Donaldson v. Johnson

• Decision Date: 10 September 1962
• Docket Number: No. 5-2727,5-2727
• Citation: 359 S.W.2d 810,235 Ark. 348
• Parties: J. Earl DONALDSON, Appellant, v. Helen M. JOHNSON and Willie A. Johnson, Appellees.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

Page 810

359 S.W.2d 810

235 Ark. 348

J. Earl DONALDSON, Appellant, v. Helen M. JOHNSON and Willie A. Johnson, Appellees.

No. 5-2727.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

Sept. 10, 1962.

Charles L. Gocio, Bentonville, Ulys A. Lovell, Springdale, for appellant.

Dickson, Putman, Millwee & Davis, Fayetteville, for appellees.

BOHLINGER, Justice.

Clara M. Donaldson was the mother of the appellant, J. Earl Donaldson and Willie Johnson, an appellee herein, and the grandmother of Helen M. Johnson who is also an appellee.

Clara M. Donaldson was the owner of a home in Springdale, Arkansas and on January 17, 1958 she executed a deed conveying the homeplace to her granddaughter, Helen M. Johnson, subject to her life estate therein. The consideration recited was $1.00 and other valuable considerations.

At the time of the execution of this deed, Mrs. Donaldson was 81 years of age and was suffering from diabetes, arteriosclerosis, leukemia, secondary uremia and other diseases of old age. Nine days after execution of the deed in question Mrs. Donaldson died. Mrs. Donaldson had resided in her home in Springdale for many years and subsequent to her husband's death had been cared for by her son, Earl Donaldson, appellant, who lived in her home with her. Earl had also cared for her and her husband and had lived with them from time to time.

On January 16, 1958, Mrs. Donaldson's daughter, Willie Johnson, came to the Donaldson home and took Mrs. Donaldson to the Johnson home. The deed in question was executed by Mrs. Donaldson on January 17th in the office of a lawyer in Fayetteville.

After the death of his mother, appellant brought this suit to cancel the deed from Mrs. Donaldson to her granddaughter, Helen M. Johnson, and alleged that the appellees, Willie and Helen Johnson, exercised undue influence on Mrs. Donaldson to secure the deed and also that Mrs. Donaldson was incompetent to execute the deed.

Much testimony was offered both by doctors and laymen as to Mrs. Donaldson's mental capacity, the doctors and laymen all testifying that in their opinions, because of her diseases and old age, Mrs. Donaldson did not have the competence to know the extent of her property and to realize the disposition she was making of it although they all testified that Mrs. Donaldson did have lucid intervals during which she was normal.

At the close of appellant's case in chief the chancellor sustained a demurrer as to the undue influence allegation. There was no testimony offered concerning undue influence and the fact that Mrs. Donaldson's daughter, Willie Johnson, took her mother to her home the day before the deed was executed might offer an opportunity for the exertion of influence but there is none shown to have taken place. The daughter, Mrs. Johnson, seems to have been an infrequent visitor to her mother's home and there is no testimony to support appellant's allegation of a confidential relationship between Mrs. Donaldson and her daughter or granddaughter which would give rise to a presumption of undue influence, duress or fraud which the appellee would be required to rebut. We conclude the chancellor was correct in sustaining the demurrer to the allegation of undue influence. The issue of confidential relationship and presumption of undue influence is covered well in an Iowa case, Arndt v. Lapel, 214 Iowa 594, 243 N.W. 605:

'What constitutes a confidential relationship has been recently passed upon by this court in Utterback v. Hollingsworth, 208 Iowa, 300, 225 N.W. 419. We quote the following, loc. cit. 302 of 208 Iowa, 225 N.W. 419, 421: 'Plaintiffs take their main position on the proposition that defendants sustained to decedent a confidential relationship such as to shift to them the burden of proof. It is not claimed, of course, that the relationship was fiduciary as a matter of law, but that it existed in fact within the doctrine of Curtis v. Armagast, 158 Iowa, 507, 138 N.W. 873; Pruitt v. Gause, 193 Iowa, 1354, 188 N.W. 798; 2 Pom.Eq. (4th Ed.) § 956. This doctrine for the purpose of the matter now under discussion may be stated to be that one who in fact stands in a confidential relationship to another may not retain advantage of a transaction with the cestui que trust which may reasonably be the result of the confidence reposed, unless he shows that the cestui acted with freedom, intelligence, and with full knowledge of all the facts. The purpose of the doctrine is to defeat and correct betrayals of trust and abuses of comfidence. It is a prerequisite to the application of the doctrine that faith and confidence be reposed; that the repository shall be thereby in a position of superiority or dominance, while the cestui is in a corresponding position of inferiority or subservience. * * * Before the doctrine can be applied, however, the existence of the confidential relationship or of the facts giving rise to it must be proved. The relationship must be such as to enable the one charged with having abused it, to have exercised it to his advantage. It must appear expressly or by implication that trust or confidence was reposed. The supposed trustee must be shown to have been in a position of advantage or superiority such as to imply a dominating influence over the cestui.' (citations omitted)

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'As was said in McNeer v. Beck, 205 Iowa, 196, loc. cit. 198, 217 N.W. 825, 826: 'Mere blood relationship does not of itself create the legal trust or confidential relationship and change the requirement in the above regard. Krcmar v. Krcmar, 202 Iowa, 1166, 211 N.W. 699; Shaffer v. Zubrod, 202 Iowa, 1062, 208 N.W. 294.''

The mere proof of kinship alone does not give rise to a confidential relationship. Cunningham v. Lockett, 216 Miss 879, 63 So.2d 401; Arndt v. Lapel, 214 Iowa 594, 243 N.W. 605; 26 C.J.S. Deeds § 64a, p. 774.

There is no set formula by which the existence of a confidential relationship may be determined, for each case is factually different and involves different individuals. As was said in Gillespie v. Holland, 40 Ark. 28, 48 Am.Rep. 1:

'* * * (confidential relationships) are supposed to arise wherever there is a relation of dependence or confidence; especially that most unquestioning of all confidences which springs from affection on one side, and a trust in a reciprocal affection on the other. The cases for the application of the doctrine can not be scheduled. They pervade all social and domestic life.' [Emphasis added]

The second allegation on which a reversal is prayed is that the preponderance of the evidence showed Mrs. Donaldson was incompetent at the time the deed was executed. The appellant offered the testimony of several of Mrs. Donaldson's neighbors and Mrs. Donaldson's doctors that she was mentally incompetent to execute the deed. The doctors, one of whom had been treating Mrs. Donaldson for about two years, testified that in their opinion, because of her diseases and advanced age, she did not have the competency to know the extent of her property and the disposition that s...