Glander v. Glander
| Decision Date | 12 December 1951 |
| Docket Number | No. 7755,7755 |
| Parties | GLANDER v. GLANDER et al. |
| Court | Idaho Supreme Court |
Beckwith & Langley, Twin Falls, for appellant and cross-respondent.
J. W. Taylor, Buhl, Lawrence B. Quinn and Harry Benoit, Twin Falls, for respondent and cross-appellant.
Arthur E. Glander brought this action against his sister Gladys, and his brother Wallace, to quiet title to the SE 1/4 of Sec. 15, Twp. 10 S.R. 13, E.B.M. Defendant W. W. (Wallace) Glander filed a disclaimer, and pending the proceedings, executed and delivered a quit claim deed to the land in controversy to the plaintiff.
Defendant, Gladys C. Glander, appellant here, filed an answer and cross-complaint, praying that she be decreed to be the owner of an undivided one-half interest in the real estate in question.
On issues joined, the cause was tried before the court without a jury and judgment entered in favor of the plaintiff as prayed in the complaint. From this judgment Gladys C. Glander appealed.
Except where otherwise indicated, respondent and cross-appellant, Arthur E. Glander, will be referred to as plaintiff; appellant and cross-respondent, Gladys C. Glander, will be referred to as defendant.
The pertinent facts are: During the lifetime of John H. Glander and Mary Glander, they acquired title to the SE 1/4 of Sec. 15, Twp. 10 South, Range 13 East Boise Meridian and the W 1/2 SW 1/4 and SE 1/4 SW 1/4, Sec. 14, Twp. 10 South, Range 13 East Boise Meridian, situated in Twin Falls County, Idaho. The Glanders, including the children, lived on the part of the land located in Sec. 14. The land was all farmed as one piece, each tract being contiguous and adjacent to the other.
On October 31, 1931, the father and mother conveyed by deed to their son, Arthur, the land in controversy, and to their son, Wallace (W. W. Glander), the land located in Sec. 14, on which the residence of the parties was located. This conveyance to the sons was attacked by the Buhl State Bank in a proceedings in which the bank claimed the deed was made in defraud of creditors and the matter was before this court in Buhl State Bank v. Glander, 56 Idaho 543, 56 P.2d 757, in which this court held as between the parties, the deed constituted a valid conveyance subject only to the rights of the Buhl State Bank.
On November 21, 1933, Arthur signed a paper, designated a quit claim deed, describing the SE 1/4 of Sec. 15, Twp. 10 South, Range 13 East Boise Meridian, in which his brother, Wallace, and his sister, Gladys, were named as grantees, and acknowledged the same before R. B. Smith, a Notary Public. At the same time and place Wallace signed a similar paper in which Arthur and Gladys were named as grantees, covering the land located in Sec. 14 above. These instruments, after being signed and acknowledged, were handed to the father, John H. Glander. He took the same home and from that time until October, 1948, they were kept in the family home with other papers.
In 1936 Arthur married and moved onto the SE 1/4 of Sec. 15 above, and the farm was thereafter worked jointly by Arthur and Wallace, with some help from the father until about 1946, at which time the father became incapacitated.
In 1937 Gladys (defendant) obtained employment in New York where she has continued to reside. She occasionally made trips to the ancestral home for visits and other reasons. In October 1948, according to her testimony, she found the deed which described the land in controversy here, signed by Arthur, plaintiff, in which she and her brother Wallace were named as grantees. She testified:
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In a deposition made by the father, he testified in substance that he saw Gladys handling several papers while she was on this visit (1948) and that after she left to return to New York, there was a search made, and the deed signed by Arthur could not be found. Further, that he never delivered the deed to her or to Wallace, and never gave her permission to take the deed or any other papers.
Whether Gladys secured the deed from the top of the dresser or as the fruits of a rummaging expedition through the room and dresser we consider unimportant. No witness testified that the deed was ever delivered to Gladys or to Wallace, or to their father irrevocably, as their representative or agent. He held more as a custodian than as an escrow holder.
On securing possession of the deed as above detailed, she caused the same to be recorded on the 18th of October, 1948.
Shortly after returning to her employment in New York Gladys, on November 5, 1948, wrote a letter to Arthur. We quote a part as follows:
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'Back before you were married you signed a quit claim deed to all property--the 160 acres on which the small (Brook) house is on. Before I left for home I went in to Twin Falls and filed that deed. This has undoubtedly been in the Twin Falls paper by now.
'At first glance this will look to you as though you had absolutely no further land in your name and that is absolutely true just how (sic) and, unless you now want to go along with me there is bound to be trouble which I do not want I assure you. If you want to go along with me and not come out on a limb will you go in to see Mr. Rayborn please and he will tell you what my idea is on the matter and how we can straighten out the matter to our mutual benefit. (Emphasis supplied)- 'This seemed to be the only recourse left to me since no friendly settlement could be arranged without a meeting--which was denied me.
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'I do hope that after thinking the matter over you will realize I'm not trying to cut your throat but am only trying to have some settlement of property in the only way left to me. Do telephone Mr. Rayborn for an appointment and go in and talk to him.
'Love,
/s/ Gladys
Gladys'
We leave the construction and interpretation of this letter as one may see fit, except to say that nowhere in the letter does she claim that the deed was ever delivered to her by Arthur or anyone else having authority to represent him. By inference, she also recognized the fact that Arthur claimed the land.
In her testimony Gladys testified that she had knowledge of the deed long prior to the time she possessed herself of it. Such knowledge, if true, is inconsequential, as it could not be construed as a delivery of the deed to her.
Parenthetically we observe, if Gladys' contention is correct, that the several instruments designated quit claim deeds signed by Wallace and Arthur, covering separate pieces of land, Dated November 21, 1933, were documents which were delivered and transferred title to the lands in question, we would have the following scrambled, conglomerated title: Arthur would be living on, claiming title to, and farming 160 acres of land belonging to his brother Wallace, and his sister Gladys, and so had belonged since November 21, 1933. Wallace would be living on 120 acres of land that he did not own, which belonged to his brother Arthur, and his sister Gladys would be the owner of an undivided one-half interest in both tracts.
Arthur, corroborated by his brother Wallace, testified that he gave the deeds to his father and told him to put them with the rest of the papers and stuff; that he had never seen the deeds subsequent to 1936 when he moved from the land in Sec. 14, to the land in Sec. 15. Further, he had forgotten about signing the deed and that is why he did not take the deed that Gladys caused to be recorded with him when he moved onto the 160 acres in controversy.
Arthur testified that he never authorized anyone to deliver the deed to his sister Gladys. His brother Wallace testified that the deed was never delivered to him, although he had seen it in 1946, and further testified that he never claimed any interest in the land in controversy by virtue of the deed, or otherwise.
The purpose of having the instruments prepared, according to the testimony of Arthur and...
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