Stevens v. Stevens

• Decision Date: 27 October 1900
• Docket Number: 425
• Citation: 62 P. 714,10 Kan.App. 259
• Parties: JENNIE O. STEVENS v. WILLIAM STEVENS AND SUSIE E. STEVENS, his Wife, AND BERNARD POLLMAN
• Court: Kansas Court of Appeals

62 P. 714

10 Kan.App. 259

JENNIE O. STEVENS v. WILLIAM STEVENS AND SUSIE E. STEVENS, his Wife, AND BERNARD POLLMAN

No. 425

Court of Appeals of Kansas

October 27, 1900

Decided October, 1900.

Error from Wyandotte district court; H. L. ALDEN, judge.

Judgment of district court affirmed.

SYLLABUS

FRAUD -- Action to Set Aside Deed -- Evidence. Where a deed is made by one who is weak in body and mind, for a grossly inadequate consideration, to a person who sustains a parental relation to the grantor, proof of intimidation misrepresentation and fraud leading toward the execution thereof is sufficient to justify a district court in setting said deed aside.

Nathan Cree, and George W. Littick, for plaintiff in error.

True & Sims, for defendants in error.

OPINION

WELLS, J.:

This action was brought in the district court by the defendants in error William Stevens and Susie E. Stevens, husband and wife against the plaintiff in error, Jennie O. Stevens, to set aside a deed to certain real estate and to partition the same. Bernard Pollman, the other defendant in error, held a mortgage upon the property in dispute, but he makes no appearance in this court and it is not necessary to make further mention of him. Upon the trial, the court found that the deed made by the defendants in error to the plaintiff in error was obtained for a grossly inadequate consideration, by means of undue influence and false and fraudulent statements and representations, and the same was set aside and a partition of the property ordered, to reverse which these proceedings in error are prosecuted. The history of the transaction out of which this controversy arose is substantially as follows: Colver Stevens died January 11, 1898, the owner of the property in controversy worth about $ 3250, upon which there was a mortgage lien of $ 1050, leaving as his sole heirs his wife, Jennie O. Stevens, and a son, William Stevens, aged nearly twenty-two years, who was a stepson of the plaintiff in error, and had been reared by her ever since he was about three years of age. Upon the return of the stepmother and son from a funeral trip to Maine of nearly a month's duration, the son was married to the defendant in error Susie E. Stevens, but continued to reside with his stepmother. Three days after the wedding he was taken very sick and tried to kill himself. He was sick about a month before he was able to get up, but he was yet weak in body...