Jones v. Dooley

• Decision Date: 17 November 1921
• Docket Number: 21650
• Citation: 185 N.W. 307,107 Neb. 162
• Parties: JULIA A. JONES, APPELLEE, v. TOM DOOLEY, APPELLANT
• Court: Nebraska Supreme Court

185 N.W. 307

107 Neb. 162

JULIA A. JONES, APPELLEE, v. TOM DOOLEY, APPELLANT

No. 21650

Supreme Court of Nebraska

November 17, 1921

APPEAL from the district court for Sarpy county: JAMES T. BEGLEY JUDGE. Affirmed.

AFFIRMED.

William R. Patrick, for appellant.

H. A Collins, contra.

Heard before LETTON, DEAN and DAY, JJ., CORCORAN and GOSS, District Judges.

OPINION

GOSS, District Judge.

This is a suit in equity to cancel a life lease upon 80 acres of land in Sarpy county. From a decree for plaintiff, the defendant appeals.

Plaintiff 60 years old, a widow for 14 years, had a life estate in the land, derived from her husband's estate. She lived in Omaha, and had never seen the land, which had no buildings on it. She had leased it during her tenure, first through a local agent, now dead, and, since 1916, through J. R. Wilson, clerk of the district court, who left some of the details to his daughter. Plaintiff allowed her agent to decide upon the tenant and the rental, and to pay the taxes, so that about all she seemed to have to do with the property was to receive her net income from it. For some years the land had been leased by Mr. Uhe, first at $ 250 a year, and latterly at $ 300 a year. The taxes were about $ 50 annually. Mr. Uhe held the land on a lease from March 1, 1919, to March 1, 1920, when the events occurred in the summer of 1919 which are the subject of controversy. The defendant knew that Wilson was the local representative of the plaintiff and that Miss Wilson also had to do with the land. He conceived the idea of purchasing it, and, saying nothing to the Wilsons until after his lease was provided for, he went direct to plaintiff with his proposal. He then learned from plaintiff, and later confirmed it from the records, that she had only a life estate. She says he told her that Mr. Wilson was tired of looking after the land, and that Mr. Uhe did not want the land after March 1, 1920. Upon hearing from him that she was without an agent, she says she asked time to consult with her cousin, Mr. Colvin, of South Omaha, who once had a farm adjoining her land; but she says that the defendant returned and pressed her for action before she had had time to see Mr. Colvin and get his advice. On his third trip to Omaha to see plaintiff, and after both were aware that she had only a life estate, and after he had been furnished the address of the remainderman and had hopes of purchasing the fee, it was agreed between the parties that the land would be leased to defendant. He went away, prepared the life lease, which is in evidence, returned to her home and arranged for her to execute the lease. He then went down town, engaged a notary, and returned with him to have the lease acknowledged. What occurred there is the subject of sharp conflict between plaintiff and defendant in the testimony. The notary read the lease to her. The notary says that he then handed it to her, and she had some discussion with defendant about the life term, and then signed. She testifies that when the life lease was read she objected to giving a lease for more than one or two years, and they said, "I will change that, and they wrote there." She thinks Mr. Dooley was the one who did the writing, and after that she signed the lease. Defendant denies any talk about changing the life term, and any pretense of writing anything in the lease; the notary did not hear defendant suggest any change in the form, although he testifies that the parties discussed the life term. The plaintiff's testimony and the general atmosphere of the entire evidence indicate that she was a deaf, nervous, inexperienced woman, probably suffering greater impairment than the usual woman of...