146 N.W. 898 | N.D. | 1914
(after stating the facts as above). It is impossible to sustain the judgment of the trial court, under the pleadings and the evidence in this case.
The ease presented by the pleadings is one of fraud and of a successful attempt to induce the plaintiff to sign two warranty deeds and a contract of purchase, when she merely thought she was executing, and merely intended to execute, a permission to the defendant to sell certain real estate as her agent.
The trial court, however, decided the case and^ found the issues for the plaintiff as if the issues presented by the pleadings had been the obtaining of the deeds and the contract of purchase by undue influence, and also bases his conclusion quite largely upon the assumption that the plaintiff thought she was signing an option, rather than a contract, to purchase. These findings are irreconcilable, and no foundation for them is laid in the pleadings.
The trial court, indeed, decided the case -upon points which were not raised or relied upon by the plaintiff, and which probably never occurred either to her or her attorney until after the tentative opinion was prepared. We cannot find any evidence, and the trial court did not find any proof, of any substitution of documents, or of the perpetration of any direct fraud at the time of the execution of the deeds and contract in question.
To our minds all the evidence in regard to the undue influence, if • any, was inadmissible, except as tending to show a preconcerted scheme leading up to the fraud alleged, and this fraud was not proved.
The allegations as to undue influence, indeed, are, as we read the complaint, merely pleaded by way of inducement, while the real gist of the complaint is fraud. There is, as we have before stated, really nothing in the evidence to sustain the allegations of the complaint. The plaintiff herself admits that she executed some papers; that a part of the contract relating to the $75,000 transaction was read to her. On
Even if undue influence were an issue in the case, we are hardly able to find it from the evidence. The plaintiff was not a grossly ignorant woman. She appears to have been able to accumulate quite a little property, and to have been able to manage her real estate with a good deal of success. The evidence in regard to her pain and suffering is entirely inconclusive. It is a noticeable fact that after signing the papers she took a pleasure trip in an automobile to Detroit. If she fainted at all it was merely in the doctor’s office pending a slight operation on her foot, which does not seem to have prevented her going to Detroit or from leaving for Illinois the next day. The letters written to Mr. and Mrs. Wyman immediately after her return to Illinois show clearly that she understood that she had agreed to purchase the
We can hardly hold from the evidence that the contract was absolutely unreasonable or inequitable, or that it was not, except for the magnitude of the purchase, such a one as is not every day made in real estate circles. Mrs. Schinzer agreed to purchase the two sections of land for $75,000. There is no proof or claim that this was an exorbitant price. Mr. Wyman agreed to himself purchase the land for $64,000, which he did, the difference being in the neighborhood of $8.50 an acre. He agreed with Mr. Barry to take a $35,000 mortgage
So, too, there is no proof that the land purchased was not worth the price which was agreed to be paid. The case merely appears to be one where a person has made a binding contract, but has later been persuaded by her relatives and friends that it would have been better if she had not made it. There are few of us who, after we have made -a business deal, do not wonder if we were wise in doing so. There are few of us who do not have friends who tell us that we have been foolish. These things, however, do not justify the setting aside of solemn contracts which are entered into under all of the formalities of the law. If they did, real-estate titles would be of but little value, and there would be no security in the business world. Ingwaldson v. Skrivseth, 7 N. D. 388, 75 N. W. 772.
The judgment of the District Court is reversed, with directions to dismiss the complaint. The costs and disbursements of the proceedings so far incurred are to be taxed against the plaintiff.
Since, however, the contract is still alive, and the defendant has stated in his testimony that he is ready, able, and willing to perform the same, and said defendant or his grantees have been in possession of the land in controversy since the commencement of the suit, the trial court will retain jurisdiction of the case to the end that an additional and supplemental complaint may be filed, that an accounting may be had, that if possible a specific performance of the contract may be obtained, and that the rights and equities of both parties may be protected.