Griffin v. Armana, 92-CA-00823-SCT

• Decision Date: 08 August 1996
• Docket Number: No. 92-CA-00823-SCT,92-CA-00823-SCT
• Citation: 687 So.2d 1188
• Parties: Aubrey C. GRIFFIN, Jr. v. Pamela G. Nicolas ARMANA.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 1188

687 So.2d 1188

Aubrey C. GRIFFIN, Jr. v. Pamela G. Nicolas ARMANA.

No. 92-CA-00823-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

Aug. 8, 1996.

Rehearing Denied Nov. 21, 1996.

B. Kendall Griffin, J. Peyton Randolph, II, Jackson, for appellant.

Lisa B. Milner, Young Williams Henderson & Fuselier, Glen K. Till, Jr., Jackson, for appellee.

En Banc.

DAN LEE, Chief Justice, for the Court:

This appeal arises from a decision adverse to Appellant Aubrey C. Griffin, Jr. (Griffin) in the Hinds County Chancery Court involving the ownership of a certain parcel of property in the State of Florida. Griffin initiated this litigation against the Appellee, his niece Pamela G. Nicolas Armana (Armana) to recover certain real and personal property owned by Griffin taken and held by Armana. Armana filed a counterclaim against Griffin asserting that Griffin had published false and libelous statements concerning Armana and charging Griffin with intentional infliction of emotional distress and tortious interference with business.

After a two-day trial, the chancellor found that a confidential relationship as well as a fiduciary relationship did exist between Armana and Griffin. However, the chancellor failed to cancel the deed to real property in Florida and found that a $15,862.00 payment, made by Griffin to St. Stephen's School on behalf of Armana's son, was a gift. However, the chancellor determined that certain jewelry, once located in Griffin's safe deposit box, was Griffin's and Armana was ordered to return it to Griffin. Finally, the chancellor denied any relief to Armana as to her counterclaim for damages for libelous statements; no cross-appeal was taken from this denial. Griffin, aggrieved by the chancellor's ruling appeals and assigns the following as error:

I. WHETHER THE LOWER COURT ERRED IN NOT CANCELING THE WARRANTY DEED FROM GRIFFIN UNTO ARMANA AND RESTORING GRIFFIN TO TITLE IN THE FLORIDA PROPERTY,

II. WHETHER THE LOWER COURT ERRED IN FAILING TO IMPOSE A CONSTRUCTIVE TRUST AS REGARDS CERTAIN REALTY AND PERSONALTY RIGHTFULLY BELONGING TO GRIFFIN OF WHICH ARMANA GAINED POSSESSION AND REFUSED TO RETURN TO GRIFFIN,

III. WHETHER THE LOWER COURT ERRED IN FAILING TO AWARD GRIFFIN A JUDGMENT FOR THE $757.69 REMAINING IN THE LOWER COURT'S REGISTRY, SAID SUM REPRESENTING RENTAL INCOME FROM THE SUBJECT REALTY AND BEING RIGHTFULLY THE PERSONALTY OF GRIFFIN,

IV. WHETHER THE LOWER COURT ERRED IN ADJUDGING THE $15,862.00 LOANED ARMANA BY GRIFFIN FOR ARMANA'S SON'S EDUCATION TO BE A GIFT FROM GRIFFIN UNTO ARMANA'S SON, AND

V. WHETHER THE LOWER COURT ERRED IN FAILING TO RENDER A FINAL JUDGMENT WHOLLY IN FAVOR OF GRIFFIN.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

Griffin, a seventy-six year old disabled veteran at the time this litigation commenced, lived alone on his farm following the death of his wife in 1985. Armana, his niece, was an educated thirty-nine year old who was residing in France at the time this litigation commenced. During a visit with family in Texas, Griffin was reunited with his niece, Armana, whom he had not seen for several years. Thereafter, Armana and her children began visiting Griffin at his farm in Crystal Springs, Mississippi. In fact, her son Henri lived with Griffin between May 1988 and May 1989 while Henri attended Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi.

Griffin also owned real property in New Smyrna Beach, located in Volusia County, Florida. This property had previously belonged to his mother and, subsequent to her death in 1986, Griffin acquired a fee simple Griffin opened a joint bank account with Armana at a Florida bank with $5,000.00 of his individual funds. Armana added no personal funds into this account. Griffin permitted Armana the use of his Visa charge card for emergencies. In addition, Griffin gave Armana a pearl necklace which he kept in his safe deposit box, and he occasionally allowed her to wear other pieces of jewelry which were also kept in his safe deposit box.

title in the property (a one-fourth interest by intestate succession; the remaining three-fourths interest acquired from his siblings). Griffin, in acquiring his sister May Ryan Callaway's interest in the property, promised her that he would leave the property to Armana at his death. Griffin drafted and executed a deed on December 8, 1987, conveying the Florida property to Armana; however, Griffin did not deliver the deed to Armana, but he placed it in his safe deposit box to be taken out upon his death.

