112 Ga. 842 | Ga. | 1901
This was a suit brought by Dora Roberts against Hester Haines, in the superior cou,rt of Chatham county. The petition alleged that the plaintiff and her husband, shortly after their marriage in 1876, entered into a contract with a named person, for the purchase of certain land in the city of Savannah; that she contributed to the purchase-money thereof “a large sum of money, to wit, two hundred and fifty dollars, or other large amount;” that the deed to this land should have been made to her and her husband, but that her husband, on July 31, 1883, without her knowledge or consent, had the deed made to himself alone. This deed was duly recorded. The petition further alleged that on August 4, 1883, the plaintiff’s husband, Francis Roberts, without ' her knowledge or consent, secretly conveyed the land in question to himself as trustee for his mother, Hester Haines, for life, and on her death for the benefit of his daughter, Hester Roberts; and that on October 5, 1898, Francis Roberts and Hester Roberts conveyed all their interest in the land to Hester Haines, the defendant, putting in her the entire legal title to the land in dispute. The petitioner prayed that she might “recover of the said Hester Haines her share in the said lot of land, or that the said Hester Haines he decreed to pay her the amount of money which petitioner paid on the purchase-money of the same.” To this petition the defendant demurred on the grounds that it showed that plaintiff had been guilty of gross laches; that the fraud and concealment alleged could have been discovered at any time by an examination of the records, and that the petition failed to allege that the portion of the purchase-money contributed by the plaintiff was contributed at or before the time of the execution of the first conveyance mentioned. By amendment to her demurrer, the defendant set up that the petition was insufficient to support a resulting trust, in that the plaintiff failed to state that her alleged contribution to the purchase-money ever passed through the hands of her husband, or that her husband used her money in purchasing the lot; and also that the petition was without equity, because it stated that the plaintiff’s contribution to the purchase-money of the lot consisted of her earnings, which by law belonged to her husband. The court passed an
Judgment affirmed.