Francis v. Cline

• Decision Date: 07 July 1898
• Citation: 96 Va. 201,31 S.E. 10
• Court: Virginia Supreme Court
• Parties: FRANCIS . v. CLINE et al.

31 S.E. 10

96 Va. 201

FRANCIS .

v.CLINE et al.

Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia.

July 7, 1898.

Resulting Trusts—Parent and Child—Fraud —Confidential Relations.

1. Where a son holding the legal title to land in trust for his mother exchanges it, with her consent, for other lands, and takes the deed in his own name, he holds such other lands on an implied trust for the use of his mother.

2. The trust arising where a trustee exchanges the trust lands for other land with the consent of the beneficiary may be established by parol evidence.

3. A mother sued her son to establish an implied trust. The son offered, by way of compromise, to make certain conveyances to her; and on his statement that he would take no advantage, and that the papers would be used simply to stop the lawsuit, she went to a justice with him, who drew up certain conveyances and the compromise. She refused to sign the same, on the ground that she wished to read, and did not have her glasses. He agreed that she could read it before he took it to be recorded, and she finally signed it. On the following morning he gave her the papers, but before she had time to read more than a few words he took them from her, and filed the compromise, and the suit was dismissed on his motion. Held, that the agreement to dismiss was procured by fraud, and not binding on the mother.

Appeal from circuit court Tazewell county.

Bill by Mrs. M. E. Francis against W. G. Cline and others to compel the conveyance of certain land to plaintiff, alleged to have been held by defendants for her use. From a decree for defendants, complainant appeals. Reversed.

Henry & Graham, for appellant.

Chapman & Gillespie and S. W. Williams, for appellees.

CARDWELL, J. The appellant, Mary E. Francis, has been thrice married. Her only children are two sons, William G. and J. M. Cline, of the first marriage. Under the will of her second husband, Henry Litz, who died about 1880, she acquired property to the amount of about $2,000; and in 1883 she married her present husband, T. L. Francis, and with her means she bought a farm In Washington county, containing 102 acres (spoken of in this record as the "Washington County Land"), and it was conveyed to her husband, T. L. Francis, in trust for her sole use and benefit They moved upon this farm in 1884, and stocked and improved it, so that in 1891 it was generally regarded as worth $3,000. In the early part of 1891 some contentions arose between Mrs. Francis and her husband, growing, as she says, out of an idea that he had some interest in the property, and was urging her to make a conveyance of it to him, which she declined to do, because she intended that her two sons should have it. In March, 1891, she visited her son William G. Cline, who resided in Tazewell county, and conferred with him as to how the title to the property could be gotten out of her husband, and solicited him to take charge of the matter for her. Later on he visited his mother at her home in Washington county, and an agreement was reached whereby T. L. Francis was to convey the title to the Washington county land to Mrs. Francis, and she to release to him all claim to, or interest in, a small tract of eight acres of land adjoining her own belonging to T. L. Francis, and in addition thereto he was to have a portion, at least, of the stock on her place. Accordingly, on March 16, 1891, T. L. Francis made a deed conveying the land directly to Mrs. Francis, and on the same date another deed was prepared, whereby T. L. Francis and his wife were to convey the land to William G. Cline. This deed was signed and acknowledged by Mrs. Francis only, before a justice of the peace, on March 23, 1891, but neither of these deeds were ever recorded. On his way from his mother's, after the deed of March 16, 1891, from T. L. Francis to his wife had been executed and delivered to him, W. G. Cline went to see A. J. May, a lawyer residing in Tazewell, and stated to him that he wished to get some advice for the benefit of his mother, but did not employ May as an attorney, or pay him any fee for his services. He stated to May that his mother was in some trouble with her husband; that they had separated; that his mother owned a tract of land in Washington county; that her husband was claiming that he had an interest in it, and that she had made some arrangement with him to convey his alleged interest in the land to her; in fact, as May states, he showed him a deed from the husband to his wife for his interest in the land. The advice given by May was that, while the conveyance might be good in equity, he thought that it would be better to get Francis and his wife to convey the land to him (W. G. Cline) for an alleged valuable consideration, and the sum of $3,000 as the consideration was suggested either by May or W. G. Cline, and that Cline execute to his mother his note for that amount, with an understanding between them that he could lift it at any time thereafter by reconveying the land to her, or by selling the land, and reinvesting the proceeds in other land for her. After this interview with May, the deed already signed and acknowledged by Mrs. Francis to W. G. Cline was presented to her husband for his signature and acknowledgment, but he declined positively to execute It, because, as he says, he did not have the same confidence in W. G. Cline that Mrs. Francis seemed to have.

