Holland v. Holland

• Decision Date: 07 June 1913
• Docket Number: 17,855
• Parties: JAMES P. HOLLAND, Appellant, v. JAMES HOLLAND et al., Appellees
• Court: Kansas Supreme Court

132 P. 989

89 Kan. 730

JAMES P. HOLLAND, Appellant, v. JAMES HOLLAND et al., Appellees

No. 17,855

Supreme Court of Kansas

June 7, 1913

Decided January, 1913.

Appeal from Dickinson district court.

Judgment reversed and cause remanded.

SYLLABUS

SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.

1. ORAL CONTRACT--Father's Real Estate--Services of Son--Part Performance--Injunction. A son who has supported his father for a number of years under an agreement that he is to become at once the owner of a tract of land, and that the legal title is to be vested in him at his father's death, by will or otherwise, and who in reliance thereon has improved the property and performed service the value of which can not readily be estimated, is entitled to an injunction against the execution by his father of a deed to some one else.

2. HOMESTEAD--Equitable Title--Alienation--Joint Consent of Husband and Wife. Where in that situation the land is occupied by the son and his wife as a homestead, the title thereto can not be affected by an instrument signed by him to which she has not consented.

Lee Monroe, of Topeka, and W. S. Roark, of Junction City, for the appellant.

OPINION

MASON, J.:

James P. Holland brought an action, the general purpose of which was to obtain a decision that a tract of land standing in the name of his father had in fact been given to him in consideration of an agreement for support which had been acted upon for many years, and the performance of which he was ready to complete. The portion of the petition relating to this matter was held demurrable and he appeals.

The defendants (the plaintiff's father and brother) make no appearance in this court, and the grounds of objection to the petition can only be surmised. Upon his statement of the facts, giving the allegations of his pleading that full credence and liberal interpretation to which they are entitled when attacked by demurrer, the plaintiff appears to be entitled to relief. A reversal will therefore be ordered, but in this situation little can be said that will be of assistance in the trial of the case. The petition, among other matters, sets out substantially this state of facts:

An oral agreement was made that the plaintiff was to support his father during his life, and at his death was to become the owner of a tract of land upon which they resided. This agreement was acted upon for several years, when a further agreement was made that the beneficial title to the land should pass at once to the plaintiff, and that the formal legal title should be vested in him at his father's death either by will or by some other instrument. In reliance upon this arrangement the plaintiff occupied the land, made valuable improvements upon it, and for some fifteen years ordered his whole life in conformity with the purpose of...