Cochran v. Cochran

• Decision Date: 11 April 1946
• Docket Number: 7 Div. 853.
• Citation: 25 So.2d 693,247 Ala. 588
• Parties: COCHRAN v. COCHRAN.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

25 So.2d 693

247 Ala. 588

COCHRAN v. COCHRAN.

7 Div. 853.

Supreme Court of Alabama

April 11, 1946

Roberts, Cunningham & Hawkins, of Gadsden, for appellant.

Irby A. Keener, of Centre, for appellee.

LIVINGSTON Justice.

This is a bill of complaint filed by Mrs. Pearlie Cochran to cancel a conveyance of an undivided one-half interest in certain lands described in the bill, upon the ground that it was the product of undue influence exerted upon her by her husband J. Marshall Cochran, the grantee in said conveyance. From a decree for respondent, the complainant presents this appeal.

The parties to this suit intermarried on December 17, 1916, and lived together as man and wife until about September 1944.

Mrs Cochran obtained title to the farm lands here involved on November 19, 1923, through a division of her deceased father's estate, and she and her husband and children moved onto the property shortly thereafter. In April 1927 Mrs. Cochran executed and delivered a deed conveying to her husband, J. Marshall Cochran, an undivided one-half interest in and to said lands for the recited consideration of five dollars. It is to cancel this deed the present bill was filed.

The case was submitted to the trial court upon the depositions of the parties and their witnesses. When causes are thus tried in the lower court, it is the duty of this Court to sit in judgment upon the evidence. Title 13, section 17, Code of 1940; Wood v. Foster, 229 Ala. 430, 157 So. 863; Pollard v. Simpson, 240 Ala. 401, 199 So. 560; Cryar v. Cryar, 243 Ala. 318, 10 So.2d 11; Wells v. Wells, 243 Ala. 533, 10 So.2d 853.

When the parties moved onto the lands of Mrs. Cochran, the improvements thereon were few and poor. The land itself was washed, run down, eroded and in a poor state of cultivation. Shortly after the conveyance by Mrs. Cochran to Mr. Cochran of an undivided one-half interest in the lands, the parties borrowed $1800 from the Federal Land Bank. They built a five or six room house on the land, and which was equipped with electric lights and running water. They improved the barn, built several chicken houses, and smoke house, pasture fences and other fences; terraced the lands in cultivation; cleared other land and terraced it, and set out an orchard. In short, took a very much run down place and made a good farm out of it.

Mr. and Mrs. Cochran had seven children; two of these children, and perhaps three (the record not being entirely clear) were born after Mrs. Cochran deeded to Mr. Cochran an undivided one-half interest in the land. Mr. Cochran had two sons by a former marriage, one four and the other six years of age at the time these parties were married. They lived with complainant and respondent until they reached their majority.

The record shows that these parties were industrious people, and their children were likewise industrious. The children were given fair educational advantages; at least on a par with the advantages given by other parents to their children in the same community.

The parties to this cause separated in the latter part of the year 1944. Mrs. Cochran filed suit for a divorce on the ground of cruelty, and Mr. Cochran denied the charge.

The only real conflict in the testimony is in regard to the influences motivating the execution and delivery of the deed here sought to be cancelled. Mrs. Cochran's testimony is to the effect that she executed and delivered the deed to Mr. Cochran on account of his insistence, coercion, duress and threats, threats to quit work and whip her unless she gave him a deed to one-half interest in the land.

On the other hand, Mr. Cochran's testimony is to the effect that the deed was voluntarily executed and delivered; that it was Mrs. Cochran's idea; that she wanted a new home, and offered to give him a deed to an undivided one-half interest in the lands if he would borrow the money and build the home and improve the place.

In Kelly v. Tatum, 222 Ala. 655, 133 So. 703, 706, it was said:

'Rescission of a contract on account of fraud or undue influence must be asserted promptly after the fraud is discovered or after the undue influence ceases to operate. Romanoff Min. Co. v. Cameron, 137 Ala. 214, 33 So. 864; Southern States Fire & Cas. Ins. Co. v. De Long, 178 Ala. 110, 59 So. 61; Stephenson v. Allison, 123 Ala. 439, 26 So. 290; 2 Pom.Eq. § 897. It is further said in 2 Pom. on Equity § 965, p. 2094, in this connection:

"When a party with full knowledge, or at least with sufficient notice or means of knowledge, of his rights, and of all the material facts, freely does what amounts to a recognition of the transacion as existing, or acts in a manner inconsistent with its repudiation, or lies by for a considerable time and knowingly permits the other party to deal with the subjectmatter under the belief that the transaction...