Baker v. Baker

• Decision Date: 07 April 1909
• Citation: 239 Ill. 82,87 N.E. 868
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court
• Parties: BAKER et al. v. BAKER et al.

239 Ill. 82

87 N.E. 868

BAKER et al.

v.BAKER et al.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Feb. 19, 1909.

Rehearing Denied April 7, 1909.

Error to Circuit Court, Iroquois County; Frank L. Hooper, Judge.

Suit by John Baker and another against David Baker and others. There was a decree dismissing the bill, and complainants bring error. Affirmed.C. E. Russell, Free P. Morris, and W. E. Lewis, for plaintiffs in error.

Crangle & Vennum, A. F. Goodyear, and C. A. Allen, for defendants in error.

DUNN, J.

Irwin W. Baker died intestate on July 27, 1906, leaving surviving him his wife, Elizabeth Baker, his five sons, David, Irwin Wallace, Isaac Clinton, Frederick, and John, and one daughter, Nancy Jane. On March 16, 1906, he and his wife executed four warranty deeds, conveying to each of the sons, except John, certain land in Iroquois county, aggregating 440 acres. On February 14, 1907, John and Nancy Jane filed their bill in the circuit court of Iroquois county to set aside the four deeds upon the ground of fraud and undue influence exercised upon Irwin W. Baker, and his mental incapacity. Upon a hearing the bill was dismissed for want of equity, and the complainants prosecute a writ of error.

The grantor was 74 years old at the time the deeds were executed. He lived in Cissna Park, in Iroquois county, and had lived there and in the vicinity for many years. Besides the land involved in this controversy, he had accumulated a large amount of real estate and personal property, which descended to his heirs. It is claimed that during the last year of his life he was afflicted with senile dementia to such an extent as to make him incapable of understandingly and rationally executing the conveyances in controversy. The evidence shows that old age was telling seriously upon his physical, and to some extent upon his mental, powers. He was not so strong as before, his hands shook, he was partially deaf, his memory was impaired. Quite a number of witnesses testified that they did not regard him as having sufficient mental capacity to transact business, and a somewhat smaller number testified to an opposite opinion. The weight of this evidence on either side is diminished by the fact that the opportunities of the respective witnesses for observation were in some instances very limited, and their opinions seem to have been based upon casual notice of trivial circumstances not sufficient to warrant a conclusion as to mental capacity. He failed at times to recognize persons whom he had known, but several of the instances testified to were cases of young men whom he had not seen frequently or recently. There is no evidence that he did not recognize his family and friends and those with whom he associated or transacted business. There was evidence of his being confused as to where he was on two or three occasions, the last time at Danville, two or three weeks before his death, when he appears to have been completely lost. Dr. Roberts, the physician who attended him during the last eight months of his life, testified to Mr. Baker's condition of gradual senile decay, the impairment of his strength and his nervous system, his indistinctnessof speech and stumbling gait, and says that judging from his illness prior to the date of the deeds, and subsequent, there would be a question as to his ability to properly conduct his business. But as a matter of fact there is no doubt that he did conduct his business to the close of his life, and no transaction is shown which was not properly conducted. He made deals concerning land, stock, grain, and timber. He had tile laid, staked out the lines, gave directions as to the size of the title, and the depth at which it should be laid. He settled and paid accounts presented against him, and refused to pay claims which he thought unjust. It would prolong this opinion to an unreasonable length and serve no useful purpose to attempt to review in detail the testimony of the numerous witnesses and the circumstances on which their opinions as to the mental capacity of the grantor are based. They are not sufficient to justify a finding that the grantor was not able to understand and comprehend the business he was engaged in. The deeds were prepared by Henry B. Harvey, who was a witness on the hearing. Mr. Baker spoke to him about making the deeds a week in advance, and the day they were made sent for him to come to Baker's house. There Mr. Baker had his old deeds sorted out, and furnished the descriptions...