Jackson v. Wood

• Decision Date: 31 October 1885
• Citation: 88 Mo. 76
• Parties: JACKSON et al. v. WOOD, Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

88 Mo. 76

JACKSON et al.

v.WOOD, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

October Term, 1885.

Appeal from Vernon Circuit Court.--HON. J. D. PARKINSON, Judge.

REVERSED.

Scott & Stone and G. S. Hoss for appellant.

The respondent's case depends on her own unsupported testimony, and fails to meet the requirements of the rule in cases like this, that the proof should be “so clear, definite and positive as to leave no room or reasonable ground for hesitancy in the mind of the chancellor,” as to the truth of respondent's statements before the decree asked by her should be granted. Forrester v. Scoville, 51 Mo. 268; Johnson v. Quarles, 46 Mo. 423.

E. E. Kimball and E. J. Smith for respondents.

The finding and judgment were for the right party. McCormick v. Miller, 102 Ill. 208. This court should not disturb the finding of the trial court. Faust v. Bemer, 30 Mo. 414; Garvin v. Williams, 44 Mo. 465; Street v. Gass, 62 Mo. 226.

NORTON, J.

This suit was instituted in the circuit court of Vernon county to set aside and cancel a deed executed in 1876 by plaintiff, Rhoda C. Wood (now Rhoda Jackson), conveying to Austin C. Wood certain land in the petition described. The circuit court rendered a decree according to the prayer of the petition, cancelled the deed, and invested the title in plaintiff, subject to a mortgage which had been put upon the land by said Wood to secure the payment of five hundred dollars. From this decree the defendant has appealed to this court and seeks to reverse it on the ground that it is not supported by the evidence. Since the appeal to this court the death of defendant was suggested and the cause revived in the name of his heirs.

The petition charges in substance that plaintiff Jack, son was the wife of Gallatin A. Wood, who died in January, 1874, the owner in fee of the land in controversywhich was his homestead; that after his death she continued to reside on the land till some time in 1878, when she married her co-plaintiff Jackson; that A. C. Wood, who was a son of said Gallatin A. Wood by a former marriage, took charge of matters connected with the farm after his father's death; that confidential relations existed between plaintiff and defendant; that defendant always represented to her that she was only entitled to one-third of the land; that she was illiterate and unable to read or write; that in August, 1876, relying on defendant's representations as to the value and quantity of her interest, she accepted an offer of two hundred and thirty dollars for her interest in the land; that defendant brought a deed for her to be signed, and pretended to read the same to her as conveying one-third interest therein, whereas, in truth and in fact, the said deed conveyed to said Wood an absolute fee-simple estate in all the land, and that she was induced to execute the same by the false and fraudulent representations of defendant; that she only owned an interest of one-third, when in fact she had an absolute title to the whole, and that the land was worth fourteen hundred dollars. The answer, besides being a general denial, set up that at the time of defendant's purchase, plaintiff had full knowledge of her title, and that in addition to the price paid, it was agreed that plaintiff and her child should have a home with him as long as she chose to remain.

When the grantor in a deed seeks its cancellation and a reinvestiture of title on the ground of fraud or mistake, the onus of establishing the fraud is upon him or her, and before relief can be...