Grigsby v. Miller

• Decision Date: 29 January 1917
• Docket Number: 6741.
• Citation: 240 F. 188
• Parties: GRIGSBY v. MILLER et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Oregon

240 F. 188

GRIGSBY v. MILLER et al.

No. 6741.

United States District Court, D. Oregon.

January 29, 1917

[Copyrighted Material Omitted]

William C. Bristol, of Portland, Or., for complainant.

Almon E. Roth, of San Francisco, Cal., for respondent Hayes.

Harry L. Raffety, of Portland, Or., for respondent Miller.

WOLVERTON District Judge (after stating the facts as above).

A question has been presented respecting the regularity of Grigsby's appointment as administrator of the estate of Wana Stuart, and the power of the county court of Marion county, Or., so to appoint him; but I waive this aside, and proceed to a determination of the cause upon its merits.

The deed by Wana Stuart and her husband, John E. Stuart, to Mrs Miller, of August 1, 1910, is the storm center of this entire controversy, and it will be well to get a reckoning of the currents that tended to converge about this point of time and event, that we may appreciate the situation of the parties interested, and thus be the better enabled to determine more certainly the motives and considerations that induced the making of the deed, and its real and ultimate purpose.

The purpose of W. P. Miller and his wife, the respondent Sarah E Miller, in deeding to Mrs. Stuart the Lake Labish land and an undivided one-half interest in the Klamath county lands, was to expedite the division and settlement of Miller's estate. Miller knew at the time that he could not long survive, and he, with Mrs. Miller's concurrence, of course, conveyed to the daughter these lands. Miller, at or about the same time, conveyed to Mrs. Miller an undivided one-half interest in the Klamath county lands, and gave her a bill of sale of all his personal property, consisting of range stock and such other personalty as he had. The estate was practically settled at the date of Miller's death. He owed considerable money prior thereto, and, in order to repay the same, sold cattle and used money and property that belonged to Mrs. Miller individually--to what extent the record does not make clear. She had a note of her own, amounting to $5,000. Then she had a house in The Dalles, Or., for which she obtained between $4,000 and $5,000. She claims, also, to have put something like $7,000 of her own money into the Klamath county lands when they were purchased by Miller. So that her own individual means were more or less intermingled with Miller's in securing these lands in the first instance. When these settlements were being made by the use of Mrs. Miller's means, Miller told her that she could reimburse herself by taking the money out of the estate.

Thus stood the property relations in 1895, at the time of Miller's death. Mrs. Miller testifies that she had at that time separate property of her own amounting to about $17,000, and she subsequently sold cattle which came to her by bill of sale from her husband amounting to $4,000. Her previous testimony would seem to indicate, however, that she had expended a portion of this money in meeting the claims against Miller's estate, which were all paid as we have seen prior to his death.

Wana was married to John E. Alexander in 1897. Mrs. Miller must have had some ready money of her own at that time, because she gave to Wana in May, 1897, a few days after she was married, $1,300, and paid to her besides, as wedding and traveling expenses, $4,000. Both these sums of money must have come out of Mrs. Miller's individual property, for none of Wana's land had been sold at that time. Nor was any disposed of from which any money was derived until the sale of what was known as the 'Upper Ranch,' in Klamath county, to Fred and Gustave Melhase, August 14, 1903, for which was paid the sum of $12,500. Whether Mrs. Miller obtained rents and profits from the Klamath lands in the meantime does not appear. But it would seem that they were a source of expense rather than of profit, for it was necessary to sell stock from time to time to meet taxes and expenses. Three thousand dollars worth of stock was sold at one time, and $2,300 at another, for these purposes. It was not, therefore, until August 14, 1903, so far as the record shows, that any money which was the property of Wana came into the hands of Mrs. Miller. I say this, with this qualification:

