Perry v. Vaught, 5389

• Citation: 624 P.2d 776
• Decision Date: 03 March 1981
• Docket Number: No. 5389,5389
• Parties: Rosemary Wayne PERRY, Appellant (Defendant), v. William T. VAUGHT, Appellee (Plaintiff).
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Wyoming

Page 776

624 P.2d 776

Rosemary Wayne PERRY, Appellant (Defendant), v. William T. VAUGHT, Appellee (Plaintiff).

No. 5389.

Supreme Court of Wyoming.

March 3, 1981.

Ronald A. Kastanek, Casper, signed the brief and appeared in oral argument on behalf of appellant.

Jerry A. Yaap, Casper, signed the brief and appeared in oral argument on behalf of appellee.

Before ROSE, C. J. ^*, and McCLINTOCK, RAPER ^**, THOMAS and ROONEY, JJ.

RAPER, Justice.

This appeal arises from a judgment and decree canceling the deed to appellant-defendant, Ms. Perry, to a farm located outside of Casper and presents two issues for resolution. First, Ms. Perry claims that there was insufficient evidence to support the district court's findings that the sale was the product of "fraud, undue influence, duress, abuse of confidence, misrepresentations and other unconscionable conduct and questionable means * * *." Second, the suggestion is made that the court erred in admitting evidence of an attempt by Ms. Perry to arrange the absence of the appellee-plaintiff, Mr. Vaught, from the trial.

We find no merit in either argument and we will affirm.

Mr. Vaught is a 76-year-old retired railroad worker who possesses a sixth grade education. He bought a 127-acre farm in 1941 which has been his residence since. Mr. Vaught has no children of his own; his closest relatives are three sisters and a stepson.

In 1970, Mr. Vaught had a heart attack and as a result has been forced to take nitroglycerin daily. Besides his heart condition, Mr. Vaught before 1978 had also been diagnosed as having high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries, and arthritis. Various medications had also been prescribed for these conditions. A medical expert testified that due to Mr. Vaught's condition, one might expect him to have had an occasional loss of memory. An additional problem was the development of cataracts in about 1976. Mr. Vaught has since had two lens transplants to alleviate this condition; however, the testimony was unclear as to how successful the operations were.

The first meeting between Mr. Vaught and Ms. Perry occurred in 1972 (the testimony conflicts as to whether this was before or after the death of Mr. Vaught's wife). The encounter resulted when Ms. Perry, while working for the humane society, received a report that one of the horses appellee kept on his farm had a cancerous eye. Upon investigation, she discovered the report was true. At her suggestion, Mr. Vaught destroyed the horse. After the initial meeting, Ms. Perry continued to visit Mr. Vaught on a regular basis. During the ensuing four years, her involvement with him grew substantially.

In 1976 Mr. Vaught's cataracts began to drastically reduce his ability to fend for himself. As a result, Ms. Perry began providing transportation and other sundry services. These included grocery shopping and bill paying. Ms. Perry would also, when Mr. Vaught needed to write a check, prepare it for his signature. As one witness testified, "She (Ms. Perry) had control of his money, control of him, had control of everything."

Marjorie Lawson, a former friend of Ms. Perry, testified that during 1975 she and Ms. Perry attempted to purchase an acre of land from Mr. Vaught for the humane society. As a result, Ms. Lawson became acquainted with Mr. Vaught. She testified that at the time he seemed to be "quite spry" and "fairly mentally alert." He, in fact, enjoyed outfoxing Ms. Perry by selling her one-third of an acre for $2,000 when she intended to buy a whole acre for the same price. Ms. Lawson further related that in 1975 both she and Ms. Perry realized how valuable the land was, and how much more valuable it would become. In fact, on one occasion, they were riding in a pickup together when Ms. Perry said she wanted the Vaught land and would do anything to get it, but then tacked on, "well, almost anything." Shortly thereafter, Mr. Vaught showed Ms. Lawson a document he said Ms. Perry was trying to get him to sign. This document, admitted into evidence, would have made Ms. Perry a joint tenant with the right of survivorship. Mr. Vaught indicated to Ms. Lawson that he was not going to sign it.

Toward the end of 1976, Mr. Vaught told the only sister he had who lived in Casper that he had found this young girl to take care of him and that he did not want her his sister to bother any more. In November of that year, this sister left Casper and moved to California.

