Hoyt v. Clancey

• Decision Date: 07 March 1950
• Docket Number: No. 14006.,14006.
• Citation: 180 F.2d 152
• Parties: HOYT v. CLANCEY.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

180 F.2d 152 (1950)

HOYT v. CLANCEY.

No. 14006.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

February 16, 1950.

Rehearing Denied March 7, 1950.

George J. Danforth, Sioux Falls, S.D., (T. R. Johnson, C. J. Delbridge and G. J. Danforth, Jr., Sioux Falls, S.D., on the brief) for appellant.

Frank Biegelmeier, Yankton, S.D., (Holton Davenport, Sioux Falls, S.D., on the brief) for appellee.

Before SANBORN, JOHNSEN, and RIDDICK, Circuit Judges.

SANBORN, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment of dismissal of an action brought to recover damages for fraud and deceit. Jurisdiction is based on diversity of citizenship. The plaintiff (appellant) is the sole legatee of her deceased husband, Howard B. Clancey, and the special administratrix of his estate. The defendant (appellee) is the brother of her deceased husband. Briefly stated, the plaintiff's claim is, in substance: (1) that in the spring of 1942, while her husband was dying of cancer in a hospital in Chicago, the defendant falsely and maliciously represented to him that a deed from their father, Charles F. Clancey, Sr., to the defendant and plaintiff's husband of a 400-acre farm in Jones County, South Dakota, was a joint tenancy deed, that her husband's interest would terminate at his death, and that in order to protect his wife (the plaintiff) it would be necessary to reconvey the farm to the father, who would then execute a deed under which she would succeed to her husband's half interest upon his death; and (2) that she and her husband, relying upon these representations, joined with the defendant and his wife in a deed reconveying the farm to Charles F. Clancey, Sr., who shortly thereafter deeded the farm to the defendant and his wife, as joint tenants; and that the defendant ultimately sold it for $10,000. The plaintiff prayed for $5,000 actual and $2,500 punitive damages.

The defendant denied that Howard B. Clancey had any interest in the farm, and denied that he was induced by fraud to execute the deed reconveying his interest, if any, in the farm to his father.

Without objection by the defendant, the case was tried to a jury. At the close of the plaintiff's evidence, the defendant moved for a directed verdict. The court granted the motion upon the ground that Howard B. Clancey had "no present interest" in the farm at the time he and the plaintiff executed the deed reconveying his interest in the farm to Charles F. Clancey, Sr., and that, for that reason, the plaintiff's husband could not have been defrauded.

The plaintiff contends that, under the evidence adduced by her, the questions whether her deceased husband owned an undivided half interest in the farm at the time he executed the deed to his father and whether the defendant fraudulently induced him to part with his interest, were questions of fact for the jury, and that the court, therefore, erred in directing a verdict for the defendant. The plaintiff also contends that certain rulings of the court upon evidence were erroneous and prejudicial.

The defendant asserts: (1) that the plaintiff's claim was equitable, that she was not entitled to a jury trial, and that she cannot complain because the court, instead of the jury, decided issues of fact; (2) that, in any event, the plaintiff's evidence would not have sustained a finding that her husband had any interest in the farm; (3) that there was a total failure of proof as to her fraud allegation; and (4) that the court did not err in its rulings on evidence.

Many of the facts which gave rise to this controversy are not in dispute. The defendant and Howard B. Clancey were the only sons of Charles F. Clancey, Sr., of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, who, prior to February 19, 1942, was the owner of the farm in suit. On that day, he and his wife executed and acknowledged a deed of the farm, in which their two sons were named as grantees, but not as joint tenants. This deed was turned over to the defendant, who caused it to be recorded in the office of the Register of Deeds of Jones County, South Dakota, on March 16, 1942. It was apparently understood that the father was to retain the income and control of the farm.

By deed dated June 15, 1942, which the defendant had caused to be prepared, the two sons of Charles F. Clancey, Sr., and their respective wives, reconveyed the farm to him. The defendant and his wife acknowledged this deed on June 15, 1942, and Howard B. Clancey and the plaintiff acknowledged it on June 18, 1942. The deed was recorded on September 5, 1942.

On October 15, 1942, Charles F. Clancey, Sr., and wife executed a deed of the farm to the defendant and Viola W. Clancey, his wife, as joint tenants. This deed was recorded on December 11, 1942. On July 17, 1946, the defendant and his wife sold the farm for $10,000, the net proceeds amounting to about $9450. Charles F. Clancey, Sr. died in January, 1947.