On June 20, 1901, Mrs. Miller and Mr. and Mrs. Alexander made a conveyance to E. P. McCornack for a consideration of $559.65. On January 28, 1901, the same parties, for a stated consideration of $162.90, made another deed to one Frederick F. Cassidy. On November 1, 1900, the same parties, for a stated consideration of $400, made another deed to McCornack, and on October 27, 1904, the same parties gave a quitclaim deed to a piece of property to Charles E. Worden for a stated consideration of $2,300. Alexander testified concerning these deeds, and failed to state that any money was paid to Mrs. Miller on account of them. He was the son-in-law of Mrs. Miller, and acting attorney for her and his wife at the time, and was instrumental in negotiating the execution of the deeds, and in a position to know whether any money passed to Mrs. Miller as a consideration therefor, but remains silent about it. He does attempt to explain, however, that the deeds were given in exchange for other lands for the purpose of straightening out certain boundaries, and leaves the impression that no real money consideration passed. If any money was paid, it would naturally have been paid to Alexander, and then it would have been incumbent upon him to pay it over to Mrs. Miller or his wife. Mrs. Miller says she received no money on account of these deeds, indeed, she has no recollection as to their execution. She does say that Alexander told her at one time that he had a check for $600 arising from this source, but that Alexander never accounted to her for, or paid her any part of, the money. I do not think the deeds themselves, in the light of all the other testimony attending the transactions, afford sufficient evidence by which to charge Mrs. Miller with the sum of the stated considerations named therein.

Wana was divorced from Alexander some time later than the date of the Melhase deed, which, as we have seen, was August 14, 1903. On June 19, 1905, she married John E. Stuart. A little later than this, namely, September 20, 1905, Mrs. Miller and Mr. and Mrs. Stuart conveyed to one Weed the remainder of the Klamath lands, and the net amount received therefor, according to Mrs. Miller, was $23,000. In this she is substantially corroborated by other testimony in the record. This money came to the hands of Mrs. Miller by check, and was deposited in a savings bank, and, according to Stuart's testimony, was later divided among other banks for deposit.

Mrs. Miller testifies that she paid to Alexander, at the request of Wana, several amounts of money, which are itemized by her, aggregating $6,370; that she paid to Wana, prior to her marriage to Alexander, the sum of $6,650, and to Wana, after her marriage to Alexander, the further sum of $2,300. These aggregates are likewise itemized by Mrs. Miller. Beyond this, Mrs. Miller shows that she paid expenses in connection with the Lake Labish lands aggregating $10,002.66. I am taking no note of many small items which it is claimed, under one list, that Stuart received aggregating $2,660, and, under another, that Wana received, prior to March 17, 1913, aggregating $1,976.60. Not all of this sum of $10,002.66 was paid prior to the date of the deed by Stuart and wife to Mrs. Miller, namely, August 1, 1910. In order to get at the expense from this source paid prior to that date, the above amount should be reduced by $1,825, consisting of $200 overcharge in item of mortgage paid on Lake Labish lands, item paid Holmes $1,500, and paid Bush in 1911, taxes, $125, leaving the actual expense paid to that date $8,177.66. Thus was paid to and expended on Wana's account by Mrs. Miller up to that date, August 1, 1910, the total sum of $23,497.66, leaving Wana in debt to her in the sum of $5,747.66. This gives credit to Wana for one-half of the Melhase sale of $12,500, and one-half of the Weed sale of $23,000, and charges her with one-half of the $600 that Alexander obtained for which he did not account to Mrs. Miller.

In this accounting, Mrs. Miller does not pretend to be able to give an accurate detailed statement of the moneys paid to Wana or by her request, or the expense borne on account of the Lake Labish lands, which were a constant source of outlay without a particle of income. Mrs. Miller has always been economically frugal in her habits, and has lost no substantial amounts in business adventures. She had been put to a great deal of trouble respecting the Lake Labish lands, and had expended considerable sums of money in payment of taxes, in bearing the expenses of much litigation, and in trying to drain the land, so as to get it in condition to realize from it by sale, all without any appreciable success. Alexander, who was a lawyer, tried to do what he could to relieve the situation, and Stuart had taken part in the effort to bring profit out of the wild first condition, all without avail. It may be said here that the Lake Labish lands were what the name implies, lands under the water, and the lake required to be drained before the lands could or would become of agricultural value. But when properly drained they would be rendered of great value, because of the peculiar quality of the soil, which is commonly known as beaver dam land. The problem at this time confronting Mrs. Stuart and Mrs. Miller was what should be done to bring these lands into the market, so that something of profit could be realized from them, rather than the large expense, which could not theretofore be avoided.

Another feature of the situation...