Curtis v. Armagast

• Decision Date: 13 December 1912
• Citation: 138 N.W. 873,158 Iowa 507
• Parties: CURTIS v. ARMAGAST ET AL.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

158 Iowa 507

138 N.W. 873

CURTIS

v.ARMAGAST ET AL.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Dec. 13, 1912.

Appeal from District Court, Mills County; A. B. Thornell, Judge.

Action in equity to set aside and cancel certain conveyances and to quiet title to land. There was a decree in the district court in favor of plaintiff, and the defendants Armagast appeal. Affirmed.

Evans and Sherwin, JJ., dissenting.D. E. Whitfield, of Malvern, and Smyth, Smith & Schall, of Omaha, Neb., for appellants.

John Y. Stone, of Glenwood, and Sullivan & Rait, of Omaha, Neb., for appellee.

WEAVER, J.

The facts leading up to the controversy involve a family history covering a period of more than half a century, with a multitude of details concerning some of which there is no material dispute and very many others about which there is a radical divergence in the testimony. It is manifestly impracticable to embody in this opinion all the facts having more or less bearing upon the merits of such a controversy, and the best we can hope to do is to select so much of the material contained in the record as will fairly illustrate the nature of the claims we have to consider.

James D. Andrews, now deceased, over whose dealings with his mother, Margaret Andrews, this litigation has arisen, was born in the year 1837. The family, consisting of the father, mother, son (James D.), and two daughters (Jessie and Margaret), settled in Iowa City in the year 1850. Another son, Peter, appears to have left home and gone to California early in life. He died intestate and without lineal heirs before the transactions now in dispute. The father was intemperate and thriftless, and except for a small amount of money belonging to the mother they were without substantial means. A family relative was engaged in mercantile business at the little town of Solon near Iowa City, and in 1855 took the son, then about 18 years old, into his service as a clerk or assistant. Shortly thereafter, at the request of James D., his mother arranged to purchase the business. The amount paid appears to have been between $1,000 and $2,000. A large part of the purchase price was represented by money which the seller was owing Mrs. Andrews, and the remainder was obtained by her from friends in Scotland. The entire purchase price was less than $2,000. It is the theory of the appellant that this purchase was made for James D., and that he became the owner of the business; but, according to the claim of the appellee, it was a joint adventure of the mother and son, she furnishing all the capital and giving her personal assistance in carrying on the enterprise. However this may be, it does appear that the family then removed to Solon, and there they conducted the store until 1857, when it was exchanged with one Pratt for about 1,340 acres of land in Mills county of this state. For some reason the title was taken temporarily in the name of James D. Andrews, but within a few days thereafter he conveyed 1,140 acres of the land to his mother. The other 200 acres he conveyed to her at a later date; the deed reciting that it was intended to supply the place of one which had been made years before and lost without being recorded. After the store was disposed of, James D. attended school for a time, then entered the employment of an express company, continuing therein until about the year 1871. Later he entered the customs service of the United States, in which he remained during the remainder of his life. His employment in these occupations removed him from Iowa, and he became a resident of New York. While still a young man at home, he insured his life for the benefit of his mother and kept the policy in force until his death. During his career he is shown to have been liberal with his mother and his sisters, who continued their home in Iowa, and from time to time contributed to their support and comfort. The sister Jessie never married. Margaret married, became widowed, and both lived in the same home with their mother. Margaret died in 1906 leaving the plaintiff herein her only surviving heir. James D. married in New York about the year 1871, after which his contributions to the support of the family in Iowa were for a time lessened or suspended; but it is due to him to say that he was at all times disposed to be helpful. About this time also the brother, Peter Andrews, to whom reference has been made, rendered some assistance to the family. In 1889 James D., being then a widower with two children, invited his mother and two sisters to make their home with him in New York. They did so and remained in his family until his death on May 19, 1900. Their place in the family was not that of entire financial dependence. Before leaving Iowa City they had enjoyed some income from the rental of rooms and had earned money to some extent in sewing and other employments. From such sources, from savings made from the contributions received from her sons, and doubtless to some extent from the tenants of the Mills county lands, the mother had accumulated a fund of $4,000. In the New York home they performed most of the domestic service and assisted in various ways in bearing the burden of family cares. It is true, however, that the son and brother was regarded by them as their principal stay and support, and his success in life and his business capacity, as well as the kindness he had exhibited toward them all from his boyhood, justified this confidence and reliance on their part.

