In re Squire's Estate

• Citation: 150 N.W. 706,168 Iowa 597
• Decision Date: 25 January 1915
• Docket Number: 29840
• Parties: IN RE ESTATE OF MARY SQUIRE, Deceased
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

150 N.W. 706

168 Iowa 597

IN RE ESTATE OF MARY SQUIRE, Deceased

No. 29840

Supreme Court of Iowa, Des Moines

January 25, 1915

Appeal from Wapello District Court.--HON. F. W. EICHELBERGER, Judge.

ACTION to establish claims against a decedent. The opinion states the facts. Reversed in part and Affirmed in part.

Affirmed on Clara S. Root's appeal. Reversed on Anna H Sim's appeal.

Roberts & Webber and Sims & Kuehnle, for appellant.

Work & Work, for appellee.

GAYNOR J. DEEMER, C. J., LADD and SALINGER, JJ., concur.

OPINION

GAYNOR, J.

Mary Squire died on the 21st day of January, 1913, and Frank L Root was duly appointed executor of her last will and testament. Anna H. Sims and Clara S. Root, claimants herein, are daughters of Mrs. Squire.

On the 28th day of March, 1913, Anna H. Sims filed a claim against the estate of her mother for the sum of $ 514.00, and based said claim on the following note executed and delivered to her by her mother:

"$ 150.00 Ottumwa, Iowa June 5, 1878.

"For value received I promise to pay Anna H. Squire the sum of one hundred and fifty dollars, said sum being for money earned by her in teaching music and applied to the payment of blinds and lightning rods on building where we reside, and it is understood that this note shall become due only when the homestead where I now reside shall be sold or converted into money, with seven per cent interest annually."

To the allowance of this claim, the executor filed the following objections:

"1. That the note by reason of a sale of part of the homestead on or about May --, 1902, became due and payable, or that suit might have been brought thereon.

"2d. That the homestead referred to included the part and parcel of land then sold and converted into money to the extent of $ 1,000.00, and action might have been brought upon said alleged note.

"3d. That more than ten years elapsed before the decease of the maker thereof, and that said note was fully barred by the statute of limitations before the decedent's death.

"4th. That no part of said homestead has been sold or converted into money except as above stated up to the present time, and on no other account is said note now due or collectible."

Upon a hearing before the court, the full amount of the claim was allowed, and from this action of the court, the executor appeals.

An examination of the record shows that at the time the note was executed, Mrs. Mary Squire was occupying as a homestead certain property in the city of Ottumwa; that this was the property referred to in the note; that she continued to occupy the same up to the time of her death. It is claimed that a portion of this homestead was sold in 1902; that this matured the note, and, therefore, the note at the time it was filed with the executor was barred by the statute of limitations. It appears that the building mentioned in the note was the building occupied by Mrs. Squire at the time the note was given and at the time of her death. The number of the lot on which the building was situated was 102, in Block 5. Seventy-four feet off the north end of the lot was deeded to one Emory after the execution of the note, but the portion of the lot occupied by the building as a home still remained a homestead up to the time of Mrs. Squire's death.

The only question argued is as to whether or not, under the terms of the note, the selling of a portion off the north end of the lot matured the note so as to start the running of the statute of limitations. The mere statement of the proposition is a sufficient answer. We think the claim of Anna H. Sims was rightly allowed.

On the 4th day of April, 1913, Clara S. Root, the other daughter, filed a claim against her mother's estate for services as nurse and for care of her mother from October 23, 1912, to January 22, 1913, at $ 20.00 per week. To this claim Mrs. Anna H. Sims filed objections, she being a beneficiary under the will of her mother. The objections filed are as follows:

"1st. The alleged services for which such claim is made were rendered gratuitously without any arrangement or understanding that compensation should be made therefor.

"2d. Compensation for such services was never expected or anticipated by said claimant, nor was there any understanding, on the part of the deceased, that compensation should be exacted therefor."

On the 7th day of November, 1913, this claim was also allowed by the court upon a hearing, and from this allowance Mrs. Anna H. Sims appeals.

