McClure v. Raben

• Decision Date: 03 February 1893
• Docket Number: 16,149
• Citation: 33 N.E. 275,133 Ind. 507
• Parties: McClure v. Raben
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

33 N.E. 275

133 Ind. 507

McClure v. Raben

No. 16,149

Supreme Court of Indiana

February 3, 1893

From the Posey Circuit Court.

Judgment reversed, with directions to sustain the demurrer of the appellant to the cross-complaint of the appellee.

W Loudon and F. P. Leonard, for appellant.

G. V Menzies, for appellee.

OPINION

Coffey, C. J.

This case is in this court for the second time. McClure v. Raben, 125 Ind. 139, 25 N.E. 179.

The cross-complaint of the appellee, which was adjudged insufficient, is fully set forth in the opinion in that case, and sets up, among other things, that Samuel D. McReynolds purchased from the appellant, during the lifetime of his mother, his expectant interest in the land described in such cross-complaint; that McReynolds paid the full value of such interest, and received from the appellant a quitclaim deed for such land; that the contract by which the appellant sold and conveyed to McReynolds his expectant interest in said land was bona fide, and without any fraud practiced on Leah McClure, the mother of the appellant, who was then the owner of such land, and who was then insane.

The cross-complaint further alleged that McReynolds had conveyed his interest in the land in controversy to the appellee.

Upon a return of this cause to the Posey Circuit Court, the appellee filed an amended cross-complaint against the appellant, in which he alleged that "heretofore, to wit: on the 30th day of March, 1853, Leah McClure, the mother of said Joseph McClure, was a widow, and was the owner in fee simple, and in possession of all the lands described in the deed hereinafter mentioned, containing about 318 acres, more or less.

"That for a long time prior to said date, at said date and continuously therefrom till the date of her death, to wit the 1st day of March, 1886, said Leah McClure was a person of unsound mind, incapable of managing her own estate or making or ratifying contracts of her own or affirming or consenting to contracts made by her children, of and concerning her, the said Leah's, estate.

"That on the 1st day of March, 1886, said Leah died, in Posey county, Indiana, intestate, leaving as her only heirs in law the defendant, Joseph McClure, and six other persons whose names are unknown.

"That on the date first above mentioned, the 30th day of March, 1853, the defendant, Joseph McClure, was of the age of twenty-one years, and an heir expectant or presumptive of his mother, the said Leah McClure, and as such expectant or presumptive heir expected to inherit in fee simple one-seventh in value of said land, about thirty-nine and three-quarter acres of the same.

"That the actual, full and fair market value of said land, valued as an absolute vested estate per acre, on the 30th day of March, 1853, was seven dollars per acre, making the actual, full and fair market value of the entire interest of said Joseph McClure valued at that date as an absolute and vested estate, the sum of two hundred and seventy-eight dollars and twenty-five cents.

"That on said date, March 30, 1853, the defendant Joseph McClure, by his quit-claim deed, a copy of which is filed herewith as a part of this paragraph, marked exhibit "A," conveyed to one Samuel D. McReynolds, his interest in the land therein described, as heir presumptive of his mother, the said Leah McClure, in consideration of the sum of three hundred dollars, that sum being at that date in excess of the actual, full and fair market value of an undivided one-seventh part in value of said land, valued at that time as an absolute and vested estate in fee simple.

"That said sum of three hundred dollars was paid by said McReynolds to the defendant, Joseph McClure, in good faith, said McReynolds and said defendant Joseph McClure, each knowing and believing at the date of the execution of the conveyance aforesaid, that the said Leah McClure was and forever would remain hopelessly insane and incapable of managing her estate, and that the only event which could defeat the defendant, Joseph McClure, from subsequently becoming the owner of an absolute estate in fee simple, of an undivided one-seventh in value of said lands, was the death of said Joseph McClure before his mother Leah McClure.

"That at or near the time of the conveyance aforesaid, several of the children and presumptive heirs of Leah McClure, knowing that said Leah was hopelessly insane, and believing that such insanity would continue without a lucid interval, sold and conveyed, as heirs presumptive of said Leah, their interests in said lands for the actual, full and fair market value of the same at the date of such conveyance as absolute estates in fee simple.

"That in the selling of his said interest by the defendant Joseph McClure, and the buying of the same by said McReynolds, there was neither fraud, concealment, catchbargaining nor overreaching by the one upon the other, nor upon the said Leah McClure, but said sale and conveyance was made bona fide for the actual, full and fair market value of an undivided one-seventh part...