35 P. 846 | Or. | 1894
Opinion by
Solomon Abraham testified that while he could not remember the details of the transaction, he believed, from his careful method of doing business, that a deed made by him to Johnson must have been by his mother’s direction; that he was living in Oakland at the time the deed was executed, but moved to Roseburg in eighteen hundred and seventy-five, and lived one block from the plaintiff’s home till eighteen hundred and ninety; and during that time she never said anything to him about the deed till May ninth, eighteen hundred and ninety, when she demanded from him a conveyance of the whole lot, but at Portland, in the fall of that year, she demanded a deed for only one half of the property. J. H. Snider, plaintiff’s stepson, testified that he lived with the plaintiff during the years eighteen hundred and sixty-eight and eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, and that she many times said she was going to have the property deeded to her son. The plaintiff and her daughters testified that the defendant had frequently promised to convey the north half of said lot to his mother, and Laura La Forest testified that she heard him at one time make this promise. This the defendant denies. But these promises if made at all, the testimony shows, were made after the conveyances, and hence could not create a
The evidence cannot he reconciled upon any theory, and the presumptions and inferences deducible from the acts of the parties must be relied upon for a solution of the question: 1. The bond by plaintiff’s direction was never recorded. This fact would seem to support the defendant’s theory that his mother was acting for him, and in his interest, and did not desire to make the bond a matter of record. 2. The fact that Abraham made the deed to Johnson is a strong presumption that he did so at plaintiff’s request. 3. The fact that plaintiff for more than twenty years never made any demand upon Abraham to comply with the terms of his bond, seems to further show that the deed was executed according to her instructions. From these facts . and circumstances it seems clear that the trust has not been established with that character of proof required in such cases, and for that reason the decree is reversed and the bill dismissed.
PlSMISSEÜ,