On May 5, 1891, another deed was written, and was signed and acknowledged by Mrs. Francis, conveying this land to W. G. Cline; but this deed was never recorded. This deed and the one dated March 16th, signed by Mrs. Francis, named $3,000 as the consideration for the conveyance. After this last-named deed was executed by Mrs. Francis, W. G. Cline went again to his mother's home, in Washington county, advised his mother, as he admits, to separate from her husband, and obtained the consent of her husband to sign and acknowledge a deed with Mrs. Francis conveying the Washington county land to him: and these parties at once went to the law office of Mr. Humes, who prepared a deed conveying the land from Francis in his own right and as trustee for Mrs. Francis and Mrs. Francis to W. G. Cline. This deed was duly executed on May 12, 1881, acknowledged and recorded on the 13th of May of the same year; but, as Humes died shortly thereafter, what transpired in his office between these parties is not known, except from their own statements. Mrs. Francis remained on the Washington county land until the fall of 1891, when she went to the home of her son W. G. Cline, in Tazewell county, and remained for some months.

In April, 1892, by an agreement between her and W. G. Cline, the Washington county land was exchanged for 92 acres of land in Tazewell county, near W. G. Cline's land spoken of in this record as the "Spratt Land" or "Gravitt Creek Land." The deed from C. C. Spratt and wife, conveying this 92 acres of land to W. G. Cline, bears date April 12, 1892, but was not recorded until September 14, 1892. Shortly after this exchange of land, J. M. Cline took possession of the Spratt land, and Mrs. Francis, on learning that it was claimed by W. G. and J. M. Cline that she did not have any interest in the land, caused to be served on J. M. Cline, in December, 1892, a written notice that she would expect him to deliver possession of this land to her on the 1st of January, 1893, or pay her rent for it. J. M. Cline disregarded this notice, and remained in possession of the land, and refused to pay Mrs. Francis rent, and in June following Mrs. Francis instituted her suit in the circuit court of Tazewell county against W. G. and J. M. Cline, in which she recites the execution of the deed of May 12, 1891, by herself and husband to W. G. Cline, the exchange of the Washington county land for the Spratt land, and says that the Spratt land was conveyed to W. G. Cline upon the distinct understanding that he was to hold it upon the same trust that he had held the Washington county land; that the Washington county land was conveyed to W. G. Cline upon the condition and stipulation that he would hold the same in trust for her, and reconvey it to her at her request, or pay her the sum of $3,000 when the land was sold; that at the time of the execution of the deed W. G. Cline executed and delivered to her a bond or note for the sum of $3,000, in which this agreement was set forth, as she then remembered; and that this bond or note was left in the possession of J. M. Cline, her other son. She then says that she had requested W. G. Cline to convey to her the Spratt land, and had given him written notice to deliver her possession of the same, but that he refused to convey it to her, or deliver to her possession thereof.

The prayer of her bill is that J. M. Cline be required to produce and surrender to the court, or account for, the bond which he had hitherto refused to deliver to her, and that W. G. Cline be required to convey the Spratt land to her, etc.

To this bill W. G. and J. M. Cline filed their joint answer, in which they deny that W. G. Cline was to hold the Washington county land or the Spratt land in trust for the complainant, or that W. G. Cline executed the $3,000 note to her, and then say, by way of explanation of the whole transaction, that the complainant was indebted to W. G. Cline in the sum of $1,034, with interest since the latter part of the year 1880, being money which he advanced her just after the death of her second husband; that in the conversation between respondent W. G. Cline and his mother with reference to the trouble between her and her last husband, she told respondent that her husband had been endeavoring to induce her to conveythe land to him, but that she did not intend to do it, as she intended her land for her sons, but that she first wanted respondent W. G. Cline to be paid what she owed him out of this land; that complainant finally left her home, and came to the home of W. G. Cline, and said that she had left her...