Allen v. Gillette

• Decision Date: 14 May 1888
• Citation: 8 S.Ct. 1331,32 L.Ed. 271,127 U.S. 589
• Parties: ALLEN v. GILLETTE. 1
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

8 S.Ct. 1331

127 U.S. 589

32 L.Ed. 271

ALLEN v. GILLETTE.¹

May 14, 1888.

John T. Brady and H. F. Ring, for appellant.

T. N. Waul, for appellee.

LAMAR, J.

This is a suit in equity in the circuit court of the United States for the Eastern district of Texas. The bill sets forth that complainant, Fannie B. Allen, a citizen of Kentucky, is the granddaughter of James Morgan, who died in 1866 seized and possessed of an estate of 70,000 acres of land, and a homestead in Galveston, with some personal property. The land was unproductive, and scattered throughout the state. The deceased devised his property to seven grandchildren , of whom complainant was the oldest, and who in 1866 married at the age of seventeen years. By the terms of the will, Henry F. Gillette, George Ball, both of Texas, and W. H. N. Smith, of North Carolina, were appointed executors. They were authorized, after probating said will, and filing inventory and appraisement of the property, to administer the estate without any accountability to any judge or court. Gillette and Ball, on being duly qualified, entered upon the management of the estate. On the 13th day of June, 1872, complainant and her husband, H. A. Allen, gave their note for $1,200, payable six months from date, with 12 per cent. interest, to the Banking & Insurance Company of Galveston; to secure the payment of which note they also executed a deed of trust on all complainant's interest in the various tracts of land described in said deed belonging to the estate. Complainant and her husband being unable to pay said note when it became due, the deed of trust was foreclosed, her interest in said estate was sold thereunder, under, and the said defendant Gillette, became the purchaser of said interest at the foreclosure sale. The complainant alleges, as length, that, being poor and in needy circumstances, arising from the failure and refusal of said defendant to settle up the said estate so as to let her have her portion thereof, or to render it available to relieve her pressing necessities, she was induced, by the advice of said defendant, to borrow said money from the bank, and to execute the said note and deed of trust, which she would not have done but for defendant's promise to make her said interest in the estate available, so as to pay off said note, and thus prevent the sale under the deed of trust. She further alleges that, by withholding from her information as to the condition and value of the estate, and making no reports to the court, the defendant obtained an undue advantage over her, and was thereby enabled to bid in her interest for much less than it was worth at the time of the sale. After alleging other circumstances of wrongful conduct and dereliction of duty, she states that owing to enforced absence from Texas, to her poverty, and to the ignorance in which she was kept as to the real facts relative to her father's estate, it was not until a few months before h is suit was commenced that she, by accident, discovered that she had any lawful claim to recover of said defendant her interest in the lands purchased by him. The bill closes with the prayer that she be allowed to redeem said land from the said defendant, Gillette, by paying said purchase money, and that, in the event of her being unable to redeem it within such reasonable time as the court might direct, then that the land be resold for her benefit, paying the defendant the amount of his advances and interest; that the said defendant be required to answer under oath each and every allegation of the bill, and to make a full account of all his actings and doings as executor of Morgan's estate. The defendant denies the allegation that the note and mortgage were executed by said complainant at his (defendant's) suggestion, by his advice, or with his approval, and alleges, in specific detail, that each and all the statements in the bill as to his (defendant's) conversations, actions, or privity with said complainant and her husband, or said company, in any manner leading to or connected with said loan, note, and trust deed, are wholly untrue and unfounded; and avers that he was entirely ignorant of the borrowing of the said money, and of the execution of said note and deed of trust, and of any and all negotiations with reference thereto, or of any purpose of the kind on their part, until long afterwards, when he happened to see in a newspaper an advertisement of the sale to be made under the trust deed by complainant and her husband. The answer proceeds to give a full recital of the circumstances of defendant's purchase of said interest, declaring that having failed in his efforts to prevent said sale or to secure any better price to be paid, and that having ascertained that the property would be inevitably sold, he attended and purchased said interest, bidding the amount of said debts and expenses of the sale, and that said husband of complainant was present at the sale, repeating his assurance, previously given, of satisfaction at the purchase of defendant in his own personal right and for his own benefit, and without trust or liability to complainant. Defendant further alleges that the price was entirely adequate to the value of the interest at that time, and denies the allegations of complainant to the contrary; alleges that said lands were appraised at 25 cents per acre, that the indebtedness of the estate exceeded $20,000, that if settlement had been forced it would not have yielded sufficient to pay the indebtedness, and that the policy of paying off the debts gradually, by inducing creditors to accept lands in settlement and selling in small parcels on time, thus saving all the lands they possibly could for division among the grandchildren of Morgan, was known to and approved by the relations and friends of the other six minor children. He denies all concealment of the condition and indebtedness of the estate from complainant and her husband, who was a young man of good business qualifications, fully able, so far as defendant knows and believes, to maintain his family in comfort by oconomy and industry; and in specific detail shows how he (the defendant) acted in good faith, with all reasonable diligence, in the discharge of his trust to the creditors and devisees of the...