Nowell v. Larrimore

• Decision Date: 14 December 1954
• Docket Number: No. 37,37
• Parties: Elmer Ellsworth NOWELL, Administrator, D.B.N.C.T.A. of the Estate of James R. Larrimore, Deceased, and James F. Larrimore, v. Nannie B. LARRIMORE and Joseph G. Cohen and Minnie Cohen, His Wife. James F. LARRIMORE v. Joseph G. COHEN and Minnie Cohen, His Wife.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

Page 613

205 Md. 613

109 A.2d 747

Elmer Ellsworth NOWELL, Administrator, D.B.N.C.T.A. of the

Estate of James R. Larrimore, Deceased, and James

F. Larrimore, v. Nannie B. LARRIMORE and Joseph G. Cohen and Minnie Cohen, His Wife.

James F. LARRIMORE v. Joseph G. COHEN and Minnie Cohen, His Wife.

No. 37.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

Dec. 14, 1954.

Linwood L. Clark, Annapolis, for appellants.

Thomas J. Curley, Annapolis (George B. Woelfel, Annapolis, on the brief), for Nannie B. Larrimore.

James C. Morton, Jr., Annapolis (Rouse & Morton, Annapolis, on the brief), for Jos. G. Cohen and wife.

Before BRUNE, C. J., and DELAPLAINE, COLLINS, HENDERSON and HAMMOND, JJ.

COLLINS, Judge.

Here are appeals from two decrees affecting two lots of land in Anne Arundel County. The two cases were consolidated and heard together in open court before the chancellor.

In the first case the appellants, Elmer Ellsworth Nowell, Administrator, D.B.N.C.T.A. of the Estate of James R. Larrimore, deceased, and James F. Larrimore, on April 1, 1952, filed their third amended bill of complaint against the appellees, Nannie B. Larrimore and Joseph G. Cohen and Minnie Cohen, his wife, praying that Lot No. 3 in a Subdivision of Larrimore's Point be impressed with a trust for the support of James R. Larrimore at a reasonable charge while a patient at the Homewood Convalescing Home (the Home), operated by the aforesaid Joseph G. Cohen and Minnie Cohen, from November 15, 1950, to April 13, 1951, and for other and further relief. After a hearing in open court before the chancellor, the bill of complaint was dismissed by decree. From that decree appellants appeal. In the second case James F. Larrimore, appellant, filed a bill of complaint on February 14, 1953, against Joseph G. Cohen and Minnie Cohen, appellees, asking that the deed of November 29, 1950, to Lot No. 5 of the Subdivision of Larrimore's Point, from James R. Larrimore to them, while in the Home, be decreed to be in the nature of a mortgage to secure the reasonable cost of James R. Larrimore's support and care by the Cohens; that said claim for support be forever barred and nonenforceable; that the plaintiff as devisee be decreed to have ownership of Lot No. 5; and for other and further relief.

Previously, on December 11, 1952, the appellants here had filed an amended bill of complaint against Mr. and Mrs. Cohen wherein they sought to have the deed made by James R. Larrimore, hereinafter referred to as Mr Larrimore, to the Cohens on November 29, 1950, stricken down on the ground that Mr. Larrimore was, at the time he executed said deed, incompetent to execute a valid deed or contract. On January 23, 1953, a decree was filed dismissing the bill in that case, and no appeal was taken from that decree.

The facts in the first case are in part as follows: The deceased, Mr. Larrimore, owned and lived on a nine-acre tract of land at Larrimore's Point on Glebe Creek in Anne Arundel County. In May of 1934 this land was surveyed and sub-divided into six lots, the plat being recorded. The home which he occupied was on Lot No. 3. On June 7, 1934, he conveyed Lot No. 1 to his son, Edward W. Larrimore and Alma Larrimore, his wife; and Lots No. 2 and 6 to his son, Walter E. Larrimore and Nannie B. Larrimore, his wife. Mr. Larrimore's wife died March 31, 1935. Before that date Walter had erected a home on Lot No. 2. After his wife's death, Mr. Larrimore continued to live in his home on Lot No. 3, but took his meals at the home of his son, Walter, except when his daughter, Anna Marie Denzler, who lived in Delaware, came to visit him in the summers, and except for the two winters when Edward and his wife, Alma, lived with him. The visits of Marie ceased about 1941.

