Huffman v. Hatcher

• Decision Date: 23 November 1917
• Citation: 178 Ky. 8,198 S.W. 236
• Parties: HUFFMAN v. HATCHER ET AL. [a1]
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

198 S.W. 236

178 Ky. 8

HUFFMAN v. HATCHER ET AL. ^[a1]

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

November 23, 1917

Appeal from Circuit Court, Pike County.

Action by Samuel Huffman against Frances M. Hatcher and others. Frances M. Hatcher and another answer and counterclaim. From a judgment entered, plaintiff appeals, and defendant John H Hatcher takes a cross-appeal. Appeal reversed, and cross-appeal affirmed, with directions.

Stratton & Stephenson, of Pikeville, for appellant.

J. M York, of Catlettsburg, and J. S. Cline, of Pikeville, for appellees.

MILLER J.

Frances M. Hatcher was the daughter of Hibbard Williamson and the mother of Anna Hatcher Huffman, the wife of Samuel Huffman. At the time of her marriage with Samuel Huffman, in 1896 Anna Hatcher was the mother of one child, Elinor Hatcher; and as the result of her marriage with Samuel Huffman, she became the mother of Joseph Huffman.

On December 16, 1896, Hibbard Williamson and Caroline, his wife executed and delivered to their granddaughter Anna Hatcher Huffman a deed conveying to her a house and lot in Pikeville, in fee simple. The deed was recorded and returned to Anna Huffman. About two years thereafter Hibbard Williamson applied to Anna for the deed saying he wanted to add some more land to the lot. Anna gave the deed to her grandfather, and he changed it by writing upon the margin the description of another strip of land adjoining the one originally described in the deed, and also by inserting in the granting clause and immediately after the name of Anna Huffman these words: "To her, her life time, then to her children of her body." Williamson then carried the deed to the county court clerk's office, and to save the expense of another recording fee, he had the deputy clerk make changes on the deed book to correspond with the changes he had made upon the original deed. After holding the deed for quite a while Williamson delivered it to Anna Huffman and she retained it. The changes were agreeable to the grantees. Hibbard Williamson died testate in 1900, having devised a part of his real estate located in Pikeville to his widow, Frances M. Hatcher, for life, with remainder to the children of her body, who then consisted of Anna Huffman and Lida E. Hellier. On January 26, 1901, Anna Huffman bought a tract of land containing 223 acres, and known as the "Pigeon Roost" tract, from her brother-in-law Ralph A. Hellier, paying a part of the consideration therefor by transferring to Hellier her interest in a lot in Pikeville which had been devised to her in remainder by her grandfather. The deed from Hellier conveyed to Anna Huffman an estate for life with remainder to her bodily heirs.

Anna Huffman died on September 23, 1905, leaving her husband, Samuel Huffman, and her two children, Elinor Hatcher and Joseph Huffman, surviving her. Soon after Anna's death her father, John H. Hatcher, was appointed guardian of his grandchildren, Elinor Hatcher and Joseph Huffman. Samuel Huffman says the appointment was made without his knowledge. John H. Hatcher and his wife, Frances, took the two grandchildren to live with them as members of their family. In May, 1914, Joseph Huffman died while an infant, leaving his father, Samuel Huffman, his half-sister, Elinor Hatcher, and his grandfather and grandmother, John H. and Frances M. Hatcher, surviving him. In June, 1914, Samuel Huffman filed this action against John H. and Frances M. Hatcher, Elinor Hatcher, and Lida E. Hellier, claiming to be the owner of an undivided half interest in the Pikeville house and lot, and the "added lot" adjoining it, which had been conveyed to Anna Huffman by Hibbard Williamson, and a like interest in the "Pigeon Roost" tract bought from Hellier, and asking that said tracts be divided, and one moiety allotted to himself and the other to Elinor Hatcher; and he further prayed that he be adjudged the owner of an undivided half interest in the estate in remainder in the tract of land which had been devised to Anna by her grandfather Hibbard Williamson, and that his title to this last interest be quieted. The court sustained a demurrer to this last claim of Samuel Huffman to the remainder estate.

