Phillips v. Ford, 43116

• Decision Date: 08 June 1964
• Docket Number: No. 43116,43116
• Parties: Kyzer PHILLIPS v. Earlie P. FORD.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 908

164 So.2d 908

250 Miss. 425

Kyzer PHILLIPS v. Earlie P. FORD.

No. 43116.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

June 8, 1964.

Black & Boykin, Carrollton, for appellant.

J. W. Conger, Winona, for appellee.

RODGERS, Justice.

This is an action brought in the Chancery Court of Carroll County by Earlie P. Ford, devisee in the will of Henrietta Williams, against Kyzer Phillips, to set aside three deeds given him by Henrietta Williams a short time before her death. The chancellor held these deeds were obtained by undue influence and cancelled them. The appellant, grantee in the deeds, has appealed, and complains that there is no evidence to sustain the chancellor's finding that there was a confidential relationship between Henrietta Williams and Kyzer Phillips, and that the overwhelming weight of the evidence is contrary to the facts found to exist by the chancellor in his opinion.

The evidence shows that in 1957 Henrietta Williams, a negro widow, eighty years old, lived alone on a 200-acre farm near Carrollton, Mississippi. She was feeble and unable to attend to her stock, bring in firewood and do the necessary chores about the farm. Her feet were crippled so that she could not wear shoes, and her feet and legs were swollen. She stayed in bed most of the time.

The appellant lived on a farm nearby, in which he claimed to have an interest. He separated from his wife and claimed to have lost his farm. He then moved in the house with 'Old Aunt Henrietta Williams.' He sold one of her cows, and said he gave her the money. He sold her timber, and admitted he kept the money. He obtained all of the money she had in the bank and claimed she gave it to him. He obtained a deed to forty acres of her land, and finally obtained deeds to all of her land. One of the deeds conveying 160 acres has contained therein the following paragraph: 'This land is valued at the price of $1800.00 and is conveyed to Kyzer Phillips under contract that he is to room, board, provide for and care for the Grantor for her lifetime, and is to bear all cost of her final illness and all funeral expenses.' The appellant, however, denied that he agreed to provide the grantor with room and board. In short, he took everything Henrietta Williams had and all he said she received in return was 'she got a living out of it.' He claims he got the cotton crop he raised on the land but that she had no interest in it. The appellant was not a relative of Henrietta Williams. In explaining why he went to this old woman's home, he said 'she wanted my help, she said she didn't want to money, and she changed the deed.' He said Henrietta Williams had no business to attend to 'But me to just go there and live with her and I would come get groceries and kept her wood and everything that she wanted and she didn't have anything to do but just sit there at home. She told me that she had a better time then than she had when her husband was living.' He testified she gave him money to buy whatever she needed when he did not have money. Finally, he said he had nothing to do with her cattle. 'I couldn't handle her business and see after my own.'

Earlie Ford took her sister Henrietta Williams to her home and sent for her niece to aid in caring for this old woman in her last illness. Henrietta Williams sent her niece to the bank to get some money for her use and it was discovered that her deposit had been withdrawn by Kyzer Phillips. She then sent for a lawyer to make her will so that her sister could have her land for taking care of her and pay the doctor. She made a will leaving her property to her sister.

The testimony shows that Henrietta Williams was old and sick when she made the deeds to Kyzer Phillips; that she had a 'changeable mind' and 'her mind was absent.' Another witness said 'She didn't appear like her mind was too good.' A neighbor who had worked her land said 'She told me one thing two or three times sometimes' and again she said 'I thought the reason she was not in her right mind the way she talked to me. That is what I thought.'

The lay witnesses for both sides testified to the mental condition of Henrietta Williams, giving their opinions as if they were expert witnesses, and since there was no objection to this testimony, it is a part of the record on appeal to this Court. Some of the witnesses for the defendant, appellant here, had an interest in the outcome of the proceedings with reference to the land involved. One witness who went with appellant to obtain one of the deeds had a lien on cattle belonging to appellant, and as soon as the deed was obtained, the land was immediately hypothecated to the bank. This witness said 'I just already had it (a trust deed) on the cattle and things and when this deal was made I decided to get the bank to take it over and pay me out.'

The chancellor was of the opinion that the evidence showed a fiduciary relationship existed between Henrietta Williams and Kyzer Phillips, and that the burden of proof was upon Kyzer Phillips to show that the deeds were obtained from her in good faith; that in view of the mental and physical conditions of grantor, and in view of the fact that the appellant admitted he did not pay any consideration for the property, he failed to meet the burden cast upon him, and the deeds were therefore cancelled.

The general rule on this subject is stated in 26 C.J.S. Deeds Sec. 62(3), b, p. 769:

'A deed secured by influence which was undue as applied to a mentally weak grantor will be invalid, as where age and infirmity combine with inequitable circumstances to show undue influence; and, where the maker of a deed is so reduced by mental and physical weakness as to become the mere passive agent of the dominating will of another in executing the instrument, it may be regarded as the product of undue influence.

'Wherever, as a result of age, sickness, or other cause, there is a great...