Houghton v. Jacobs

• Decision Date: 16 June 1922
• Docket Number: No. 22804.,22804.
• Citation: 246 S.W. 285
• Parties: HOUGHTON v. JACOBS
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

246 S.W. 285

HOUGHTON v. JACOBS

No. 22804.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 1.

June 16, 1922.

Motion for Rehearing Overruled December 18, 1922.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Jackson County; William C. Thomas, Judge.

Action by Geneva M. Houghton against Floyd E. Jacobs, administrator of Albert Beebe Houghton, deceased. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff appeals. Reversed and remanded.

Cleary & Barnett, of Kansas City, for appellant.

Swearingen & Finnell, B. F. Halstead, and Thomas Deacy, all of Kansas City, for respondent.

RAGLAND, C.

This proceeding originated in the probate court of Jackson county, where plaintiff had judgment in the sum of $8,081.44 on a claim founded on a promissory note. An appeal was allowed and the cause tried de novo in the circuit court. The rulings made during the course of that trial are the subject of the present review.

In view of some of the questions that are raised, the opening statements of counsel to the jury become important, there having been no formal pleadings. The statement on the part of plaintiff, so far as it has a bearing upon the questions involved, was as follows;

"* * * This is an action brought on a promissory note by Mrs. Geneva M. Houghton against the estate of Albert Houghton on a promissory note which was executed by Albert Houghton about a year before his death, for the sum of $7,000. The note will be produced, and Albert Houghton's signature to it will be identified. Itself bears across the top of it the statement, in Albert Houghton's handwriting: `For money advanced.'

"I am not just certain what the defense will be. I understand that it will be that there was no consideration given for the note. * * *

"The mother of Albert Houghton did advance him large sums of money during his lifetime and after he became of age. It will not be disputed that Mrs. Houghton, the mother, made presents to the son in the nature of birthday presents and Christmas presents, and that he had his board at her home for a great money years free, without charge. Things of that kind will not be claimed for. But the claim is made that the note represents large advancements for other things outside of that. The checks will be introduced here, gentlemen, showing advancements amounting on the face of the checks to something in the neighborhood of $5,000, just about that amount that we have papers to show for. Then there were other advancements mace, several thousand dollars worth, in addition to that. Albert Houghton was a man who suffered during his lifetime from several severe illnesses apparently. He was operated on a good many years ago, and from that operation there followed at intervals severe sicknesses, one after another. Whatever the cause of those illnesses may have been, the fact is that on one occasion Mrs. Houghton advanced out of her pocket for a time after Albert became of age in the neighborhood of a thousand dollars at a time. He was operated on—I don't know where—in the East. I think he was at that time in college at Amhurst, anyhow, in school some place in the East, and he was taken very ill and was operated on at that time, and remained in the hospital for many weeks and had several special nurses, and all those special nurses and all the doctors who operated on him, and all of the hospital expenses, were borne by Mrs. Houghton, and she went on there at that time herself to be near him. That after he got out of the hospital his expenses back to his home in Council Bluffs, Iowa—that is where the family lived, Council Bluffs, Iowa—his expenses back there were borne by Mrs. Houghton. Afterwards he was sent to California for a period of several months, and all the expenses in connection with his trip to California, during which time he was recuperating and recovering his health, that all of those expenses were borne by Mrs. Houghton. That these expenses were borne by ears. Houghton, at Albert's request, except on various occasions when Albert was really unable to take care of himself, and Mrs. Houghton advanced the necessary money to take care of him at that time. But always when he got to a place where he was sufficiently conscious of what was going on he told his mother on every occasion, he told her frequently, that he desired to take care of all the expenses she was put to on his account. He realized that he was putting her to unusual expense, beyond that which the ordinary son would put his parents to, and that this unusual expense he thought he should bear, and he proposed to bear. * * *

"At another time he was sent by the family out to Wyoming. He was a man in somewhat delicate health at that time, and he was sent by the family out to Wyoming and stayed in Wyoming hunting and fishing and that kind of thing in the hope he might recover his health, and his expenses and the expenses of the man the family sent along with him were paid by Mrs. Houghton; his various expenses, his guns, and everything he did while and during his stay out there were paid for by his mother. Those are things for which there will be no checks to show, but there are checks and drafts on other things which bear Albert Houghton's signature on them, showing he got the money, to the amount of about $5,000 approximately.

"In these transactions between Albert and his mother, which extended over a period from the time he became of age in 1908 up until the time of his death about a year ago, over that period of time, he made frequent statements to her that he expected to repay every cent of the sums she was advancing. He asked her during that period for an advancement at one time of $1,600, I think it was, for a large sum of money, to put into his furniture business here in Kansas City. At another time he asked her for $500 to put into a furniture enterprise he intended to go into in San Jose, Cal.—$500 into that—and there was money here and there all along the road, money paid out to Albert in addition to the ordinary expenses that a parent might be put to for his son. * * *

"This other thing will be borne in mind: That Mrs. Geneva Houghton herself kept no records of the transactions between herself and her son. When Albert would ask for this money, he would say, `Mother, I intend to see you are repaid for every cent of this.' She left it to Albert Houghton himself as to the amount that Albert owed to her, and he gave her, think, some notes from time to time, but finally, in May, ISIS, at the time that he was about to enter the service of the United States, the military service, rather the naval service, he gave her a note summing up the whole thing; that that note was for $7,600."

The statement on behalf of defendant was to the effect that there was no consideration for the note, that the advances of money, if any, made by plaintiff to her son were gifts, and not loans, and that the note in suit was given by the son, just before entering the military service of the United States, in furtherance of a scheme on his part to deprive his wife, as to whom he was estranged, of any part of his estate.

Following the statements, plaintiff made proof of the...