By the middle of 1977, Mr. Vaught's eye condition had deteriorated to the point that it was recommended to him to have surgery. Pursuant to this suggestion, he began consulting a specialist in Boulder, Colorado. This doctor performed an operation to remove the cataract and implant a new lens in the left eye on November 1, 1977. Surgery on the right eye occurred on April 11, 1978.

It was during this time period that Mr. Vaught visited his lawyer and expressed fears that he had conveyed his land to Ms. Perry. His lawyer investigated and found that no deed transferring the property had been recorded. He then suggested to Mr. Vaught that he consider placing his stepson's name on the deed. Mr. Vaught agreed and thus a deed was drafted conveying the property to himself and his stepson as joint tenants with the right of survivorship. This instrument was dated December 31, 1977.

Mr. Vaught returned to his attorney's office within a couple of months when the State Highway Department approached him about buying some of his property for road construction. An agreement was reached to sell three acres of land for $20,100; however, because his stepson was now a record owner, his consent to the deal was also necessary. This resulted in his stepson finding out for the first time he was a joint tenant in the property. A deed conveying the parcel of land to the State was recorded in April of 1978.

Within a month of that transaction, Ms. Perry appeared with Mr. Vaught before the attorney announcing she wanted to buy an acre or two of Mr. Vaught's farm. When informed it was no longer in Mr. Vaught's name alone, Ms. Perry stated that "he never intended to do anything like that." A couple of weeks later Ms. Perry returned to the attorney's office with Mr. Vaught and announced that he wanted a deed back from his stepson. The attorney asked Mr. Vaught if that was true. According to the attorney's testimony, "he (Mr. Vaught) didn't make any direct reply, he just kind of nodded his head and grunted." The stepson agreed to quitclaim his interest in the land for $8,000. After the deal was completed, Ms. Perry returned with Mr. Vaught to the attorney's office and demanded not only that the attorney no longer represent him, but also that he turn over all of the files.

During the fall of 1978 Ms. Perry began talking of buying some property. She checked with a notary to find out how a quitclaim deed was drafted. She then hired a secretary to type one up. Various people overheard her discussing the possibility of buying two to five acres of land from Mr. Vaught. A handwritten document dated September 15, 1978, signed by both Mr. Vaught and Ms. Perry but not witnessed, was also admitted into evidence. This document was purported by Ms. Perry to be a contract providing for the sale of the entirety of Mr. Vaught's farm to her for approximately $10,000 down. It also indicated that Mr. Vaught had an option of monthly or yearly payments for the rest of his life of an unspecified amount, as well as the expectation that Ms. Perry would "make all improvements on the farm, care for Mr. Vaught for as long as he shall live and care for his two American saddle mares for as long as they shall live." Also, Ms. Perry agreed not to sell the farm to land developers. ¹ On October 3, 1978, Mr. Vaught executed a quitclaim deed for the farm to Ms. Perry. The notary did not realize that the deed was for the whole farm. However, Mr. Vaught did tell him that he understood what he was signing.

There was testimony that Ms. Perry has paid to date $18,000 for the property. However, the evidence clearly established that the property was worth over $1,250,000 in 1978.

Sometime in January of 1979, Mr. Vaught returned to his attorney's office with Mr. Boner, a representative of the school district, who was interested in acquiring a 40-acre parcel for the construction of a school. It seemed that Mr. Boner had discovered the quitclaim deed when searching the record and was concerned as to whom the property belonged. Mr. Vaught was stunned to learn that he had conveyed the property away. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Vaught's attorney commenced this action to regain his land. Undaunted, Ms. Perry continued her daily trips to the farm.

In March of 1979, Mr. Richard Gose visited the farm in order to inquire about purchasing a plot of land upon which to build his home. He related the following concerning that conversation:

" * * * There was discussion and not particularly material, other than being small conversation, but when I did, got to that point of telling him my mission there, why I was there, which was fairly early in the conversation, why Mr. Vaught indicated to me that he had some kind of trouble with regard to what I was asking him to purchase the property, he was in trouble with the property, he was in trouble with it. And when I made inquiry as to what his trouble was, he, I believe, he started to answer, he started to say something and a Miss or Mrs. Perry, Rosemary Perry was there, she interrupted me, and by talking about the number of cattle that could be seen along the other side of a little draw out there, and she expressed to him that there were so many.

" * * * I don't know whether you could see them all, but they were there, that is sort of a ranch quarter out there, and interlaced with that conversation was the fact that Mrs. Perry had purchased about a little over or a little under two acres and was going to put on this purchase of dog kennals (sic), it was pie shaped so she could get a large...