269 F. 227 | 6th Cir. | 1920
(after stating the facts as above). With the exceptions to be noted, the questions involved are of fact. In so far as there is, between the testimony for plaintiff and that for defendant, any conflict involving reliability or credibility, we are compelled,' as was the court below, to accept defendant’s evidence and to reject that of plaintiff.
Of course, if this were the proper inference, the deed could not stand, however wise or prudent it may have been; but the record does not justify that conclusion. The letter written by defendant to accompany the deed, when sent to her for execution, is not proved by copy; but defendant says it was a full and complete explanation of its terms and effect. This letter was mailed to her, but the deed, when finished, was taken to her in New York by the brother-in-law and left with her. She read it over during his absence. Later, in his presence, she read it over again and discussed it with him. He told her, when he gave it to her, that it was a perpetual trust. She was an educated and intelligent woman, then wholly in her ordinary state of mind. No misrepresentation of any kind with regard to it was made to her by any one; and it is difficult to conceive that she could have supposed that it was anything other than it actually was. If, upon such a state of facts, a grantor could set aside a solemn deed, no instrument would he safe.
Ample reconciliation of her formerly expressed desire to reserve the power to change and of her later signature of the paper as it was is found in the very reasonable supposition that her expressed desire was hasty and casual, and that reflection showed her that its satisfaction would be unwise. That she did in fact abandon her wish to have the fund remain subject to her future changes of mind, and was content with the paper as it was, is additionally and persuasively shown by the fact that, when the deed was sent back to defendant, he wrote her
“neither yon nor I nor any one else can now possibly disinherit yon or change the matter in any way. * * * In fact, I never knew before that it was possible for any one to have an income so thoroughly protected.”
She made no objection to this situation, nor did she in any way inti-' mate that she had been deceived, or did not understand what had been done. There was no suggestion of dissatisfaction until several months had passed, and even then, through a series of letters, no claim of deception or misrepresentation. The conclusion of the court below that her signature to the instrument was deliberate and intelligent must be affirmed.
Other less important criticisms are likewise not vital. Neither singly or collectively do they justify cancellation. When we consider the respective parts which plaintiff and defendant played in the creation of this fund, the necessity that plaintiff should be protected against herself, if it was to continue to support her, the devising of this trust
The decree of the District Court is affirmed.