Howard B. Clancey, who, prior to his last illness, was engaged in the practice of dentistry in Chicago, died on July 8, 1942, at a hospital in that city. He was 33 years of age and had been afflicted with cancer since 1940. He was in the hospital from May 26, 1942, until the time of his death, in a weak and emaciated condition and more or less under the influence of morphine administered to relieve pain. He had married the plaintiff in Chicago on March 16, 1935, and they had lived there after their marriage. They had known each other as high school students in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where the parents of both lived. The plaintiff and her husband were childless, but had signed pre-adoption papers for a baby girl, who was living in their home the spring of 1942 and is now the adopted daughter of the plaintiff.

Aside from the court's challenged rulings on evidence, the only ruling which the court made affecting the merits of the case was that it conclusively appeared from the plaintiff's evidence that the deed of February 19, 1942, from Charles F. Clancey, Sr., to his two sons conveyed to them no present interest in the farm, but was testamentary in character. We are not required on this appeal to decide questions of law which were not considered by or ruled upon by the District Court. Trapp v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 8 Cir., 70 F.2d 976, 981; Montgomery Ward & Co., Inc. v. Langer, 8 Cir., 168 F.2d 182, 185; Woods v. Hillcrest Terrace Corporation, 8 Cir., 170 F.2d 980, 983.

In determining whether the court was justified in directing a verdict for the defendant, we must assume as established all of the facts that the evidence supporting the plaintiff's claim reasonably tended to prove, and to give to her the benefit of all favorable inferences fairly deducible from such facts, as well as of the rule that issues which depend upon the credibility of witnesses and the weight of evidence are for the jury. Gunning v. Cooley, 281 U.S. 90, 94, 50 S.Ct. 231, 74 L.Ed. 720; Lumbra v. United States, 290 U.S. 551, 553, 54 S.Ct. 272, 78 L.Ed. 492; Svenson v. Mutual Life Ins. Co. of New York, 8 Cir., 87 F.2d 441, 442; Elzig v. Gudwangen, 8 Cir., 91 F.2d 434, 439.

At the trial the plaintiff called the defendant as an adverse witness for cross-examination. Relative to the deed of February 19, 1942, from his father to Howard B. Clancey and himself, the defendant testified that he had the deed; that he first saw it in March, 1942, when his father gave it to him with a dollar and requested him to have it recorded at Murdo, South Dakota; that the deed was recorded and returned to the defendant at Sioux Falls; that he then returned the deed to his father "as per his instructions"; that he was not with his father and mother when the deed was executed; that he did not think his brother Howard was there at the time, and, so far as the defendant knew, his brother had never seen the deed. Over the objection of the plaintiff, the defendant, on redirect examination, testified as follows: "Dad said to Howard and myself then in February 1942 that he was going to have a deed made of this Draper property the farm in suit in our names. * * * That it would be ours in name only because they intended to manage it, intended to have the income from it and they intended to do with it whatever they might want to. Under those conditions it was to be ours, in our names. Any time Dad wanted to change that for any reason he would have a perfect right to do so. That is the way it stood."

While this testimony of the defendant as to the purpose of the delivery to him of the deed, as to its return to his father, and as to what the father said to his sons with respect to his intention in conveying the farm to them, was uncontradicted and apparently uncontradictable, since the father and Howard were both dead, the defendant's credibility and the weight of his evidence were for the jury and not for the court. The jury would not have been compelled to believe that the deed was delivered to the defendant for the sole purpose of having it recorded, or that he returned the deed to his father, or that the father's conversation with his sons was as the defendant stated, or that any such conversation ever took place. See and compare, Rasmussen v. Gresly, 8 Cir., 77 F.2d 252, 254; Yutterman v. Sternberg, 8 Cir., 86 F.2d 321, 324, 111 A.L.R. 736; Elzig v. Gudwangen, 8 Cir., 91 F.2d 434, 440-444. It seems apparent that the District Court, in directing a verdict for the defendant, at the close of the plaintiff's evidence, disregarded the rule that issues which depend upon the credibility of witnesses and the weight of evidence are for the jury. The court said:

"* * * The deed was made to those two boys. It was subsequently delivered to the defendant in the action for the purpose of having it recorded. It was recorded and according to the undisputed evidence it was returned to the grantor. The grantor retained possession of the property and absolute control over the property and the instrument of conveyance after it was recorded, so I don't regard that as of any material...