57 S.C. 413 | S.C. | 1900
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
This is an action by a mother to cancel a deed of conveyance to her son, on the ground of undue influence and mistake. ' The master, after making a detailed statement of specific facts, concluded “that no intentional fraud or imposition was practiced upon the plaintiff, but that she is an ignorant, infirm, illiterate woman, and was not at the date of this transaction capable of undersanding the meaning of what she was doing, and did not, in fact, understand it. That she performed the manual act of making her mark to the said deed with the belief that she was executing a will, and that it was not her intention to make a deed of conveyance of said property, and that the said deed
Upon exceptions which are not set out in the “Case” before us, the Circuit Court reversed the master and dismissed the complaint in a brief decree which we here quote: “This is an action, as appears from the complaint, to vacate and set aside a deed of conveyance made and executed and delivered to the defendant by the plaintiff, on the 19th day of August, 1897, and for a cancellation thereof, upon the grounds, as alleged in the complaint, that the plaintiff was overreached and taken advantage of by the defendant in such transaction. The defendant answered the complaint and denied the allegations thereof, and alleged that said deed was freely and voluntarily executed by plaintiff. The above cause was referred to G. H. Sass, Esq., one of the masters for Charleston County, to take the testimony on the issues raised by the pleadings herein, and report his conclusions of law and fact thereon. The above cause came on to be heard before me at the March term, 1899, of the Court of Common Pleas for Charleston County, upon the pleadings, evidence and exceptions to the master’s report on behalf of defendant. The master filed an elaborate report on the questions of law and fact involved herein. The master found
From this judgment, the plaintiff appeals upon the following grounds: “I. That the said Judge erred in holding that this was an action to vacate a deed of conveyance simply on the ground that the said plaintiff was overreached and taken advantage of by the defendant herein. II. That the said Judge erred in holding that because the master found that the said plaintiff had regained her normal mental condition, it followed that the said mental condition was of such a character that she could understand the nature of her act when she executed the said deed. III. That the said Judge erred in holding that one of the chief witnesses of the plaintiff testified that the plaintiff after executing the said
We are of the opinion that the judgment of the Circuit Court must be reversed. The plaintiff at the time of the execution of the deed was about seventy-five years old, but recently up from a spell of fever. She was born in Germany, could not speak English plainly, and could neither read nor write. Her physician testified, that while he did not consider her insane, she was not a person of ordinary comprehension. She had previously made a will to her grand-son, who was living with her. Just before making the deed, she had consented to change her will and make another in favor of the defendant, upon condition that he would live with her, repair the premises, take care of her during her life and bury her. She wanted her son to confer with her lawyer, Mr. Ficken, who had prepared the former will. The son declined this, because he preferred his own lawyer, Mr. Legare. Mr. Legare advised him that a deed of conveyance was preferable to a will, as it could not be changed. The defendant claims that he then conferred with his mother and she consented to give a deed, and defendant claims that in accordance with his lawyer’s instructions he explained to his mother the difference between a will and a deed of conveyance. Then in a few days the son accompanied his mother to the office of Mr. Legare, who seeing her aged and ignorant, conscientiously endeavored to explain to her the difference between a will and a deed of conveyance, and honestly believed that she did comprehend. The deed was then prepared by a clerk in the office, and while this was being done, there was striking evidence that all previous explanation by son and lawyer had gone for naught to her feeble memory and weak understanding, for she asked Mr. Legare whether the giving of the property to
The judgment of the Circuit Court is reversed, the deed of conveyance involved is set aside and cancelled, and the case is remanded for further proper proceedings in accordance with the recommendations of the master.