Returning now for a time to a consideration of the land in controversy, the record indicates that until about 1874 it remained uncultivated and unproductive of any substantial income. It does not appear who, if any one, looked after the property, or who paid the taxes thereon during this period. About the year mentioned Mrs. Andrews began to lease the premises to tenants. A few years later James D., visiting his mother, learning that some difference had arisen between her and a tenant, went to Mills county, and, having made some sort of a settlement of the matter, he thenceforth, with her consent, kept the business in charge and himself, through agents of his selection, attended to the leasing and the collecting of rents. According to the testimony of the sister Jessie, he thereafter began and continued sending his mother $50 per month. Whether this was intended as in the nature of a payment or accounting by him for the rents and profits of the land does not appear except as a matter of inference, which may or may not be justified from the circumstances we have mentioned. Some seven years after taking up her home with James D. in New York, Mrs. Andrews, then being about 83 years of age, made to him a warranty deed of the Iowa land for the expressed “consideration of one dollar and other valuable considerations.” The circumstances under which this conveyance was made are involved in considerable obscurity. According to the story told by Jessie Andrews, her mother showed her the instrument before it was signed, saying it was something which James D. wished her to execute to give him the power to act for her about the land, but that she expressed a reluctance to do so, saying she wanted to keep it in her own power as long as she lived, expressing at the same time her willingness that James should do business for her and her confidence that he would do what was right. The witness says that she herself saw that the paper was a deed of some kind, but did not understand that the effect of it would be to convey the property away. Some three days later Mrs. Andrews, accompanied by James and Jessie, went to the office of a notary, where the deed was executed and acknowledged. Testimony was admitted on the trial of statements by and conversations with Mrs. Andrews after this date to the effect that she had been led to sign the conveyance supposing it to be a power of attorney, and that she did not understand the true nature of the business until after the death of James. This statement is also rebutted by proof of other alleged statements by her of a very different import, indicating her full understanding of the conveyance she had made and expressing the utmost confidence in her son.

In the year 1898 James D. Andrews became a helpless paralytic, in which condition he lived about two years. While physically prostrate and speechless, it is shown that he retained his mental faculties, and by the use of various devices those who ministered to his wants learned to communicate with him. A few months before he died he executed a conveyance of the land to his son and daughter, his only children. This deed was not delivered, and on March 26, 1900, before his death in May of that year, he made and delivered to his daughter, Mary S. Armagast, as sole grantee, a warranty deed of the land for the expressed consideration of one dollar. His mother survived him until the year 1903, when she died intestate at the age of 90 years. The only heirs of said deceased are her daughter, Jessie L. Andrews, her granddaughter, Belle A. Curtis, only child of Margaret Andrews Gray, deceased, and her grandchildren James D. Andrews, Jr., and Mary S. Armagast, only children of James D. Andrews, deceased. On April 5, 1909, Belle A. Curtis, as heir to one-third of the estate left by her said grandmother, began this action, alleging that the conveyance from Margaret Andrews to her son was obtained by fraud, and the title so procured was held by the grantee in trust for the grantor, and asking that a decree be entered accordingly, that said conveyance be canceled, and plaintiff adjudged the owner of a one-third part of the land, and that an accounting be ordered of rents and profits received by the defendants. To this action Mary S. Armagast appears and defends. She denies all allegations of fraud in the procurement of the deed. She alleges that Margaret Andrews not only understood the nature and effect of the conveyance, but that with her full knowledge and consent James...