Stephens v. Collison

• Decision Date: 28 October 1924
• Docket Number: No. 14468.,14468.
• Citation: 145 N.E. 81,313 Ill. 365
• Parties: STEPHENS v. COLLISON et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

313 Ill. 365

145 N.E. 81

STEPHENS

v.COLLISON et al.

No. 14468.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Oct. 28, 1924.

Bill by Nancy Stephens against Emma B. Collison and others, in which defendant Joe Martin filed a cross-bill. Decree for cross-complainant, and cross-defendants appeal.

Reversed and remanded.

See, also, 249 Ill. 225, 94 N. E. 664, and 274 Ill. 389, 113 N. E. 691, Ann. Cas. 1918D, 559.Appeal from Circuit Court, Ford County; Stevens R. Baker, judge.

Schneider & Schneider, of Paxton, for appellants.

Dobbins & Dobbins, of Champaign, and Frank M. Thompson, of Paxton, for appellee.

DUNCAN, C. J.

Josephus Martin, of Paxton, Ill., in his lifetime owned 1,600 or 1,700 acres of land in Champaign county. He was also possessed of personal property of the value of $50,000 or more. Previous to his death he had attempted to dispose of all of his property by will and by deeds to be delivered after his death. His first wife, who was the mother of his children, died about 1894. He later married his second wife, with whom he made an antenuptial contract, and in his will he specifically provided, in substance, that this antenuptial contract be carried out by his executors, and that she was to have all that was given her by that contract except what she had waived by agreement and had joined him in a conveyance of the same, and that she was to have nothing more. He died January 6, 1909, leaving surviving him his second wife, Hannah J. Martin, his widow; Josephus W. Martin, his only son, herein referred to as Joe Martin; Emma B. Collison, intermarried with Fred E. Collison, Mary E. Collison, intermarried with Harry Collison, and Nancy Stephens, his daughters; and Effie Ireland, Walter Karr, Edna Duncan, and Charles Karr, children of Dora Karr, his deceased daughter, who had intermarried with G. W. Karr, as his only heirs at law. His will, in which he named his sons-in-law Fred Collison and G. W. Karr as executors, was executed June 11, 1906, and was probated in Ford county on February 1, 1909. The executors named in the will qualified as such and undertook the administration of the estate.

On January 24, 1910, Nancy Stephens filed a bill in chancery in the circuit court of Ford county to set aside a certain agreement and lease made between her and the executors of the will of her father, Josephus Martin, and his heirs and other devisees; to contest the will of Josephus and set aside certain deeds made by him to his other children and to his grandchildren in his lifetime; and to partition the lands of the testator and grantor among his heirs. The court sustained certain demurrers to her bill and dismissed it for want of equity. On appeal this court reversed the decree and remanded the cause, with directions to overrule the demurrers. Stephens v. Collison, 492 Ill. 225, 94 N. E. 664. The cause was reinstated in the lower court and Nancy Stephens amended her bill. On a hearing of the cause the court dismissed the amended bill for want of equity. The second decree of the court was reviewed by this court on appeal and reversed for error in excluding certain testimony. Stephens v. Collison, 256 Ill. 238, 99 N. E. 914. On remandment of the cause the executors of the deceased testator filed a petition in the lower court asking for authority to settle the controversies among the heirs and devisees according to a proposition made by Nancy Stephens. Joe Martin, son of the testator, filed objections to this proposed settlement. The court overruled his objections and entered a decree directing the executors to accept the proposed settlement and ordered conveyances in accordance with the terms thereof. This court reviewed that decree on a writ of error prosecuted by Joe Martin, held that the will gave no authority to the executors or to the court to authorize or order the compromise and settlement, and reversed the decree and remanded the cause. Stephens v. Collison, 274 Ill. 389, 113 N. E. 691, Ann. Cas. 1918D, 559.We refer to all of the foregoing decisions of this court, and particularly to the first and second, for full statements of the facts in controversy at those times.

