McAlister v. Deatherage

• Citation: 523 So.2d 387
• Parties: Thomas O. McALISTER v. Jesse DEATHERAGE, et al. 86-1185.
• Decision Date: 01 April 1988
• Court: Supreme Court of Alabama

Page 387

523 So.2d 387

Thomas O. McALISTER v. Jesse DEATHERAGE, et al.

86-1185.

Supreme Court of Alabama.

April 1, 1988.

Bill Marthaler, Tuscumbia, for appellant.

John C. Harris, Jr., of Harris and Hasseltine, Florence, for appellees Jesse and Ellen Deatherage.

Donald H. Patterson of Patterson & Jester, Florence, for appellees Marilee Ellis and Ronald Warren Real Estate.

STEAGALL, Justice.

Thomas O. McAlister appeals from a summary judgment granted in favor of the defendants.

On August 3, 1985, McAlister entered into a contract to purchase real property located in Colbert County, Alabama, from defendants Jesse and Ellen Deatherage. The transaction was negotiated by defendant Marilee Ellis, an agent for defendant Ronald Warren Realty Company. On August 19, 1985, the contract was executed by payment of a portion of the purchase price and the assumption of a note and mortgage on which the Deatherages were liable.

On January 27, 1986, McAlister filed this action against the defendants, seeking to set aside the purchase of the real estate. McAlister alleged that at the time he entered into and executed the contract he was under the effect of a mental disease or defect and lacked the capacity to enter into a contract. He also alleged that Ellis and Ronald Warren Realty fraudulently induced him to purchase the property.

The Deatherages answered the complaint and filed a counterclaim for the balance due on the note and mortgage that McAlister assumed. Ellis and Ronald Warren Realty answered, denying the allegations of the complaint.

The Deatherages filed a motion for summary judgment supported by their individual affidavits and by the deposition of Dr. E.J. Phillips. Ellis and Ronald Warren Realty also filed a motion for summary judgment, which was supported by the deposition of McAlister and by the other depositions and affidavits on file in the case. McAlister filed his own motion for summary judgment, which was supported by his deposition, the deposition of Dr. E.J. Phillips, and the affidavits of Dr. Fernando Lopez, Sandra McAlister, and William J. Underwood.

The trial court granted summary judgment for all the defendants. McAlister filed a motion for reconsideration, along with a supporting brief, which motion was denied. McAlister appeals from that summary judgment.

The standards for ruling on a motion for summary judgment are well established:

"Rule 56, Ala.R.Civ.P., sets forth the two-part standard for granting summary judgment. That rule requires the trial court to determine: (1) that there is no genuine issue of material fact, and (2) that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. This rule must be read in conjunction with the scintilla rule so that summary judgment will not be granted if there is a scintilla of evidence supporting the position of the opposing party. Silk v. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc., 437 So.2d 112, 114 (Ala.1983)."

Whitehead v. Johnston, 467 So.2d 240 (Ala.1985).

Likewise, the standard of appellate review is well settled:

"On appeal, we look at the materials presented to the trial court and determine for ourselves, in light of the scintilla rule, whether there were any triable issues of fact due to be decided by the jury. Chiniche v. Smith, 374 So.2d 872 (Ala.1979)."

Jarrard v. Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co., 495 So.2d 584 (Ala.1986). If there is evidence supporting plaintiff's position, entry of summary judgment is inappropriate and is due to be reversed. Legg v. Kelly, 412 So.2d 1202 (Ala.1982).

In Alabama, the rule is that contracts of insane persons are wholly and completely void. Williamson v. Matthews, 379 So.2d 1245 (Ala.1980); Code of Alabama (1975), § 8-1-170. The question then goes to what constitutes insanity. Alabama has essentially adopted a cognitive (understanding) test to answer this question. In Hall v. Britton, 216 Ala. 265, 113 So. 238 (1927), the Court stated:

"In order to render a deed void because of the mental incapacity of the grantor--and the principle is the same for any other signatory--the test is 'not merely that the grantor's mental powers were impaired, but whether he had sufficient capacity to understand in a reasonable manner the nature and effect of the act which he was doing.' "

216 Ala. at 267, 113 So. at 239.

"[T]o avoid a contract on the ground of insanity, it must be satisfactorily shown that the party was incapable of transacting the particular business in question. It is not enough to show that he was the subject of delusions not affecting the subject-matter of the transaction, nor that he was, in other respects, mentally weak. A party cannot avoid a contact, free from fraud or undue influence, on the ground of mental incapacity, unless it be shown that his insanity ... was of such character that he had no reasonable perception or understanding of the nature and terms of the contract."

Weaver v. Carothers, 228 Ala. 157, 160, 153 So. 201, 202 (1934).

Depositions submitted on behalf of McAlister included those of his past and present psychiatrists plus his own deposition and supporting affidavits.

McAlister was diagnosed as having bipolar disorder (manic-depression) at least as far back as 1967, when the military service declared him to be 100 percent disabled. Since that time he has not worked, living entirely off Veterans Administration benefits and social security benefits. McAlister began seeing Dr. Lopez in 1975 and was treated by Dr. Lopez until McAlister moved to North Alabama and began treatment with Dr. Phillips in November 1985. During McAlister's treatment under Dr. Lopez, he was committed at least once through the probate court to a mental hospital and was, for the vast majority of that time, on various medications, including Lithium, to help control his illness. Three days before the contract to buy the house was signed, Dr. Lopez had a meeting with McAlister. Dr. Lopez was of the opinion that at that time McAlister was off his medication and "was psychotic. And, when he is psychotic, ... it is a major psychiatric disorder of psychotic proportions." Lopez also stated that such episodes last weeks at a time and that even with "intensive treatment at a psychiatric hospital," the manic episode may be shortened only to "two or three weeks." McAlister testified that during the early part of July 1985 he was hospitalized to undergo a gall bladder operation, during which time none of his medication for his illness was administered to him by the hospital. According to McAlister, he remembers only bits and pieces over the next two months (from mid-July to late-September or early October). McAlister stated in his deposition that he remembered nothing about any financial statements he may have signed and did not know what, if any, other documents he had signed during that time. Most of what McAlister does remember is through what third persons have recently told him.

The very nature of the manic-depressive, as stated in Dr. Phillips's deposition, is often characterized by "buying sprees, frequently buying things that they don't need and often charging or writing checks for which they have no funds to finance." This is not to say that all manic-depressives may be classified as insane within the cognitive test that Alabama utilizes. However, under this set of facts and in this circumstance, we cannot say that McAlister "had sufficient capacity to understand in a reasonable manner the nature and effect of the act which he was doing," Hall v. Britton, supra, or that he had a "reasonable perception or understanding of the nature and terms of the contract." Weaver v. Carothers, supra. Taking the depositions and affidavits submitted on behalf of McAlister as true, we find that, in light of the scintilla rule, summary judgment for the Deatherages was inappropriate. We therefore reverse and remand as to them.

Defendants Ellis and Ronald Warren Realty Company make several arguments in support of the summary judgment as to them. Ellis contends initially that McAlister's post-trial motion to reconsider ¹ was not sufficient to suspend the running of the time for filing a notice of appeal. To support this argument, Ellis cites the cases of Morris v. Merchants Nat. Bank of Mobile, 359 So.2d 371, 374 (Ala.1978), and Ex parte Dowling, 477 So.2d 400 (Ala.1985). Morris states that a proper motion for reconsideration (one that asks the trial court to...