O'Connor v. O'Connor

• Decision Date: 12 December 1896
• Citation: 69 N.W. 676,100 Iowa 476
• Parties: O'CONNOR v. O'CONNOR ET AL.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

100 Iowa 476

69 N.W. 676

O'CONNOR

v.O'CONNOR ET AL.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Dec. 12, 1896.

Appeal from district court, Jackson county; A. J. House, Judge.

Action in equity to set aside an alleged conveyance of real estate, and to quiet in plaintiff the title to the property described in the conveyance. There was a hearing on the merits, and a decree in favor of the defendants Adelia O'Connor, Fergus O'Connor, and Mary O'Connor. The plaintiff appeals. Reversed.W. C. Gregory and L. A. Ellis, for appellant.

J. C. Longueville and Levi Keck, for appellees.

ROBINSON, J.

The plaintiff claims to be the owner in fee simple of a farm in Jackson county, which includes about 344 acres of land. On the 24th day of November, 1888, he signed and acknowledged an instrument in writing, which purported to convey the land to Bridget O'Connor, the wife of the plaintiff, and to his sons, C. J. O'Connor, Charles T. O'Connor, and Frank P. O'Connor, in consideration of love and affection and one dollar in hand paid. The instrument was recorded on the 7th day of July, 1890. The plaintiff admits that he signed and acknowledged the instrument, but avers that he did so when he was temporarily insane, and that the instrument was never delivered, but that it was wrongfully taken from his possession by his wife, and recorded without his knowledge or consent. The plaintiff has been married twice,--the last time nearly 40 years ago to the defendant Bridget O'Connor. By his first wife he had three children, all of whom are living. By his second wife he had three sons and three daughters, who were living when the deed was executed. Those three sons were named as grantees in the deed. C. J. O'Connor, one of the sons named as grantee, is now dead. He left a widow, Adelia, and two children, Fergus and Mary O'Connor. These three, the administrator of C. J. O'Connor's estate, and the three surviving grantees are made parties defendant. But the widow and children of the deceased grantee are the only ones who contest the claim of the plaintiff. The district court found and adjudged that the title to an undivided one-fourth of the land in controversy was vested in them, and dismissed the petition of the plaintiff. The claim of the plaintiff that he was not of sound mind when he executed the conveyance is not sustained by the evidence, but it appears that at the time of its execution he was having some domestic trouble in regard to his property. C. T. O'Connor, or “Chris,” as he is called, wished his father to help him to a farm, and his mother joined him in trying to influence his father to aid him; but the father refused, and his refusal seems to have caused ill feeling. Chris left home, and while he was away the father applied to a justice of the peace, who lived three miles distant, to draw the deed. After it was signed and acknowledged, it was left with the justice. The plaintiff claims that no directions were given to the justice in regard to the disposition of the deed, but it is probable that he was told to send it to the county recorder, to be recorded, for he at once forwarded it to the recorder's office. The deed was drawn on a Saturday. After the plaintiff returned home on the day it was drawn, he told his wife something of what he had done, and she objected to it. On the next day the parish priest was consulted, and appears to have disapproved the making of the deed. As a result of these conferences, the priest wrote a note to the recorder, which was signed by the plaintiff, and appears to have been a request to return the deed. On the same day a son of the plaintiff was sent to the recorder's office for the deed. He went a part of the way on Sunday, and arrived at the recorder's office on Monday morning, after the deed had been received by the recorder, but before the envelope in which it was sent had been opened. The recorder refused to deliver the deed to the son, but did not then record it, and a few weeks later gave it to the plaintiff. He carried it to his home, and placed it with other papers in his possession. More than a year after that was done, and during his absence in Dubuque, the wife took the deed from the receptacle in which he had placed it, and gave it to Chris, who took it to the county recorder, and had it...