Brennan v. Zehner

• Decision Date: 02 October 1893
• Citation: 56 N.W. 231,97 Mich. 98
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court
• Parties: BRENNAN et al. v. ZEHNER.

56 N.W. 231

97 Mich. 98

BRENNAN et al. v. ZEHNER.

Supreme Court of Michigan

October 2, 1893

Appeal from circuit court, Wayne county, in chancery; Henry N Brevoort, Judge.

Bill by Annie E. Mahon, for whom are substituted the executors of her will, John and Peter Brennan, against Elizabeth V. Zehner, to set aside a deed as having been obtained from Mrs. Mahon by fraud. Decree for defendant. Complainants appeal. Affirmed.

Julian G. Dickinson, for appellants.

James H. Pound, for appellee.

MONTGOMERY J.

The bill in this case was filed by Annie E. Mahon in her lifetime, and the cause has since her death been revived by her executors. The purpose of the suit is to set aside a conveyance of a double brick house and lot on Columbia avenue, in Detroit, made on the 3d day of December, 1891, by decedent to the defendant. The property is alleged to have been of the value of $10,000, and was conveyed subject to a mortgage of $5,600, covering this and other property, and there was also reserved a life estate in the grantor. The bill of complaint was filed on the 12th day of December, 1891, and alleges that during the preceding two weeks complainant had been seriously ill, helpless, and unfit to transact any business, and most of the time incapable of knowing what was going on around her. The bill further alleges that on the 3d day of December, 1891, and while she was lying almost unconscious in her bed, the defendant came into her room with two men, who were strangers to complainant, and while complainant's sister, who had been several days and nights attending complainant, was absent from the room, and that she, the defendant, came to the bed where complainant was lying, lifted her up, and took hold of her hand, and caused her, by taking and conducting her hand, to sign her name to a paper placed before her by one of the men which said paper complainant could not see as to its contents, and did not know what were its contents; that at the same time one of the men present assisted around the bedside of complainant in what was done in respect to signing said paper. The complainant further alleges in her bill that she was unaware of the purpose or reason of what was being done; that she was partly unconscious, and unable to resist what was being done, but retained the recollection of her hand being guided in the signature of some paper, which was all a blank to her vision and understanding. The answer denies these allegations, and avers that the contents of the paper were fully described to and understood by Mrs. Mahon and, further, that the conveyance was made in pursuance of a previous, agreement, and in fulfillment of oft-repeated promises and an intention frequently expressed to others.

The testimony in the case is very voluminous, and in many of its parts contradictory,-so much so, indeed that the determination of the case must depend largely upon the credibility of witnesses. A careful and painstaking examination of the record, however, has convinced us that the preponderance of the testimony corroborates the theory of defendant. Certain facts appear in the case undisputed or supported by such an overwhelming weight of the evidence as not to require extended citation of the testimony. These facts are that relations between the defendant and Mrs. Mahon were and had been since the early childhood of the former exceedingly friendly. Mrs. Mahon was the godmother of the defendant. Notwithstanding the disparity in their ages, Mrs....