Lukas v. Hays

• Decision Date: 14 November 1955
• Docket Number: No. 44785,No. 1,44785,1
• Citation: 283 S.W.2d 561
• Parties: Virginia May Hays LUKAS, Appellant, v. P. C. HAYS, Administrator of the Estate of Howard B. Hays, Deceased, and Howard B. Hays, Jr., Respondents
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

Page 561

283 S.W.2d 561

Virginia May Hays LUKAS, Appellant, v. P. C. HAYS, Administrator of the Estate of Howard B. Hays Deceased, and Howard B. Hays, Jr., Respondents.

No. 44785.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 1.

Nov. 14, 1955.

Hyde & Purcell, Poplar Bluff, for appellant.

Byron Kearby, Poplar Bluff, Max M. Fleisher, Leonard W. Koplin, Chicago, Ill., for respondents.

HOLMAN, Commissioner.

This is a proceeding in equity in which plaintiff (appellant), Virginia May Hays Lukas, seeks to enforce an alleged oral contract of adoption and to have herself declared a lawful child and heir of Howard B. Hays, deceased. Plaintiff contends that the contract was entered into between her mother, May Talmadge Haizlip, and Howard B. Hays and Vera Hays, his wife, and that it was fully performed by plaintiff and her mother. The defendants are P. C. Hays, administrator of the estate of Howard B. Hays, and Howard B. Hays, Jr., the only natural child of Howard B. and Vera Hays. The trial court denied plaintiff the relief she sought and decreed that defendant (respondent) Howard B. Hays, Jr., is the sole heir of said deceased and thus entitled to the entire proceeds of his estate. Plaintiff has duly appealed. We have jurisdiction since the amount in dispute is one half of the Hays estate which was appraised at $64,000.

The evidence is voluminous. It contains a recital of many circumstances, incidents, statements and conversations extending over a period of more than 25 years. We shall attempt to summarize the testimony in as brief a manner as appears consistent with a proper correlation of the facts and an understanding of the issues presented.

The only direct testimony as to the specific contract was given in the deposition of May Haizlip. Her maiden name was Hays but she was not related to Howard B. Hays. She was, however, a half sister of Vera Hays. May gave birth to plaintiff, out of wedlock, on September 9, 1925, in San Francisco. She had previously been married to and divorced from one Barrett and a son, Hays Barrett, was born of that marriage. At the time plaintiff was born, May was living with her mother, Mrs. C. W. (Anna) Hays, now deceased.

May testified that she was in the hospital about three weeks and upon dismissal left the baby there, her mother having made arrangements with a trained nurse to care for her. On the day May went home from the hospital her mother, Anna, called Vera Hays in Du Quoin, Illinois, and told her of the birth of plaintiff. She said further, 'the reason I am calling is that I feel that she must give the baby away for adoption, and I knew that you and Howard had always wanted a baby, especially a little girl, and thought of you immediately. It would work out better if you would take her.' May also took the phone and talked to Vera who said she couldn't make any decision until she talked with Howard. That evening Howard and Vera called back and after they gave Anna their affirmative decision to take plaintiff, May took the phone and talked with each of them. Her version of the conversations is as follows: 'Q. Tell us what you can recall of that conversation with Vera. A. Well, Vera was very ebullient, she said, 'Oh, we are going to take the baby, and I am so happy about it, and everything is going to be all right.' Q. Did she say for what purpose she was going to take the baby? A. For adoption. * * * And Vera said, 'Howard wants to speak to you.' He said to me, 'Vera and I will be very happy to have the baby. We will make all the arrangements for her adoption, and we have always wanted a little girl, and this seems to be the answer to our prayers,' and then he started trying to comfort me, and he said, 'You must realize that you are very young, and in a few years this won't seem a tragedy to you as it does now.' Q. Did you let your mother take the phone again? A. Yes. Q. What, if anything, did she say? A. She said she would make the arrangements to send the baby on, and that she would do it immediately, and that she would get a trained nurse, a very responsible person, and she suggested meeting the nurse in St. Louis.'