After the third remandment of the cause by this court the remanding order was filed in the cause in the circuit court by Joe Martin, and on April 27, 1917, he filed a cross-bill. On July 7, 1920, after his evidence was partly taken, he filed an amendment to his cross-bill. To the cross-bill as amended he made defendants Emma B. Collison (now Emma B. Tucker), Mary E. Collison, Walter Karr, Edna Duncan, Charles Karr, G. W. Karr, as executor of the will of Josephus Martin, Dora B. Ireland, a minor and sole heir of Effie Ireland, deceased, and Lee J. Ireland, surviving husband of Effie Ireland and guardian ad litem of Dora. Fred E. Collison and the testator's widow died pending the litigation in this court. The prayer of the cross-bill is for the specific performance of a certain contract between Josephus Martin and Joe Martin, alleged to have been made several years prior to September 24, 1902, while Joe was employed in the stockyards at Chicago-an occupation very objectionable to his father and mother, who were then living. The cross-bill alleges that the contract was to the effect that if Joe would give up his home and occupation in Chicago and would remove to the home farm of Josephus and reside thereon, cultivate, drain, and improve the same as his own and become a farmer, he (Josephus) would deed the home farm in fee to Joe, containing about 408 acres and located in the town of Kerr, county of Champaign, Ill. Three other alternate reliefs were prayed in the event that specific performance of the contract was not decreed: First, that a certain deed alleged to have been prepared and signed by Josephus and wife to Joe on or about the 2d day of October, 1902, conveying in fee the premises described as the home farm, may be restored and held to have been delivered and in full force, which the cross-bill alleged was placed in the hands of Fred Collison for delivery, together with other deeds of similar character and of the same date prepared and signed by Josephus and wife, one to Emma B. Collison for 320 acres, one to Mary E. Collison for 339.20 acres, one to Effie Karr (later Effie Ireland), Walter Karr, Charles Karr, and Edna Karr (now Edna Duncan), conveying to them 249 acres, and one to Nancy Stephens conveying certain other land. Second, that the deeds to Emma B. Collison, Mary E. Collison, and the four Karr children, executed in October, 1902, may be canceled and held for naught; also, that a deed executed June 11, 1906, by Josephus and wife to Joe for his natural life, etc., may be canceled. Third, that the last-mentioned deed to Joe for life, etc., may be corrected and construed to convey to Joe a fee-simple title to the premises therein described, that the provisions therein with reference to the grantees of the remainder be canceled and held for naught, and for other relief. Among other things, it was alleged in the cross-bill that Josephus was on June 11, 1906, of unsound mind and not of disposing memory, was in his dotage and in ill health, and was incapable of making any just and proper distribution of his estate or of making voluntary deeds of conveyance of his property, especially where he was subjected to the undue influence and control of those in whom he had reposed confidence. It was further alleged, in substance, that a confidential relation existed between him and his son-in-law Fred Collison, who was a brother of Harry Collison; that Fred Collison took advantage of this confidential relation for the purpose of getting the best part of the estate of Josephus to be conveyed and willed to Fred's wife and his brother's wife; that by undue influence he caused Josephus and his wife, on June 11, 1906, to execute the deed to Joe conveying to him only a life estate and caused him to dispose of the remainder in fee so that it would ultimately go to Emma B. Collison, his wife, Mary E. Collison, and the four Karr children; that he caused him to execute the will disposing of the remainder of his property not already conveyed, in a manner favorable to Emma B. and Mary E. Collison; that he caused the former deed executed by Josephus and wife in October, 1902, to Joe in fee to not be delivered, as his father had intended it to be; that it was at all times the intention of Josephus to convey to Joe the home farm in fee and to dispose of the remainder of his real property equally among his other children and grandchildren up to and until the date aforesaid, when he was unduly influenced by Fred Collison.

On the final hearing the court decreed specific performance of the alleged contract between Josephus Martin and Joe Martin as prayed in the cross-bill and canceled all the provisions in the deed conveying to Joe a life estate, in so far as the same purported to convey any interest in the home farm of the deceased to the heirs of the body of Joe, or to Mary E. Collison, Emma B. Collison, or the four Karr children, as a cloud on his title. The court specifically found that inasmuch as it had decreed specific performance of the alleged contract and had set aside all parts of the deed which were inconsistent with the contract that Joe was to have a deed in fee, it was unnecessary for it to determine whether the deed was secured by undue influence or whether Josephus was at the time of the execution of the same of sufficiently sound mind and memory to execute the same, or whether or not Fred Collison occupied a fiduciary relation to Josephus on the day when the deed and will were executed, and also that it was immaterial what construction should be given to the deed to Joe purporting to convey to him a life estate only. All the cross-defendants have appealed from the decree of the court.

The answer of appellants made specific denial of the contract set forth in the cross-bill. It also set up the statute of frauds as a defense. Whatever contract or...