Meyer v. Reimer

• Decision Date: 06 December 1902
• Docket Number: 12,820
• Citation: 65 Kan. 822,70 P. 869
• Parties: EMMA MEYER et al. v. WILLIAM REIMER et al
• Court: Kansas Supreme Court

70 P. 869

65 Kan. 822

EMMA MEYER et al. v. WILLIAM REIMER et al

No. 12,820

Supreme Court of Kansas

December 6, 1902

Decided July, 1902.

Error from Harper district court; P. B. GILLETT, judge.

Judgment reversed and case remanded.

SYLLABUS

SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.

PRACTICE DISTRICT COURT -- Instructions. Instructions to the jury on questions of law should be confined to the issues made in the pleadings, and it is error to give an instruction correct as an abstract statement which, as applied to the issues in, and the theory of, the case, is wrong and inapplicable, and which might easily mislead the jury in their application of the evidence to the issue.

George E. McMahon, and J. P. Grove, for plaintiffs in error.

George B. Crooker, and T. A. Noftzger, for defendants in error.

CUNNINGHAM J. All the Justices concurring.

OPINION

CUNNINGHAM, J.:

In this action an aged father sought to set aside a conveyance of certain lands which he had made to his daughter. The reason why this was done, as set out in the petition, was because of the fraud practiced by the daughter and her husband in obtaining the same, in this, that they promised to perform certain services for the father, which, at the time, they had no intention of performing, and which they subsequently refused to perform, the promise being made simply and solely to procure the execution of the deed. The issues arising on this petition were closed by a general denial. Upon this issue trial was had to a jury, and evidence pro and con introduced.

The court gave as one of its instructions the following:

"I further instruct you, gentlemen of the jury, that if, at the time of the execution of the conveyance which is the subject of this controversy, you find from the evidence that the plaintiffs were far advanced in years, were greatly enfeebled in body and mind, and were greatly troubled and uneasy about their own personal welfare in the future, and by reason of these conditions were not in a mental condition to carefully weigh and transact such business as was involved in transferring the land involved in this action, and had become childish, and depended upon their daughter, Mrs. Meyer, and her husband, for counsel and advice, then and in that event an equitable wardship or fiduciary relation existed between them.

"A person is said to stand in a fiduciary relation to another when he has rights and powers which he is bound to exercise for the benefit of that other person. Hence, he is not allowed to derive any profit or advantage from the relations between them, except with the full knowledge and consent of the other person, and such other person must be in possession of all his powers before he can be bound by that knowledge or consent. The relations of attorney and client, principal and agent, guardian and ward, are instances of fiduciary relations; and generally, whenever from the position of the two persons one of them reposes, and has a right to repose, confidence in the other, a fiduciary relation is thereby created and exists.

"So in this case, if you find from a full, fair and candid consideration of all the evidence in the case, that a fiduciary relation existed between the plaintiffs and the defendants, actual fraud is not essentially necessary to set aside the conveyance sought to be set aside in this case, but the burden of...