29 A.2d 679 | Pa. | 1942
To a bill in equity which is somewhat of a medley of allegations and of claims defendant filed preliminary objections. The court sustained these and dismissed the bill.
The parties were married in 1912. In 1919 they purchased premises 167 Harvey Street, Germantown, Philadelphia, for $7,500 of which plaintiff says she contributed $6,000, as well as an additional sum of $2,000 for furnishing the property. Title was taken by them as tenants by the entireties. At the same time they placed a mortgage on the property of $6,500, the proceeds of which were used in improving and renovating the premises. The parties thereafter occupied the place as their residence, and defendant, who was a physician, established his office there. According to the averments of the bill, defendant, in 1923, made false statements to other physicians whereby he induced them to certify that plaintiff was insane, the result of which was that she was confined in a mental institution during the latter part of that year and the beginning of 1924. Again, in September, 1924, defendant caused plaintiff to be committed to another asylum where she was detained for a period of nine months. In 1925 he had a guardian appointed for her estate. In March, 1927, she was denied by defendant admission to their residence. In September, 1929, plaintiff obtained a divorce. For some time in the latter part of 1929 and the beginning of 1930 she again occupied a room in the Harvey Street premises. The bill *70 alleges that in January, 1930, defendant entered into a collusive agreement with one Gertrude R. Gilmore whereby the latter obtained an assignment of the bond and mortgage on the property, judgment was immediately entered on the bond, and notice was served on plaintiff that unless arrangements were made at once concerning the property the premises would be sold at sheriff's sale. As a result of this threat, not knowing, as she claims, that Gertrude R. Gilmore was a straw party for defendant in the purchase of the mortgage and was being used to deceive her, plaintiff entered into an agreement, in April, 1930, for the sale of the property to one Agnes Edna Miller, a straw party; a deed was executed to the latter who immediately re-conveyed the premises to defendant. It is stated that at that time the market value of the property, subject to the mortgage of $6,500, was $13,500. Plaintiff admits that she received all of the purchase money, $8,250, but avers that that sum was inadequate to compensate her for her investment in the property, for its subsequent enhancement in value, and for the exclusive use of the premises by defendant from 1926 to the present time. She asserts that by reason of defendant's conduct in having her confined in insane asylums and procuring the appointment of a guardian of her estate she has had great difficulty in obtaining and keeping employment. Although she has consulted many attorneys during the period from 1926 to 1940 they refused to represent her upon learning of her alleged insanity, and for these reasons she was unable to institute proceedings before the filing of the present bill in August, 1941; being without advice of counsel she did not sooner learn, and by her own efforts could not have learned, of the fraud and deception practiced upon her by defendant. The bill prays for an order upon defendant to account for his exclusive use and occupancy of the Harvey Street premises from 1926 to the present time, for a decree declaring the deed to Agnes Edna Miller and the deed from her to defendant to be *71 null and void, for an order on defendant to pay to plaintiff damages for mental suffering and financial loss, and for further and general relief.
Clearing away non-essentials which characterize the bill, it appears that the chief object of plaintiff's attack is the transaction whereby she gave up her interest in the Harvey Street property under the belief, induced by defendant, that it was about to be swept away by the action of a bona fide holder of the mortgage. She points, with justification, to the principle that when two or more persons have a joint or common interest in an estate none of them can purchase an incumbrance or outstanding title and set it up against the others for the purpose of depriving them of their interests: Weaver v. Wible,
But plaintiff's case falls for two reasons. The first is that she wishes to set aside a deed, for which she received a consideration of $8,250, without offering to return the money. One who seeks equity must do equity. A conveyance cannot be rescinded upon the ground of fraud and a reconveyance ordered unless there be an offer to repay the purchase money and thus to place the adverse party in statu quo: Bird's Appeal,
The prayer of the bill for an accounting for defendant's use and occupancy of the premises cannot be sustained. Until the parties were divorced in 1929 they were tenants by the entireties, each being seized of the whole estate and entitled to possession; therefore plaintiff could not have demanded an accounting for the rental value of the premises during their marital period: Stuckey v. Keefe's Executors,
Order of the court dismissing the bill affirmed at plaintiff's costs.