Reichert v. Wilhelm

• Decision Date: 17 October 1891
• Citation: 83 Iowa 510,50 N.W. 19
• Parties: REICHERT ET AL. v. WILHELM ET AL., (TWO CASES.)
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

83 Iowa 510

50 N.W. 19

REICHERT ET AL.

v.WILHELM ET AL., (TWO CASES.)

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Oct. 17, 1891.

Appeal from district court, Cedar county; J. D. GIFFIN, Judge.

Action in equity by the creditors of the estate of B. Wilhelm, deceased, against Mary J. Wilhelm, his widow, and O. O. Wilhelm, his son. The relief sought is the setting aside of certain alleged conveyances of land by the deceased to the defendants, and subjecting the property to the payment of the claims of the plaintiffs. There were decrees for the plaintiffs, and defendants appeal.Wheeler & Moffitt, for appellants.

Wolf & Hanley, W. N. Treichler, and E. M. Brink, for appellees.

ROTHROCK, J.

The two causes have been submitted to us upon the same abstracts and arguments, and both will be disposed of in one opinion. The actions, being in equity, are triable anew in this court, and are to be determined upon the preponderance of the evidence, and the equitable rights of the parties arising therein. B. Wilhelm died intestate on the 19th day of May, 1888. His estate was insolvent. The valid claims against the estate amounted to about $2,000. The greater part of this sum will be lost to the creditors if the land in controversy should be held to be the property of the widow and son, who are defendants in these actions. There is no dispute that B. Wilhelm was the owner of the land until about July 27, 1887. The defendants claim that on that day B. Wilhelm executed two deeds of the land, which conveyed to them each an undivided half of the same, and that said deeds were made for a valuable and full consideration. It is claimed in behalf of the creditors that these deeds were never delivered to the defendants by B. Wilhelm, nor by any one for him. The undisputed fact is that when he died the deeds were found in his dwelling-house in a box where his private papers had been kept for many years. The box belonged to the deceased, and he had control of it. There was no lock and key to it, and the defendants had access to it, and it was also used by O. O. Wilhelm as a place of deposit of his private papers. Some three days after the death of B. Wilhelm the defendant O. O. Wilhelm took these deeds from the box, and filed them for record in the county recorder's office. The defendants both testified to certain facts which transpired at about the time of the date of the deeds, which tend in some degree to show an actual delivery. They state, or perhaps it is more accurate to say,...