Quinn v. Quinn
| Decision Date | 29 January 1907 |
| Citation | 130 Wis. 548,110 N.W. 488 |
| Parties | QUINN v. QUINN ET AL. |
| Court | Wisconsin Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Appeal from Circuit Court, Dodge County; James J. Dick, Judge.
Action by John Quinn and others against Michael Quinn. From a judgment for plaintiffs, defendant appeals. Affirmed.
Action by heirs to set aside a deed executed by Richard Quinn, now deceased, intestate, to the appellant, his son, on October 31, 1903, in consideration of $1 and a bond secured by mortgage, on the part of appellant that he would support the grantor, according to certain details, including medical attendance, and, within one year after the grantor's death, would pay $200 to the pastor of the grantor's church, and provide proper burial; the deed being attacked on the ground both of mental incompetency of the grantor and fraud and undue influence on the part of appellant. It appeared, substantially without dispute, that Richard Quinn was a man about 100 years old, with two sons and six daughters, all of mature years; the eldest living being about 74 years of age. Some 15 years before his death he had conveyed 80 acres to his son John and another 80 acres to his son Michael, this appellant, retaining 80 acres upon which he had thereafter lived, being supported by the rents thereof. He had often declared his purpose that out of this 80 should be provided, at his death, money for his daughters. Appellant was a well to do farmer, having some 200 acres adjoining his father's farm. After some experiments in renting the land to other relatives, the remaining 80 had for the past few years been rented to appellant, in consideration of his furnishing his father board, and paying him either $100 of $150 per year. In October, 1903, he gave up his attempt to live in his own house, and went to the appellant's, about three quarters of a mile away, to live. On October 31st the appellant and his father went to the office of a lawyer in Watertown, and together gave directions to draw a deed of the remaining 80 to Michael, and the bond and mortgage back, above described, which papers were executed in the presence of that attorney, and at the direction of both the deed was at once recorded. The trial court found that the property in question was worth $6,500, and was all that Richard Quinn owned, except unascertained moneys held or indebtedness owed by Michael Quinn for back rent; that Richard could neither write nor read writing, and at the time of the execution of the deed was incompetent and mentally incapacitated to make a valid deed of any of his property; that for several years before Richard Quinn had been entirely dependent upon the appellant to care for him and to transact all his business, purchasing his clothing and necessaries of life, and the like; that, although it would have been entirely convenient to do so, no notice or information was given to any of the other children of the purpose to execute this deed, or of its execution, except by placing it on record; that the appellant took his father to the attorney's office to have the deed executed; that owing to the enfeebled condition of Richard in mind and body, appellant took undue and unconscienable advantage of him and thereby obtained the deed, and that the same was not the free or voluntary act of the grantor; that Richard Quinn died July 16, 1904, after about four months of paralysis; that appellant had had the possession and occupation of the premises from the time of the execution of said deed, which was worth $250 a year, and that the board and care of his father, together with the sums paid out by him in accordance with said bond, amounted to about $450, whereupon judgment was entered vacating and declaring void said deed, but providing that appellant should retain the use and enjoyment of the premises until October 31, 1905, as full compensation for his services to, and expenditures for, his father. From that judgment the defendant, Michael Quinn, appeals.
John G. Conway, for respondents.
DODGE, J. (after stating the facts).
If either of the findings of the trial court, that Richard Quinn was mentally incompetent to execute the deed, or that his execution thereof was procured by undue influence of the appellant, is sustained, of course, the judgment setting aside that deed is correct. We might have much difficulty in reaching concurrence with the first of these findings; but, inasmuch as we have concluded that the latter cannot be reversed, we shall find it unnecessary to discuss any other question upon that branch of the case.
In this, as in so many others of this class of cases, there is no direct proof of the exertion of any influence or solicitation...
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Ball v. Bos (In re Ball's Estate)
...further. The case of Boyle v. Robinson, 129 Wis. 567, 109 N. W. 623, is to the same effect. In the still later case of Quinn v. Quinn, 130 Wis. 548, 110 N. W. 488, it was held that in case of a conveyance by an aged person, susceptible to undue influence, of his entire property without cons......
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Glojek v. Glojek
...v. Welch, 100 Wis. 24, 75 N.W. 400;Disch v. Timm, 101 Wis. 179, 77 N.W. 196;Shawvan v. Shawvan, 110 Wis. 590, 86 N.W. 165;Quinn v. Quinn, 130 Wis. 548, 110 N.W. 488. In the foregoing cases the right of heirs to maintain such an action was assumed without discussion. In all of them there wer......
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Kuehn v. Kuehn
...of confidence and trust which raises the presumption that the conveyances were induced by undue influence. See Quinn v. Quinn, 1907, 130 Wis. 548, 110 N.W. 488, and the cases discussed in Ball v. Boston, supra. The rule as stated in Restatement, 2 Contracts, p. 954, sec. 497, 'Where one par......