White v. McGuffin

• Decision Date: 16 June 1922
• Docket Number: No. 22509.,22509.
• Citation: 246 S.W. 226
• Parties: WHITE at al. v. McGUFFIN et al.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

246 S.W. 226

WHITE at al. v. McGUFFIN et al.

No. 22509.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 1.

June 16, 1922.

Motion for Rehearing Overruled December 18, 1922.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Lawrence County; Charles L. Henson, Judge.

Suit by Joe R White and others against J. B. McGuffin, executor, and others. Judgment

for complainants, and defendants appeal. Reversed.

I. V. McPherson and James A. Potter, both of Aurora (Carr McNutt, of Aurora, of counsel), for appellants.

H. H. Bloss, of Aurora, for respondents.

RAGLAND, C.

This is a bill in equity brought by the collateral heirs of George W. Rinker, deceased, to set aside the deeds whereby he conveyed certain real estate, through a conduit, to himself and his wife, Margaret L. Rinker, to be held by them by the entirety, and which she afterwards took as the survivor. As grounds for the relief sought, it is alleged that the conveyance "was brought about by the undue influence, fraud and coercion, practiced on said George W. Rinker by the said Margaret L. Rinker." There is no evidence of fraud; the sole question for determination is whether the conveyance was procured through undue influence.

George W. Rinker was married twice. His first wife, Mary L. Rinker, died in the year 1911. He was married to Margaret, his second wife, in November, 1914. She was a widow, 72 years of age; he about 76. He died August 30, 1918, and she survived him but little more than a year.

Judge Rinker, as he was called, resided at the time of his death at Aurora. For many years he had been a prominent and influential citizen of Lawrence county. He had served as county clerk, and possibly as judge of the county court or judge of the probate court. In the affairs of his church:Le had been particularly active. He founded the Presbyterian Church at Aurora in 1865 and continued as a charter member and a charter elder of the organization down to 1913. For half a century he dominated its activities.

His first wife, with whom he lived something like 50 years, was a Byker. Her family, it seems, was socially prominent; in any event, various members of it were active and influential in the Presbyterian Church He had no children, but he and his wife reared an orphaned niece of his. After the latter's marriage she continued, with her husband, to make her home with her foster parents. Dying, she left a baby boy, Rinker Barrett, whom Judge Rinker and his wife also reared. After his wife's death a grandniece and her husband lived with Judge Rinker and kept house for him. Rinker Barrett, not yet of age, continued to be a member of the household.

At the time of his second marriage, Judge Rinker owned a brick building in Aurora which he was renting for office and mercantile purposes. He also owned nine acres of land, in or adjoining the city, on which his " residence stood. The land was also devoted in part to mining. These properties were worth something like $6,000 each. In addition to these, he also owned a life estate in 120 acres of land near Aurora. This last he acquired under the will of his first wife. The will provided that he should have the residuary estate, of which the land last mentioned was a part, for and during his natural life, "with the absolute right to use and enjoy the same." It further provided that all of her estate remaining at his death should be converted into cash and the proceeds distributed as follows:

"To Rinker R. Barrett the sum of twelve hundred dollars; to my great-niece, Mary Ryker, daughter of George W. Ryker, two hundred dollars; to my brothers, W. J. Ryker, Abram W. Ryker and John M. Ryker, respectively, the sum of one hundred dollars each; and to my nephews, George W. Ryker and William J. Ryker, one hundred dollars each."

The 120 acres of land was incumbered with a mortgage, and some time in the early part of 1918—January or February, possibly—it was sold under foreclosure and bought in by Judge Rinker, he thereby acquiring the fee.

In the latter part of 1915 Judge Rinker made a will. The evidence does not show definitely what its provisions were. One of the subscribing witnesses who heard it read at the time of its execution testified:

"I couldn't give you the date. It was in the year 1915, after the judge was married to Margaret L. Rinker. Yes, sir; I was called by M. B. Gardner to go with him to the judge's home to witness the will, and I heard the will read to Judge Rinker by Mr. Gardner and I signed the will as a witness.

"He gave the home place, this 9 acres there in town, to Rinker Barrett, and 40 acres to George Ryker, and the building downtown and the 80 acres, after all his debts were paid, were to go to Mrs. Margaret Rinker for her lifetime. After that it was to revert to the Rinker heirs or relatives."

