Ridler v. Ridler

• Decision Date: 22 January 1895
• Citation: 61 N.W. 994,93 Iowa 347
• Parties: RIDLER v. RIDLER.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

93 Iowa 347

61 N.W. 994

RIDLER

v.RIDLER.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Jan. 22, 1895.

Appeal from district court, Dubuque county; J. L. Husted, Judge.

Proceeding in probate to establish a claim for services against the estate of George Ridler, deceased. A jury was impaneled, and evidence for the plaintiff was submitted. At the close of her testimony, the court directed a verdict for the defendant, on his motion, and rendered judgment against the plaintiff for costs. She appeals. Reversed.R. W. Stewart, for appellant.

Longuville & McCarthy, for appellee.

ROBINSON, J.

The plaintiff is the daughter of the decedent. She seeks to recover the value of her services as nurse and servant, alleged to have been rendered her father during the five years next preceding his death, on his verbal agreement to pay her their reasonable value. The grounds for a motion for a verdict are stated as follows: “First, because there is no evidence tending to show any contract of hire between the claimant and the deceased, and no evidence tending to show that the deceased had at any time agreed to pay claimant for her services other than as an heir at law out of the estate; second, because the testimony fails to show the amount due on the claim of the claimant, or any amount; third, because the testimony fails to establish the claim of the claimant at all, and there is absolute absence of evidence to entitle her to recover; fourth, because the evidence fails to show that the services rendered have not been paid for, and because the whole evidence is not sufficient to sustain a verdict in favor of the claimant, if one should be rendered.”

1. There was evidence from which the jury might have found that facts were established by competent evidence as follows: The plaintiff attended school in Galena, Ill., before the year 1885, for the purpose of preparing herself to do work as a bookkeeper. In the spring of 1885 she was offered a place as bookkeeper in Galena, which she desired to accept. At that time she was about 23 years of age. Her father had been unable to take care of himself for years, was about 77 years of age, and required attention in the daytime and at night. The mother was also quite old, although younger than the father, and had been crippled for some years, and was unable to give her husband the attention he needed. These two people lived alone in Dubuque. The father had been married twice, and had six children by his first wife, and two, the plaintiff and a sister (known in the record as Mrs. J. C. Thompson), by the second wife. All the children but the plaintiff were married and had families. Under these circumstances, the plaintiff returned to her father's house, at his solicitation, in the spring of the year 1885, and continued to live there until January, 1892, when her father died. During that time she rendered arduous services for her parents as housekeeper and nurse, and received nothing for compensation for what she did excepting a few dollars each year, which she obtained from poultry. The amount so realized was scarcely sufficient to clothe her. If the facts were as the evidence for the plaintiff tends to show them to be, her claims are of the highest merit, and justice demands that she be liberally compensated for her services. It is said that the evidence fails to show any agreement by which the father became liable to pay the plaintiff anything, and that the presumption is that they were rendered as a member of the family, without any agreement for or expectation of reward. The...