Mr. Larrimore, with his sons, William and Walter, and their wives, on January 28, 1946, went to the office of the late Arthur Trader, an attorney in Annapolis, and executed deeds of Lot No. 4 to William and his wife, Mabel, and Lot No. 3, Mr. Larrimore's home property, to Walter and his wife, Nannie. On the same date he executed a will bequeathing to his daughter, Anna Marie Denzler, the sum of $10; devising to his son, James F. Larrimore, Lot No. 5; leaving any personal estate to be equally divided among his children; and naming his son, Walter, as executor. At the time of the conveyance of Lot No. 3, Mr. Larrimore's house was in very bad condition. After Walter rebuilt it, he and his family moved in with his father and Walter rented his house. Walter died on April 8, 1948, and his wife Nannie, with her son, Walter Garrett Larrimore, his wife, their two small children, and Nannie's aunt, continued to live in Mr. Larrimore's home. On April 1, 1952, the third amended bill of complaint as aforesaid was filed, Mr. Larrimore having died on April 13, 1951. In the said bill it was alleged that on January 12, 1951, a letter was mailed by the State's Attorney of Anne Arundel County to the attorney for James F. Larrimore informing him that the Home, operated by Mr. and Mrs. Cohen, was pressing him to prosecute the children of Mr. Larrimore for failure to support their father and pay for his nursing and medicines which at that time amounted to $428.

Mabel Larrimore, the wife of William, testified that she was in the office of Mr. Trader on January 28, 1946, when the deeds were signed. She said the next week she and her husband went to see Walter and in the presence of Nannie, his wife, Walter told her and her husband that he knew they had been surprised, that his father had given him the home place in consideration of the fact that Walter and Nannie were going to repair it, that his father was going to live with him, and that they were going to take care of his father for the rest of his life. William Larrimore testified that Walter and his wife said they had told Mr. Larrimore that, if he would give them the home place, they would fix it up, would take care of him, and make a home for him, as long as he lived. He further testified that Nannie said she had told her father-in-law that she loved him and the only reason she wanted the house was to move there and take care of him. Edward Larrimore testified that at one time he asked his father why he deeded Lot No. 3 to Walter and his wife. His father told him that Nannie and Walter would take care of him the balance of his life, and that his father wept and said he knew he had done the wrong thing.

Nannie B. Larrimore, one of the defendants and appellees here, testified that Mr. Larrimore was very ill in 1944 with bronchial pneumonia and worked very little from that time on. She took him to her home and kept him from the first of January, 1944, until the first of April that year, nursing him night and day, and from that time on he was not able to make enough money to support himself. He never gave her any money because he had none. He deeded the property to her and her husband in 1946. He told Walter that he wanted him to have the home as he was no longer able to keep it up and pay the taxes. They made no promises whatsoever. Her husband had been waiting on his father for the past thirteen years, even washing for him. During that time Mr. Larrimore ate three meals a day at her home. She said they intended to rebuild Mr. Larrimore's home and that he was to live with them but no agreement was made to take care of him. She and her husband spent about $15,000 in repairing Mr. Larrimore's home in addition to the labor of her husband and son. In 1944 the house leaked to such an extent that she was required to move Mr. Larrimore's bed from place to place to keep him dry. At that time she had to furnish him with bedclothes. There was no promise made that they would support and take care of him the rest of his life. She said she did not make the statement testified to by Mabel, that she may have said that her father-in-law was to live with them but nothing was said about taking care of him. At one stage of the cross-examination she admitted that she promised to live in the home with Mr. Larrimore and care for him, but denied that 'it was for the rest of his life'. She further testified, when asked about the statement which William had made, that they intended to move to Mr. Larrimore's house and give him a home but that she was not able to take care of him. He needed medical care which she could not give. After the death of her husband in 1948, her son, who was attending law school and also working, and the son's wife who was also working, provided the money for the home. In addition she received $75 a month rent for their former home. In 1949 she became very ill, was confined to her bed, and had to take care of Mr. Larrimore and her two infant grandchildren. Her aunt had to stay home from work to take care of her. At that time, on the advice of Dr. Basil, she put her father-in-law, then about eighty-eight years of age, in the Home for the period of about one month. She asked William to help with his expenses and William paid $42 for one week's care and said that was all he was going to pay unless the others would pay something. Mr. Larrimore cried and said he thought it was proper for his other sons to do something for him, to pay his hospital bills, and he was sorry he had not given the entire property to her and her husband. On November 15, 1950, the condition of her father-in-law became such that she could not go in his room and had to hire a woman to clean him. She solicited the sons for help but received nothing. On orders from Dr. Basil, she called an ambulance. She had previously talked to Mrs. Cohen and told her that her father-in-law had no money but had a piece of property which he had offered to her and which she would not accept. She asked Mrs. Cohen if she would take him under those conditions. As a result of that conversation Mr. Larrimore was placed in the Cohen home. He was at that time in a much worse condition than when previously placed there in 1949. Mr. Larrimore...