Grove v. Frame

• Decision Date: 21 August 1979
• Docket Number: No. 117,117
• Citation: 402 A.2d 892,285 Md. 691
• Parties: Matilda F. GROVE v. Vernon G. FRAME, Pers. Rep. of the Estate of Herbert R. Grove et al.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

Page 691

285 Md. 691

402 A.2d 892

Matilda F. GROVE v. Vernon G. FRAME, Pers. Rep. of the Estate of Herbert R.

Grove et al.

No. 117.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

Aug. 21, 1979.

Thomas N. Clifford, Ellicott City, for appellant.

K. King Burnett, Salisbury (Webb, Burnett & Duvall, Salisbury, on the brief), for Irvin and Beatrice Catlin.

Archie C. Hall and Dietz, Ebersberger, Duvall & Hall, Chartered, Annapolis, on the brief, for Vernon G. Frame, Pers. Rep.

Argued before MURPHY, C. J., and SMITH, DIGGES, ELDRIDGE, ORTH, COLE and DAVIDSON, JJ.

COLE, Judge.

In this case we are asked to decide whether a husband's absolute and unconditional transfer of his residence to a third party for nominal consideration and with the avowed purpose of forcing his wife to leave the property, can be set aside by his wife after his death as either a fraud on her right to alimony and support or on her right to share in his estate.

The appellant, Matilda F. Grove, married her now deceased husband, Herbert R. Grove, on November 22, 1970. The appellant was then 58; Herbert was 76. It was the appellant's second marriage and Herbert's third. Herbert's first wife had died and he had been divorced from his second wife for some seven years. No formal oral or written agreements of any sort were made between the appellant and Herbert, either ante- or post-nuptial.

At the time of his marriage to the appellant, Herbert owned a home at 8557 Bay Road, Riviera Beach, Anne Arundel County, which is now valued at approximately $100,000.00. The house had been built forty or fifty years ago and apparently was Herbert's home during both of his prior marriages. Herbert had no children. His closest relative was a niece, Dorothy Mayes. His closest friends were Mr. and Mrs. Irvin Catlin of Wicomico County.

Herbert was retired and lived off his income from securities, which amounted to about $30,000 annually. Upon their marriage and at Herbert's request the appellant stopped working, sold her home in Baltimore City, moved into the Bay Road residence, and assumed the role of housekeeper. However, within six months marital difficulties developed. Herbert became abusive. He denied her sufficient funds for the household and for her special diabetic diet and generally denied appellant the social amenities consonant with a marital relationship.

When in the early part of 1972 Herbert stopped giving her any money at all, the appellant lived off her own small savings for a while but then was forced to return to work despite her age and poor health. Herbert had a stroke in the fall of 1973. He persuaded the appellant to quit her job to take care of him and promised to give her forty dollars a week. Yet he stopped paying her any money again after a month, and the appellant again resumed work. In December of 1973 Herbert left the appellant and stayed with his niece for a month. When he returned home in January 1974 Herbert again refused to give the appellant any money and brought in a housekeeper and a companion for himself.

On April 4, 1974, the appellant filed a bill of complaint for permanent alimony in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County alleging cruelty. The case was scheduled for a hearing on the merits on October 3, 1974. On September 5, 1974 Herbert transferred his life estate in the Bay Road property to the Catlins for $1.00 "and other good and valuable considerations;" he had already given his remainder interest in the property to the Catlins in 1972. Then, on September 17, 1974 Herbert entered into a written agreement with his niece and her husband whereby they agreed to care for him for the rest of his life in exchange for some $22,000 in cash and $123,000 worth of securities and their agreement to pay a $58,000 debt of Herbert's out of the proceeds from the sale of the securities. Sometime that same month Herbert moved out of the Bay Road house and went to live at his niece's home.

Prior to September, 1974 Herbert discussed these transactions with Vernon G. Frame, appellee, who was Herbert's attorney and is now personal representative of his estate. Irvin Catlin was also present at these meetings. Herbert announced that his purpose for making the conveyances was to force the appellant to leave the Bay Road property. Herbert openly anticipated that the Catlins, as the new owners of the property, would give the appellant notice to leave or find another means to effect the same end.

The alimony hearing was finally concluded on December 3, 1974, when the court issued a decree sustaining the appellant's allegations of cruelty and ordering Herbert to pay the appellant one hundred and fifty dollars every fifteen days as permanent alimony. Irvin Catlin, the grantee of the Bay Road property, was present at the alimony hearing, and thereafter notified the appellant that if she wanted to stay in the house he would charge her $300 a month rent. As appellant could not afford to pay virtually all the alimony she received toward housing, she moved to an apartment in January, 1975.

Herbert initially complied with the circuit court decree, but as of March 15, 1975 stopped making alimony payments. Two show cause orders were issued by the court during 1976 in response to the appellant's petitions for contempt as to arrearages of alimony. Finally, on January 5, 1977 Herbert paid in full all arrearages and thereafter made timely payments until his death on March 16, 1977. As of the date of his death, Herbert's total remaining gross assets were valued at approximately $40,000.

The instant case commenced on April 21, 1977, when the appellant filed a bill of complaint in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County against appellee Frame as personal representative of Herbert's estate and against appellees Irvin and Beatrice Catlin to set aside the conveyance of the Bay Road property to the Catlins as fraudulent because it was designed to defeat the appellant's rights to alimony and to share in the estate of her husband. On June 6, 1978 the circuit court granted the appellees' motion to dismiss. The court first ruled that the alimony issue was moot because the parties had stipulated that the alimony, though late, was in fact paid in full up to the time of Herbert's death. The court then held that since the gift of the Bay Road property by Herbert to the Catlins was complete, absolute, and unconditional, it was not fraudulent with respect to the appellant's marital rights as a surviving spouse. The court also stated that it was not required to look to any factors besides completeness of the transfer in reaching its decision.

On June 8, 1978 the appellant filed an order for appeal to the Court of Special Appeals. We granted certiorari prior to any hearing before that court to consider (1) whether Herbert's conveyance of the Bay Road property constituted a fraud on the appellant's right to alimony and support and (2) whether the same transfer amounted to a fraud on the appellant's right to share as a surviving spouse in her husband's estate.

The first question before us, whether any fraud was perpetrated on the appellant's right to alimony and support, is moot. While it is unquestionably established in Maryland that an alimony decree in favor of a wife entitles her to be protected from fraudulent conveyances by her husband of his property, Oles Envelope Corp. v. Oles, 193 Md. 79, 65 A.2d 899 (1949), and that this protection extends to fraudulent conveyances made just prior to an award of alimony, Levin v. Levin, 166 Md. 451, 171 A. 77 (1934), in the strict sense alimony means nothing more or less than "a periodical allowance during the joint lives of the spouses for the wife's support and maintenance . . . ." Winkel v. Winkel, 178 Md. 489, 498, 15 A.2d 914, 918 (1940). Since the death of either spouse terminates the...