It will be observed the petition proceeds upon the theory that Anna Huffman at the time of her death owned a life estate in the Pikeville house and lot, and the "added lot," which had been conveyed to her by her grandfather Hibbard Williamson, and also a life estate in the "Pigeon Roost" tract, with remainder in all of said tracts to her children, Joseph Huffman and Elinor Hatcher, in fee, and that Anna owned a vested remainder in the Pikeville real estate which Hibbard Williamson had conveyed to Frances M. Hatcher, for life, with remainder to the children of her body, who were Anna Huffman and Lida E. Hellier. In their answer the defendants Frances M. and John H. Hatcher and Lida E. Hellier denied that Anna Huffman owned a life estate in the lands described in the petition, and alleged that she owned said land in fee simple. They sought to evade the effect of the Hibbard Williamson deed of December 16, 1896, by alleging that Williamson had unlawfully and wrongfully changed the original deed by inserting therein the words limiting Anna's fee simple therein to a life estate, as heretofore narrated, and that she consequently took a fee-simple estate in both tracts, under the deed as originally written.

In the second paragraph of their answer the defendants sought to avoid the effect of the deed from Ralph A. Hellier to Anna, which upon its face conveyed a life estate, by alleging that Hellier, being desirous of preventing Anna Huffman from wasting her estate, had, without her knowledge, executed the deed for the "Pigeon Roost" tract so as to convey her a life estate therein when he should have conveyed her a fee-simple title therein; that she fully believed, until a short time before her death, that Hellier had conveyed to her a fee-simple title in the "Pigeon Roost" tract; and that she died shortly thereafter without having had the deed corrected, but that if she had lived she would have caused it to be corrected so as to invest her with the fee-simple title.

By way of counterclaim against Samuel Huffman, John H. and Frances M. Hatcher alleged that Samuel Huffman failed to provide for his wife, Anna, during her life, or for her children; that Samuel Huffman treated his wife in such a cruel and inhuman manner as to show a settled and permanent aversion to her; that by reason thereof she procured a divorce from him; that Samuel Huffman and Anna Huffman were subsequently remarried upon the promise of reformation on his part; that upon his failure to keep his word in that respect she obtained a second divorce from him; that during the greater part of the married life of Samuel Huffman and Anna Hatcher Huffman the defendants John H. and Frances M. Hatcher were compelled to support and care for Anna Huffman and her children; that they expended in this way the sum of $11,941.74; and they prayed that if Samuel Huffman should be entitled to recover anything herein by inheritance from his son Joseph Huffman that the cross-plaintiff be granted a lien on said property for said sum. By his reply Samuel Huffman traversed the affirmative allegations of the answer and cross-petition, and further alleged that upon the death of his wife, Anna Huffman, in September, 1905, John H. and Frances M. Hatcher earnestly entreated the plaintiff to let them have the care and custody of their grandson Joseph Huffman, and that he had reluctantly permitted the Hatchers to take and keep Joseph as a member of their family; that John H. Hatcher had himself appointed guardian of the child; and that upon the solicitation and request of the Hatchers they kept Joseph and supported him until his death. He further alleged that he had no contract or agreement whereby either of the Hatchers were to charge either for the support of his son Joseph or any other member of his family; and he denied that the Hatchers had made the expenditures which they claimed to have made for his wife, Anna Huffman, while she was divorced, or at any time. Huffman also relied upon the statute of limitations of five years and ten years as a bar to any recovery against him.

A large amount of proof was taken, and upon a trial the chancellor adjudged: (1) That Anna Huffman took a fee-simple title under the deed of December 16, 1896, from her grandfather Hibbard Williamson; that the interlineations did not qualify or limit the estate originally conveyed, that Joseph's grandparents John H. and Frances M. Hatcher jointly inherited a one-half interest in the property therein conveyed, and that her husband, Samuel Huffman, had no interest therein; (2) that Samuel Huffman inherited from his infant son Joseph his undivided half interest in the "Pigeon Roost" tract, but he adjudged a lien upon that interest in favor of John H. Hatcher for the sum of $3,000 for the care and support of the infant son Joseph Huffman, and ordered the land to be sold to raise that sum. The chancellor further adjudged that John H. and Frances M. Hatcher recover "of the estate" of Anna Huffman the sum of $1,696.36, balance due them, presumably from Anna, although it is not so stated, "after giving proper credits for rents received by John H. Hatcher and charging decedent with taxes and improvements on the lot, street assessments, and a lien discharged by John H. Hatcher on said lots, doctor's bills, and funeral expenses"; and to secure the payment of this judgment a lien was placed upon the interest which Anna took under the deed from Hibbard Williamson. From this judgment the plaintiff, Samuel Huffman, appealed, and John H. Hatcher has taken a cross-appeal.

Passing the questions of practice raised as...