43 Kan. 718 | Kan. | 1890
The opinion of the court was delivered by
David Bobertson died at the home of his married daughter, Mrs. Mary J. Paddock, in Cloud county, in this state, on January 10, 1886, aged about seventy. His wife died many years before. He had been suffering from paralysis nearly two years. He left surviving him several children. At the time of his death he owned $1,100 of notes. A few weeks before his death he had the legal title to and was in the possession of the northwest quarter of section 32, township 5, range 1, in Cloud county. Bobertson executed a will on the 22d day of October, 1883. It was admitted to probate on the 9th of February, 1886. He directed in his will that his real and personal property be converted into money, and, after the payment of his funeral charges, expenses, etc., the proceeds to be divided among his children, share and share alike, with the exception that his oldest daughter, Mrs. Isabel Temple, should receive $400 in addition to her share, and the grandson, David Beid, should receive $120. During the years of 1883, 1884, and a part of 1885, he lived in Cloud county most of the time, with Mrs. Isabel Temple, as one of the family. Sometime in the summer or fall of 1885' he left Mrs. Temple’s and went to Mrs. Mary J. Paddock’s. Before leaving Mrs. Temple’s, he told her he was going down to his farm and set out some shade trees and stay with his daughter Mary. Early in November, 1885, he was taken sick, and never recovered. Mrs. Temple called at her sister’s every
Story (1 Eq. Jur., §309) states the rule thus:
“All contracts and conveyances whereby benefits are secured by children to their parents, are objects of jealousy, and if they are not entered into with scrupulous good faith and are not reasonable under the circumstances, they will be set aside, unless third persons have acquired an interest under them, especially where the original purposes for which they have been obtained are perverted or used as a mere cover.”
In Tracey v. Sacket, 1 Ohio St. 54, it is said:
“Actual fraud . . . was not essentially necessary in order to set aside contracts in equity. . . . The acts and contracts of persons of weak understandings, and who are therefore liable to imposition, will be held void, if the nature of the act or contract justify the conclusion that the party has not exercised a deliberate judgment, but that he has been imposed upon, circumvented, or overcome by cunning, artifice, or undue influence.”
In Jacox v. Jacox, 40 Mich. 473, it is decided that—
“An equitable wardship arises where a son takes charge of his father’s affairs in the belief that the latter is incompetent to manage them, and the father passively submits.”
In Highberger v. Stiffler, 21 Md. 338, it is held that—
“Where a parent, through extreme age and infirmity, has become childish and depends upon her son for advice in all her affairs, contracts made by her in his favor are subject to the same strict scrutiny given to contracts of children in favor of their parents. In such a case it is not necessary to prove the exercise of overweening influence, misrepresentation, importunity, or fraud aliunde the act complained of.”
In Martin v. Martin, 1 Heisk. (Tenn.) 644, Chief Justice Nicholson, in delivering the opinion, used the following language:
“But when to this is added that the father was far advanced in years, was greatly enfeebled in body and mind, actually verging upon mental incapacity, and was greatly troubled and uneasy in his mind, and that the son and agent uses his influence in procuring a deed which secures to himself more than two-thirds of his father’s entire estate and to his brother the residue, to the total exclusion of two sisters and several grandchildren, the law raises the presumption of fraud, and this presumption can only be overturned by clear and satisfactory proof that the son and agent dealt with entire fairness and good faith in the transaction. It is incumbent on him to show affirmatively that his father comprehended fully the purport and effect of the conveyances, and that he*724 executed them freely and uuderstandingly, knowing that he thereby divested himself of the absolute title of the lands.”
See also 59 Am. Dec. 615, and the cases cited; Yeamans v. James, 27 Kas. 195; Wills v. Wood, 28 id. 400; 2 Pom. Eq. Jur., § 951.
Complaint is made because the deposition of Thomas Paddock was permitted to be read in evidence. Paddock was the divorced husband of Mrs. Mary J. Paddock. The objections to this deposition are not tenable. It was taken in New York city while the district court of Cloud county was in session. This is not a sufficient reason for rejecting a deposition. (Northrup v. Hottenstein, 38 Kas. 263; Railway Company v. Morse, 38 id. 271.) The deposition was offered as testimony against Mrs. Alice Bourgeois only. It was competent as to her, if incompetent against Mrs. Paddock. The deposition recited that Thomas Paddock was formerly the husband of Mrs. Mary J. Paddock, hence there was no error in rejecting the evidence offered to prove this fact.
Again, the motion to suppress and the objections to the deposition were made jointly by Mrs. Paddock and Mrs. Bourgeois. Their motions were for the exclusion of the whole of the deposition. If any portion of a deposition objected to is competent, the court is not obliged, upon a motion to exclude the whole, to separate and exclude the part that is incompetent only. (Greer v. Higgins, 20 Kas. 420; Gano v. Wells, 36 id. 688; Smythe v. Parsons, 37 id. 79.)
The evidence offered to impeach Mr. Paddock was properly rejected, because no foundation was laid by calling his attention to the matters attempted to be proved. (Greer v. Higgins, supra.)
The judgment of the district court will be affirmed.