 64 Ala. 525; Kyle v. Perdue, 95 Ala. 584, 10 South. 103; Cannon v. Gilmer, 135 Ala. 302, 33 South. 659; Martin v. Evans, 163 Ala. 657, 50 South. 997; Justan v. Toulmin, 9 Ala. 662, 44 Am. Dec. 448; E. L. & C. P. Rogers, Jr., et al. v. Laura K. Brightman, Infra, 66 South. 71.
3. This bill is, however, multifarious. The bill seeks relief against the guardian and the surety on his bond as guardian. During that period which, within the purview of his bond, the guardian had the right to exercise control and assert dominion over the property of his ward, George Manegold had not asserted control or even assumed possession of the ward’s interest in remainder in the residence which was set ‘apart to the widow and the ward as a homestead after the death of the ward’s father. The fact that, after the ward had arrived at lawful age, he induced her, by virtue of his control and influence over her, to execute a conveyance to her stepmother upon an alleged consideration of $2,750 cannot be charged up, in this proceeding, as an act coming within the legal operation of his bond. This particular $2,750 cannot be treated as an asset of the ward which came into his hands as her guardian. In so far as this matter is concerned, a court of equity, upon proper appeal, may afford relief to complainant against her uncle and stepmother. It cannot, hoAvever, hold him for this matter, disassociated from any property of which he became possessed as her guardian, in his representative capacity as her guardian.—Campbell v. Amer. Bonding Co., 172 Ala. 458, 55 South. 306; Burdine v. Roper, 7 Ala. 466; Weeks v. Love, 19 Ala. 25; Godbold v. Roberts, 20 Ala. 354.
It may be that this transaction may be shown as evidential, corroborative evidence of the fraud charged in the bill. It cannot, hoAvever, be made the basis for
The demurrer points out this defect in the bill, and for that reason the demurrer should have been sustained. The decree of the court below is therefore reversed, and the cause is remanded for further proceedings in accordance with this opinion.
Réversed and remanded.