Clarke v. Hartt

• Decision Date: 17 November 1908
• Parties: CLARKE et al. v. HARTT et al.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

47 So. 819

56 Fla. 775

CLARKE et al. v. HARTT et al.

Florida Supreme Court, Division B.

November 17, 1908

Headnotes Filed December 18, 1908.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Leon County; John W. Malone, Judge.

Bill by Maude L. Clarke, by her next friend, N.M. Clarke, and others against Grizelle B. Hartt and others. Decree for defendants and complainants appeal. Affirmed.

Syllabus by the Court

SYLLABUS

Mere mental weakness will not authorize a court of equity to set aside a deed if it does not amount to inability to comprehend the effect and nature of the transaction, and is not accompanied by evidence of imposition or undue influence.

COUNSEL A. H. King, for appellants.

Blount Blount & Carter, for appellees.

OPINION

TAYLOR, J.

The appellants, as complainants below, filed their bill in equity in the circuit court for Leon county against the appellees alleging in substance that they, the appellants, were the heirs at law of William D. Hartt, deceased; that a certain deed of conveyance made by the said William D. Hartt on or about the 16th day of January, 1902, to William C. Lewis as trustee, whereby the said Hartt conveyed a certain lot with the two-story brick building thereon located on the northeast corner of Monroe and Clinton streets, in the city of Tallahassee, in Leon county, Fla., described as being a part of lot 81 of the original plan of said city of Tallahassee the same being 49 1/2 feet in width from north to south by 130 feet in length from east to west, to the said Lewis to hold in trust to the use and benefit of him, the said William D. Hartt, during his natural life, and, after his death, to his son Harris D. Hartt and his heirs and assigns in fee, was a fraud upon their rights as such heirs at law; that the said William D. Hartt was an imbecile, insane, and without mental capacity to know or comprehend what he was doing when he made said deed, and that his son, the said Harris D. Hartt, husband of the appellee Grizelle B. Hartt and father of the infant appellee William Dell Hartt, procured and persuaded him to make said deed by improper and undue influences exerted over the said grantor. The bill prays that said deed and other deeds to other property made by the said grantor to some of the complainants about the same time might be set aside and canceled and the property divided equally among the complainants and defendants as heirs at law of said William D. Hartt, share and share alike, according to the laws of descent.

A voluminous amount of evidence, oral and documentary, was taken and submitted at the final hearing before the chancellor, which resulted in a final decree dismissing the complainants' bill at their cost. From this final decree the complainants below appeal to this court, assigning as error the rendition of said final decree and the sustaining by the chancellor at the final hearing of objections made by the defendants below to the evidence of certain of...