Clara S. Root called on her own behalf testified: "My mother's last illness dated from October 13, 1912. She was then in her own home. Ten days later, she was taken to my house. No other of my mother's children was there to take care of her. She had a paralytic stroke about 1908. She was afterwards ill of pneumonia and she had another illness bordering on pneumonia. She had various illnesses caused by the heat of the summer prior to her last illness. She was ninety-four years old when she died. She died on the 21st day of January, 1913. After her last illness and up to the time of her death, her general condition was that of semiconscious, semi-stupor. She could be raised, but she usually laid in a stupor. Sometimes she knew me. Once she seemed to know where she was. She would gaze about the room but she wouldn't speak."

F. L. Root, husband of claimant and executor of the estate, testified "that his wife cared for her mother while she was at his house during her last illness; that she fed her and moved her, changed her bed and moved her from one position to another, and attended to her wants in every respect."

There is no question in the record and none is made by counsel as to the care received by Mrs. Squire from her daughter during her last illness, administered to her in the daughter's home.

Dr. Herrick, a physician, stated that he was called to attend her during her last sickness; that she got up occasionally, but on one or two occasions fell, not knowing what she was doing most of the time. "There was no objective in her movements. She would stray into the kitchen when she intended to go somewhere else. Mrs. Root gave her attention and care. Mrs. Squire was suffering from senile dementia. There was evidence of an apoplectic effect. She was not competent to take care of herself. When I saw her first she was in her own home. Afterwards, in the home of her daughter, Clara S. Root."

Mary E. Root, daughter of claimant, testified that her "grandmother couldn't raise her hand to her face. I saw my mother take care of her. She lifted her bodily very often and fed her her meals. She couldn't raise herself in bed. I was home during Thanksgiving and at Christmas time. Grandma did not seem to know me when I came. She was almost always in bed. I was home three weeks at Christmas time and three days at Thanksgiving."

J. W. Squire, the son of Mary Squire, testified that during the summer of 1912 he visited his mother and she said to him as follows: " 'Wilson, I want you to know what a comfort and help Clara has been to me, and now is. She is in here to see me every day. She sends me nice things to eat, cooked herself. It is very little I can eat and enjoy you know. My children are here and help me and some of them stay with me at night. I don't know what I would do without Clara's help.' I saw her the month my mother passed away. She was then with my sister, Mrs. Root. She was very feeble. She could not speak. She did not know me, couldn't move her hands. She could raise one hand a little, but could not move herself at all. Clara, my sister, did all that was done for mother. When I visited her in August, 1912, and had the conversation with her referred to, she was living in the house in which she had lived for fifty years. That was the old homestead of the Squire family."

It appears also that during the time that Mrs. Squire remained with the claimant, her daughter, the claimant collected $ 72.00 pension money; $ 30.00 from a brother and $ 21.00 rent, and $ 1.75 for fuel, making a total of $ 124.75, money belonging to her mother, out of which she paid to her husband, $ 75.00 for her mother's board, which she thought was a fair compensation for board, room, and washing. She paid some other small items, and there was a balance of the amount collected of $ 27.08, and this she turned over to the executor after her mother's death.

The only positive evidence of any expression of any intent on the part of the claimant to charge or not charge for the services rendered her mother during her last sickness is found in the testimony of Mrs. Sims, as follows:

"What, if anything, did your sister Clara say to you at either of these times with reference to the pension money of your mother, or your mother's income during the time that your mother remained at your sister's home?"

A. "I said, 'Clara, Jacob and I feel that you should have some recompense for your care of mother.' She said, 'Anna, I took the money that came to mother and used it. I thought it was right, and I needed it, and I shall make no other claim.' That was the last she said."

The claimant testified upon this point, referring to this conversation testified to by Mrs. Sims: "My sister said (meaning Mrs. Sims), 'We want you and Frank to be paid for your care of mother.' I said, 'I used mother's money as it came in. I felt I had a right to. It was because I had the entire responsibility for her.' I referred to her income, her pension money, and money she regularly received from my brother, and rent from part of the house, and the trifle of money for fuel that she left and I sold. We were discussing at the time the arrangements for the funeral. My sister said, 'Jacob and I want you to be well paid for caring for mother.' I said, 'I don't want any pay...