Cutler v. Zollinger

Decision Date19 June 1893
PartiesCUTLER v. ZOLLINGER.
CourtMissouri Supreme Court

On an issue as to plaintiff's sanity at the time of executing a deed, it appeared that, for some weeks both before and after the deed, plaintiff had imagined spirits around her; that she had done some great wrong, etc. Her physician stated that the disease was of a nervous character, affecting her mental condition. Several weeks after executing the deed, plaintiff went to an insane asylum. The asylum physician testified that she was not in a condition to transact business. Other witnesses testified to her mental unsoundness previously, and at date of the deed. Plaintiff had placed the property with real-estate agents, a year before, for $3,500. The agents, however, had been unable to sell, and the price had been reduced to $3,000 and then to $2,500, the price for which it finally sold. Plaintiff talked of the sale rationally, and the other parties all testified that they saw nothing during the negotiations to indicate that she was not of sound mind. After remaining a few weeks in the asylum, plaintiff became cured. Held, that her condition was not such as to invalidate the deed.

Appeal from St. Louis circuit court; L. B. Valliant, Judge.

Suit by Margaret Cutler against Sarah J. Zollinger. Judgment for defendant. Plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Edmond A. B. Garesche, for appellant. L. A. Steber, for respondent.

BLACK, C. J.

The plaintiff conveyed a lot in the city of St. Louis to the defendant for the consideration of $2,625, and this is a suit to set aside that deed on the ground that the plaintiff was of unsound mind when she-executed it. She tenders a return of the purchase price paid to her by the defendant. The petition contains other averments of fraud and oppression, but they are not supported by any evidence. On the contrary the proof is all to the effect that the defendant, in purchasing the property, acted in perfect good faith throughout the entire transaction. For the plaintiff, two witnesses testified as to the value of the property, — one placing it at $4,500, and the other at $4,600. From other evidence in the case it appears the two small buildings on the property were 30 years old, and in a dilapidated condition. The evidence of a number of witnesses produced by the defendant is to the effect that the property was not worth over $2,500 or $2,700. Without detailing all of the evidence, it is sufficient to say it satisfies us that defendant paid a fair value for the property.

The record contains a vast amount of evidence bearing upon the issue of insanity, and we can do no more than give the substance of it. The deed from the plaintiff to the defendant bears date the 24th September, 1889, and was delivered on that day. This suit was commenced on the 14th March, 1890. Dr. Langan called to see Mrs. Cutler, the plaintiff, one month and a few days before the date of the deed. She was then in bed. He conversed with her, in a professional capacity, for 15 or 20 minutes. He says she was weak physically and mentally, but he could not say she was insane, though he advised her to go to a hospital for treatment. She said she would do so if she could sell her property; being the property on which she resided, and the same property now in question. Dr. Sullivan saw her on the 1st, and again on the 3d, of September. He says the symptoms were those of inflammatory rheumatism. On the second visit he became convinced she suffered from something else besides rheumatic trouble, — something of a nervous character, sufficient to affect her mental condition. He says he does not recollect that she was then suffering from any delusion. She became a patient in the St. Vincent's Institution for the Insane some two or three weeks after the date of the deed. Dr. Bremer, the resident physician of the asylum, examined her at that time. Speaking of this examination, he says: "She was profoundly melancholic. She imagined she had done a great wrong at some time. She was full of delusions as to her bodily state. She imagined there was something wrong about her body, and that somebody abused her every night; that some one was cutting her on the back, and across the stomach." He says she was suffering from melancholia, with delusions, and that she was not in a condition, mentally, to transact any business. He was asked questions based upon the assumption that she had been twice before in the asylum, but we find no proof of the facts so assumed, and must therefore disregard the answers based upon the unproved facts. He says, if she suffered from delusions leading her to imagine devils were in her bed, and around her, she was of unsound mind. Mrs. Eagan, a sister of the plaintiff, testified: "Every time I would go there, she would complain of spirits. She said they were around her bed. I tried to make her believe they were imaginary, but she did not seem to comprehend. She said she knew they were there; she was sure they were there. In talking of other matters, she would jump from one subject to another without any apparent reason for it. At times she did not know what she was saying. From what I saw and observed of her condition, I do not think that she was of sound mind. I saw her the day before this deed was executed, and her mind was then in the condition which I have described. I think I saw her the very next day, and her condition had not changed any for the better. On the contrary, it was worse after she had sold the property. It made her feel worse, and seemed to increase the number of spirits around her, so far as I could judge of her statements to me." A number of the neighbors and friends of the plaintiff gave evidence to the same effect. To such persons she insisted that spirits were around her, and crawling over her. Miss Maggie Cutler, a daughter of the plaintiff, says her mother was in the condition just described on the day the deed was executed. She testified on her examination in chief, and again in rebuttal, that her mother did not speak of devils and spirits in the presence of strangers, but as soon as they left she would begin to talk about such things. A son of the plaintiff, 25 years of age, gave evidence to the effect that his mother was flighty, and imagined she had done all sorts of uncharitable acts to her neighbors, and that she was not in a condition to transact business when she...

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29 cases
  • Kelley v. United Mut. Ins. Ass'n
    • United States
    • Court of Appeals of Kansas
    • February 17, 1941
    ...... (b) The evidence relating to the claim of insanity was. materially different on this trial and was wholly. insufficient to prove insanity. Cutler v. Zollinger,. 117 Mo. 92, 22 S.W. 895; Powers v. K. C. Pub. Serv. Co., 343 Mo. 432, 66 S.W.2d 840; Lee v. Ullery,. 140 S.W.2d 5; Von de Veld v. ......
  • Kelley v. United Mut. Ins. Co.
    • United States
    • Court of Appeal of Missouri (US)
    • February 17, 1941
    ...relating to the claim of insanity was materially different on this trial and was wholly insufficient to prove insanity. Cutler v. Zollinger, 117 Mo. 92, 22 S.W. 895; Powers v. K.C. Pub. Serv. Co., 343 Mo. 432, 66 S.W. (2d) 840; Lee v. Ullery, 140 S.W. (2d) 5; Von de Veld v. Judy, 143 Mo. 34......
  • Hill-Dodge Banking Co. v. Loomis
    • United States
    • Court of Appeal of Missouri (US)
    • May 25, 1909
    ......541; Wirebach v. Bank, 97. Pa. 543; 11 American & English Encyclopedia of Law,. 136.]". . .          See to. the same effect Cutler v. Zollinger, 117 Mo. 92,. 101, 22 S.W. 895; Wells v. Ben. Assn.; Rhoades v. Fuller,. supra; McAnaw v. Tiffin, 143 Mo. 667, 679, 45 S.W. 656; ......
  • Ratliff v. Baltzer's Adm'r
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Idaho
    • February 14, 1907
    ...... The evidence shows to the contrary in this case. (Elwood. v. O'Brien, 105 Iowa 239, 74 N.W. 740; Farnam v. Brooks, 9 Pick. (Mass.) 212; Cutler v. Zollinger, 117 Mo. 92, 22 S.W. 895; Richardson v. Smart, 65 Mo.App. 14; Aldrich v. Bailey, supra; Buckey. v. Buckey, 38 W.Va. 168, 18 S.E. ......
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