During the period of time between 1986, when Armana renewed her contact with Griffin, and 1989, when the litigation in the case sub judice was initiated, Armana enjoyed Griffin's hospitality and trust. She had full use of his Mississippi and Florida homes, access to his safe deposit box, his jewelry, his Florida checking account and his Visa card.

Sometime between December 8, 1987 (the date the deed was executed) and October 26, 1989 (the date of the deed's recordation), the warranty deed Griffin had drafted, conveying the Florida property to Armana, was secretly removed from the safe deposit box where it had remained for almost two years and recorded in Volusia County, Florida. There is conflicting testimony as to how Armana obtained the deed and whether she had Griffin's consent to record it.

Griffin argues that several pieces of jewelry and the deed disappeared from his safe deposit box between June 2, 1988 and October 31, 1989. Armana was the only other person on the box signature card with Griffin and she entered the safe deposit box alone on October 3, 1989. Griffin alleges that Armana took the deed and jewelry at this time without his knowledge or consent, and shortly thereafter, while in Florida, she had the deed recorded without Griffin's knowledge or consent on October 26, 1989.

Armana asserts that Griffin mailed the deed to her at her home in France in early 1988, and that her husband forwarded it to her mother's Texas home in the fall of 1989. Armana's mother carried the deed to her in Florida. Armana then took the deed to the courthouse for recording and it was recorded on October 26, 1989.

There is also conflicting testimony as to the ownership of several pieces of jewelry which Griffin had kept in his safe deposit box. Griffin argues that he was in possession of several pieces of jewelry which belonged to his wife prior to her death and that he kept them and other family valuables in safe deposit boxes at a local bank. Griffin noticed that several of these items of jewelry disappeared at the same time the deed was discovered missing.

Armana argues that the pieces of jewelry in question were given to her by Griffin in 1988. Armana alleges that the jewelry had belonged to her Aunt Frances, Griffin's wife, and that she had wanted Armana to have them.

Finally, there is conflicting testimony as to an expenditure by Griffin on behalf of Armana's son Henri in the amount of $15,862.00. Henri was in attendance at St. Stephen's School in Texas prior to his applying for college at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi. An outstanding tuition balance was preventing his grades from being released to Millsaps for his registration. Griffin alleges that he made the payment upon extremely short notice from Armana, expecting to be repaid in due time. However, Armana and her son Henri allege that the money paid to St. Stephen's School was a gift from Griffin to Henri and his mother.

On December 28, 1989, after noting the missing jewelry and becoming aware of the recordation of the deed in Florida, Griffin filed his complaint in the Chancery Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County, Mississippi, seeking the cancellation of the warranty deed, the imposition of a constructive trust and other relief. Griffin alleged that "in 1986 Defendant [Armana] began a deliberate course of conduct specifically designed to exert undue influence upon Plaintiff Armana filed a special appearance to object to the court's jurisdiction and a motion to dismiss. After a hearing, the chancellor entered an order finding personal and subject matter jurisdiction proper in the matter and asserting said jurisdiction. Armana then filed her answer and counterclaim alleging that Griffin had published false and libelous statements concerning Armana, and charging Griffin with intentional infliction of emotional distress and tortious interference with business.

[Griffin] for her own material gain and to the detriment of Plaintiff [Griffin]." In his complaint, Griffin alleged that Armana personally gained financially from her exertion of undue influence upon him by: (1) after making repeated requests and the subsequent execution of a warranty deed to Armana, to be held by Griffin until his death, secretly removing said warranty deed from safe deposit box and having it recorded in Volusia County, Florida; (2) secretly removing and absconding with several pieces of jewelry which had been secured in the same safe deposit box; (3) influencing Griffin to allow her the use of his Visa charge card for emergencies and repeatedly making personal charges without the knowledge or authorization of Griffin; (4) influencing Griffin to open a joint checking account in the name of both parties and borrowing/using sums of money from Griffin without his consent; and (5) influencing Griffin to pay the sum of $15,862.00 to St. Stephen's School for a tuition debt owed by Armana for her son's schooling upon a promise to repay. Griffin alleged that all of these acts were to the detriment of Griffin and done as a result of Armana's undue influence upon her uncle.

After a two-day trial, the chancellor found that a confidential relationship as well as a fiduciary relationship did exist between Armana and Griffin. However, the chancellor awarded Armana title to real property in Florida and found that a $15,862.00 payment, made by Griffin to St. Stephen's School on behalf of Armana's son, was a gift to Henri. In addition, the chancellor determined that jewelry, once...