Hyman v. Langston

• Decision Date: 20 December 1923
• Docket Number: 866a.,5 Div. 866
• Citation: 210 Ala. 509,98 So. 564
• Parties: HYMAN ET AL. v. LANGSTON.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

98 So. 564

210 Ala. 509

HYMAN ET AL. v. LANGSTON.

5 Div. 866, 866a.

Supreme Court of Alabama

December 20, 1923

Appeal from Circuit Court, Chilton County; Geo. F. Smoot, Judge.

Bill in equity by I. N. Langston against Laura Hyman and others. From rulings on demurrer, both respondents and complainant appeal. Affirmed on both appeals.

Lawrence F. Gerald and Reynolds & Reynolds, all of Clanton, and James J. Mayfield, of Montgomery, for appellant.

J Osmond Middleton, of Clanton, for appellees.

SAYRE J.

Complainant appellee, filed this bill to set aside a deed of his property made by him to his daughter, Laura Hyman, averring that the execution of said deed had been procured by the fraud of the grantee and her husband, the codefendant, E. G. Hyman. Complainant also joined the People's Savings Bank as party defendant, averring that it had accepted from his grantee a mortgage purporting to secure a large sum of money having at the time notice of the fraud practiced upon him by the defendants Laura Hyman and her husband. By an amendment Mittice Hyman, the minor daughter of the other Hyman defendants, was brought in as a party defendant, the averment as to her being that, in order to place the property beyond the reach of any decree or judgment which might be rendered in favor of complainant by reason of the things and matters alleged in the bill, defendants Laura and E. G. Hyman, after procuring from complainant the deed of his property, and upon a voluntary consideration, did execute and deliver to Mittice a conveyance of other land owned by them. But the trial court held, on demurrer, that this amendment made the bill multifarious, after which complainant withdrew the amendment. The ruling on the demurrer to the amended bill is assigned for error by cross-appellant. Separate demurrers by the other defendants to the bill in its original form were overruled, and that ruling has been assigned for error by the original appellants, separately and severally.

Complaint is made against the bill on the ground that it fails to set forth the facts relied upon to sustain the charges of fraud and undue influence. Substantially stated, the bill shows that complainant, an old man, feeble in body and mind, and much depressed by the recent loss of his wife, which left him alone on the place where he lived for many years, was induced by defendants, his daughter and son-in-law, to receive them into his household on the false promise and pretense that they would care for him in his old age, and thereafter immediately began to importune complainant to convey his home and the tract of land upon which it was located to defendant, his daughter, "promising," now to quote the bill, "to support and care for him tenderly for the remainder of his life, their purpose and object being thereby fraudulently to obtain from orator a deed to his said home, which was substantially all of his property, under the false and fraudulent promise to give him in his old, feeble, and broken condition, a home, and to care for him during the remainder of his natural life, when, in fact, they had no intention of fulfilling such promise, and which promise they afterwards refused to make good, as hereinafter recited." It is then shown the complainant had "unlimited confidence in the said Laura Hyman and E. G. Hyman, which they well knew, and, knowing also of his said condition and situation, and their position of dominance over him, and with said fraudulent design and purpose, they persuaded and induced orator to execute a deed" to his home place, "having at the time no intention of fulfilling their said promises." The bill exhibits the formal agreement in writing wherein the Hyman defendants agreed to care for complainant as a member of their household during the remainder of his life, in consideration whereof he conveyed his land. Then it is alleged that said defendants "began to treat orator with such coldness, indifference, and cruelty as, intentionally, to make his residence with them in peace and comfort impossible."

Equity will grant relief by canceling the deed of an aged person who, in consideration of a promise of support, has conveyed his property to the promisor, on the ground of promisor's fraud in not intending to furnish support when the...