McGultn, an attorney who prepared the deeds in controversy, heard it read in part by Rinker in the latter part of May, 1918. He testified:

"I remember that several of the Rykers were named as legatees, and that Rinker Barrett was a beneficiary. I think Rinker Barrett was willed the home place. I don't know who wrote the will. I don't think the judge said. He simply said that he was dissatisfied with the will, and he wanted to read it to me, and explained why he wrote it as he did; that he wrote it to conform to the will of his first wife, and to pay some of the bequests that she had made in her will; that she had willed him this 120 acres of land, provided he needed it during his lifetime: and that he had since bought it in."

With respect to what occurred at the time he was directed to prepare the deeds now sought to be set aside, McGuffin further testified:

"The latter part of May, 1918, the judge sent for me. * * * I went to his house, and that was, I believe, the first time I was ever in his house. * * * No one else was in the. room when I went there. Later his wife appeared. * * * The judge was in bed, propped up. Yes, sir; I think he was dressed. I sat down, and the judge talked with me a few minutes, and then, taking a paper, he says: `This is my will, and I am not satisfied with it, and I sent for you with a view of making some changes in it.' I just simply listened to him, and he said he wanted foe to write his will. I never had the will in my hands. He read it himself. and after reading his will he says, `Now I am about to make a trade with C. P. Albright, and if I make that deal I am expecting to make with Albright, I will have enough money to pay all the legatees named in this will, and while I don't think I am legally owing them anything, * * * he felt that he was under some moral obligation to them, and if he sold— this deal he was on, the deal with Mr. Albright —he was going to have enough money to pay off all the obligations he had outstanding, and if he did that he would probably have a little left. * * *

"The sums that the judge was going to pay out in case he made the sale, I think, were to the legatees in his will. He said that he had made a will that was intended to cover the legacies and bequests that had been made by his wife and that he had assumed it in this will that he had written. He said that he would have enough money to pay off all these legacies and all his debts. He said that he owed his wife, his present wife, a thousand dollars; that he would have enough to pay her. Then he told me that, if he did, he wanted me to prepare about a dozen receipts from the parties that he paid the moneys to, and I afterwards prepared about a dozen. In this conversation he told me that after making these payments that he wanted his property all to go to his wife, if she outlived him.

"He said that she was so good to him, and cared for him like a baby, and he felt that if she outlived him he would like to give the property to her absolutely. Then I suggested to him—I suppose that he intended to write a new will, and I think he did. He didn't say so, but he talked as though he intended to write a new will. Then it was I that suggested that if he felt that way about it, that the things that he wanted to accomplish could be done by a joint deed. I suggested this to him, and after discussing how the joint deed to him And his wife, and to the survivor might be made, he deliberated on that a few minutes, and talked about it, and said, `Well, that is exactly the way I want to fix it.' Then he called his wife, and she didn't respond. He asked me to go to the door and call her in. She was in the kitchen. Mrs. Rinker's hearing was not good. I went to the door and called her, and she came in, and the judge told her what he had decided to do, and he said: `Now Maggie, if I fix it that way you won't have to go into the probate court if I should die; the property will be yours.' Then I suggested that if she should die first it would still be the judge's, of course. And she said, 'Well, I've got a little property, and what is the matter with me putting my property in too,' and I said: `No reason in the world; you can or not if you want to: So then the judge asked her to look in his desk and get some papers and hand them to me, which she did. He told her where the papers were located in the desk. One was, I think, an abstract, and another some deeds, and from them I took a, memorandum of the property. Then I asked Mrs. Rinker what property she owned. I didn't know that she owned any, and she said that she owned some land near Marionville. I asked her for the description of her property and she couldn't give it. After looking around, she said that she had found tax receipts and asked me if that would do, and I told her that I thought it would, and I made a memorandum from the tax receipts of her property. I then went to my office and prepared the deeds. * * *

"I asked him to whom should I make it, and he said, `Anybody that would be proper.' He said C. P. Albright would probably be a good man. We were talking about the middle for the property, but he said anybody would be all right. Mr. Albright wasn't there that day when I went...