Scott v. Grinnell

• Decision Date: 31 May 1960
• Parties: Grace Edith SCOTT v. George H. GRINNELL, Ex'r.
• Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court

Page 179

161 A.2d 179

102 N.H. 490

Grace Edith SCOTT v. George H. GRINNELL, Ex'r.

Supreme Court of New Hampshire.

Argued April 5, 1960.

Decided May 31, 1960.

SYLLABUS BY THE COURT

1. Where the plaintiff alleged in an action of assumpsit that the decedent agreed to provide funds for her lifetime support if she would resign her position and care for and perform household services for the decedent and plaintiff's mother in their lifetimes, the alleged full performance by the plaintiff is sufficient to remove her claim from the provisions of the Uniform Sales Act (RSA 346:4) requiring contracts in excess of $500 value to be in writing.

2. The alleged promise by the decedent, in such case, to provide for the support of the plaintiff for her life "in the manner to which the decedent and plaintiff's mother were accustomed" was not so vague and indefinite as to be unenforceable where there was testimony that the decedent promised the plaintiff the income from his estate for her life, and the amount of the income could be readily established from his net estate.

3. A contract for support of the plaintiff made by the decedent in his lifetime must be found upon an express promise or inferred as a Conclusion of fact from the surrounding circumstances and the plaintiff has the burden of establishing it by clear and convincing proof.

4. An alleged promise by the decedent to provide lifetime support for the plaintiff was not satisfied as a matter of law by certain bequests and other provisions allegedly made for her by the decedent.

5. The rule which prevails in this state that confidential communications between attorney and client are privileged and protected from inquiry extends not only to oral communications but also to memoranda exchanged between them in the preparation of the client's will.

6. The privilege is that of the client, however, and can be waived by him in his lifetime and by his representatives after his decease.

7. In an action of assumpsit to recover on a promise allegedly made to the plaintiff by the decedent that he would provide for her lifetime support, the plaintiff would not be entitled to discovery of a prior will of the decedent, or any memoranda relating thereto, from the attorney who drafted the will because of their confidential and privileged nature.

8. However, disclosure by the testator of the contents of his will in plaintiff's favor to his wife for the intended purpose that she transmit the information to her daughter, the plaintiff, would render the husband-wife and attorney-client privileges inapplicable and the will subject to discovery.

9. So also, where it can be found that the plaintiff was present with the testator and was in a position to learn of the contents of his will or of communications between the testator and his attorney relative thereto the attorney-client privilege would be inapplicable to that extent.

10. Disclosure to the plaintiff by the executor-attorney who drafted the testator's will, and was an attesting witness thereto, of the contents of memoranda of conferences pertaining to it between himself and the testator renders the memoranda non-privileged.

11. Insofar as prior wills of the testator and memoranda pertaining thereto are not privileged their production may be ordered when found relevant as part of the surrounding circumstances in proof of an alleged agreement by the testator to provide lifetime support to the plaintiff or as writing sufficient to satisfy the requirements of the Uniform Sales Act (RSA 346:4).

Motions to dismiss and for discovery in an action of assumpsit brought by the plaintiff against the defendant as executor under the will of Ernest K. Ballard, late of Derry.

Plaintiff makes the following allegations in her declaration. Ernest K. Ballard was her stepfather and resided with her mother in Derry. For five years prior to 1950 plaintiff had been regularly employed as a school teacher in Concord. During the spring of they year her stepfather requested that she resign her position and live with and care for her mother and assist in the household duties during the remainer of her mother's life. If she would do so, he promised that 'he would, during his lifetime and the lifetime of plaintiff's mother, by sufficient payments of money, support and provide for plaintiff in the manner and style to which he and plaintiff's mother were accustomed, and that upon the death of the survivor of himself and plaintiff's mother, he would provide for payment to the plaintiff of a sum or sums of money sufficient to support plaintiff for the rest of her life in the manner and style to which he and plaintiff's mother had been accustomed.'

Plaintiff also alleges that in reliance upon these promises she accepted the offer made to her, left her teaching position and fully performed all the services which she agreed to perform. She further alleges that the deceased did not compensate her as he had promised to do during his lifetime and that of her mother 'nor did he pay plaintiff or provide that she be paid from the date of his death on June 8, 1956, a sum or sums of money sufficient to provide for her for the rest of her life in the manner and style to which he and her mother had been accustomed,' and seeks damages in the amount of One Hundred and Twenty-Five Thousand Dollars.

Defendant filed a motion to dismiss on, among others, the following grounds: No written memorandum of the alleged agreement now exists or has ever existed and therefore RSA 346:4 precludes its enforcement. Also 'the alleged agreement does not constitute an agreement upon which suit can be brought due to vagueness and uncertainty in that the alleged promises of the decedent were vague, indefinite, incapable of evaluation, and failed to indicate an intention on his part to be bound thereby.'

After taking the deposition of the defendant executor, plaintiff filed a motion for discovery of certain documents which defendant had refused to produce at that time claiming that they were privileged and not relevant to the issues. The documents sought are office copies of any and all prior wills of deceased and related memoranda of conferences pertaining thereto and memoranda of conferences pertaining to his last will.

The Court, Grant, J., transferred without ruling all question of law raised by defendant's motion to dismiss as well as the question of law whether plaintiff's motion for discovery may be granted either in whole or in part.

Upton, Sanders & Upton, Richard F. Upton, Concord, for plaintiff.

Sheehan, Phinney, Bass, Green & Bergevin and Kimon S. Zachos, Manchester, for defendant.

LAMPRON, Justice.

The plaintiff admits that the promises made to her by the decedent were oral, unless the documentary evidence in the possession of the executor and sought by her motion for discovery contains written confirmation of such promises. It is also conceded that decedent's estate consists only of personal property of a value in excess of $500 so that plaintiff's action is governed by the provisions of RSA 346:4. 'A contract to will personalty of a greater value than $500 must be in writing unless there has been such payment as removes the case from the provisions of the uniform sales act.' Boyle v. Dudley, 87 N.H. 282, 288, 179 A. 11, 15. Sparks, Contracts to Make Wills, 41, 42.

Plaintiff alleges in her declaration that she left her teaching employment in Concord at the request of the decedent and moved to the farm in Derry and has 'faith-fully and fully performed the services requested by said Ernest K. Ballard by living with and caring for her mother and performing all household and other duties requested of her.' She maintains her performance is such as would take the case out of the operation of section 4 of the Uniform Sales Act.

It is contended by the defendant that to exempt the agreement from the provisions of said section 4 plaintiff's performance must be referable solely to the contract sought to be established and enforced and must be explicable on no other reasonable theory. Bunton v. Smith, 40 N.H. 352; Abbott v. Baldwin, 61 N.H. 583. He further argues that 'plaintiff's conduct is more convincingly, and more creditably to her, attributable to her filial loyalty and concern for her mother.' However we cannot say as a matter of law that plaintiff's alleged performance was not of the character required to remove her claim from the provisions of RSA 346:4. Knox v. Perkins, 86 N.H. 66, 69, 163 A. 497; Boyle v. Dudley, supra.

Another ground for dismissal of plaintiff's action advanced by defendant is that the alleged promise to provide for the support of the plaintiff for life 'in the manner and style to which [decedent] and plaintiff's mother were accustomed' is too indefinite and vague to be the basis for a binding obligation. In a deposition made a part of this record, plaintiff testified that deceased promised 'that I would have the...