Shortly after this conversation the baby was sent to St. Louis in the care of a nurse and there delivered to Vera Hays. (May was probably mistaken as to the time that elapsed before the child was sent to St. Louis, as other evidence indicates that plaintiff was delivered to Vera early in February, 1926.) About a week or so after the baby was sent, May received a document from the Hayses which she signed before a notary public and returned to them. Its contents were summarized by the witness in this manner: 'The document said, in effect, that I was the child's natural mother, that I was in my right mind and that I would give possession of this child to my half sister, Vera Naomi Hays, and to her husband, Howard Bruce Hays, for adoption, and that I relinquished all further claim to her whatsoever.' (There is no evidence that plaintiff was ever legally adopted by the Hayses and this document was not found among their papers.)

Thereafter, May never saw plaintiff over two or three times although, in the capacity of an aunt, she kept in contact with plaintiff and Vera and sent plaintiff numerous gifts. She unquestionably relinquished all claim upon, possession and control of, plaintiff to Howard and Vera Hays. Thereafter, May married one Haizlip. She subsequently became a famous aviatrix and has lived in many American cities as well as foreign countries.

It would be useless to recite herein the many details in evidence as to the relationship between plaintiff and the Hayses as she grew up in the Hays home. From the day she arrived in their home plaintiff was unconditionally and absolutely held out to the world as the daughter of Howard and Vera Hays and was so accepted by the public generally. They did so with such amazing success that for 27 years the people in the various communities where the family lived thought she was their natural child. Vera died in October 1950 and Howard in June 1952. Plaintiff did not learn until after Howard died that she was not their natural child. The Hayses, May Haizlip, Mrs. C. W. Hays, Howard Hays, Jr., and his wife were the only persons who knew that plaintiff was not the natural born child of Howard Hays and wife.

From the time plaintiff entered the Hays home until she graduated from high school home until she graduated from high school she was a dutiful, obedient and loving child. The Hayses were proud of her grades, her progress generally and loved her as their child. Edna Douglas, who was Mr. Hays' secretary for 14 years, often saw him and Virginia together. In describing their relationship she said Mr. Hays 'almost revered her. She was something very, very special' and 'she adored him.'

About the time Virginia graduated from high school an unpleasant situation arose. The Hayses had planned that Virginia would attend a small college in Missouri. She did not want to do so but, on the contrary, desired to marry Stanley Lukas. They did not approve of him for religious reasons. Plaintiff left the home and on May 12, 1945, married Lukas. They established a home in Stanford, Connecticut, where they still reside. For a time the relationship between plaintiff and Mr. and Mrs. Hays was strained. However, after the birth of Virginia's first child (she now has three) they again became intimate. The feeling of Howard Hays toward plaintiff and her family is illustrated by excerpts from a letter he wrote her, a few months before he died, upon the occasion of the birth of her third son, as follows: 'My dear daughter: Your letter of the 10th came today. Yes, the message announcing the arrival of little Charles Howard did come a little earlier than I had expected but I am glad now that is over and that you and the baby are getting along so well and that you are on the road to recovery. I think you gave the baby a pretty name and I am so pleased that he has Howard in his name. Both Charles and Howard are old, old family names. You and Stanley are certainly blessed with fine sturdy little sons. I am blessed too with two sons, two daughters [obviously including plaintiff as a daughter and her husband as a son] and three grandsons. It has been a long time since I wrote to you but little sweetheart I have been so sick ever since I came here. I am glad you were pleased with the flowers and glad that I could send them to you. Remember me to Stanley and the boys, I love each and every one of you with all my heart. Daddy.'

Howard Hays had been a successful engineer. He and Vera lived in a number of cities in Illinois and elsewhere, but from 1931 to 1951 the home was in Waukegan, Illinois, where he had a responsible position with an industrial concern. In February, 1951, Howard sold his home and moved to his old family home in Poplar Bluff, Missouri. He was then ill with cancer, his wife had died, and he had retired from his position. He occupied an apartment in the home place. His sister also lived in that residence and a brother (defendant Paul C. Hays) lived next door. The brother, a banker, in his daily visits with Howard, frequently talked with him about the disposition of his estate. Finally, at Howard's request, Paul prepared a proposed will and submitted to him. Howard never executed this document and it was found among his papers after his death. It provided that the bulk of the estate be placed in trust; that Howard, Jr., receive the income during his lifetime, and after his death, the income and upon reaching age 25 the corpus, was to be distributed to testator's grandchildren. At that time the only grandchildren were the children of plaintiff. The trustees were further given the discretionary right to use the trust assets for the maintenance of plaintiff and her children or to meet emergency expenses occasioned by sickness, accident or otherwise. He explained to Paul that he did not want to leave anything directly to Virginia...