123 Iowa 421 | Iowa | 1904
It is the theory of the plaintiff, and there is considerable in the evidence to corroborate it, that Mrs. Timbusch was quite active in inducing Mrs. Wilkie to sell the land to defendant, and but for her influence the sale would not have been made. On the other hand, there is no showing that Mrs. Timbusch was particularly interested in the defendant’s behalf, or that she had any other purpose to subserve than such as actuates many persons who feel themselves commissioned to manage the affairs of their friends and neighbors. Neither is there any showing of misrepresentation or false statement by the defendant in the negotiations. But the fact of this woman’s ignorance and feeble mental capacity, of her prior subjection to guardianship as a person of unsound mind, must have been a matter of general notoriety in that neighborhood, and in negotiating a contract with her in his own home, where she had no independent advice or assistance, and without notice' to her children, and the further fact that on meeting her son, as above noted,'before the contract was signed, he failed to frankly inform him of the deal about to be consummated, afford strong reason for the conclusion that he realized the undue advantage he was obtaining. In view of these facts, we do not think it necessary to find any active fraud on part of the defendant to uphold the decree of the trial court setting aside and annulling the contract. The woman was of such ignorance and weakness of mind as rendered her incompetent to fairly guard and protect her own interest in such a transaction, and by reason of that fact the defendant obtained an advantage over 'her. The contract has
It is true, as indicated in the authorities cited by appellant, that mere weakness of intellect in a party to a contract wall not of itself be sufficient to justify a decree setting it aside; but when that weakness is shown, and it further appears that by reason thereof such party has been led into a grossly improvident or disadvantageous contract, it requires a much less showing of active fraud in the other party to invalidate it than would be necessary where the parties stand upon a more equal footing. Hinchman v. Emmans’ Adm’rs, 1 N. J. Eq. 100; McFaddin v. Vincent, 21 Tex. 47; Allore v. Jewell, 94 U. S. 506 (24 L. Ed. 260); Longmate v. Ledger, 2 Giff. 157; Neely v. Anderson, 2 Strob. Eq. 267; Hale v. Brown, 11 Ala. 87; Conley v. Nailor, 118 U. S. 133 (6 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1001, 30 L. Ed. 112).