Williams v. Woodruff

• Decision Date: 04 December 1905
• Citation: 35 Colo. 28,85 P. 90
• Parties: WILLIAMS v. WOODRUFF.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

85 P. 90

35 Colo. 28

WILLIAMS v. WOODRUFF.

Supreme Court of Colorado

December 4, 1905

Rehearing Denied Feb. 5, 1906.

Appeal from District Court, Las Animas County; Jesse G. Northcutt Judge.

Action by Elizabeth L. Williams against Thomas T. Woodruff. From a judgment in favor of plaintiff, defendant appeals. Reversed.

James M. Rice made his last will and testament, wherein, after providing for the payment of his funeral expenses and debts he devised to each of his six nephews and to his niece Mary the sum of $500. The will then provides that, after deducting the abovenamed bequests, the balance of all his property shall be divided into four equal shares, for the benefit of his three sisters, Joanna E. Wallace, Sarah B. French, and Eleanor D. Rice, and his niece Elizabeth L. Rice--one share to each of the four named. 'The amounts of the said bequests to be severally invested by the executors of my will, and the interest to be paid to the said beneficiaries semiannually for ten (10) years from the time of my death. And then the principal amounts to be severally paid over to them.' Provision is then made for the appointment of Joanna E. Wallace, Thomas T. Woodruff, of Quincy, Ill., and William B. Collins, of Keokuk, Iowa, as executors of the will. James M. Rice died about the 5th day of December, 1879. Joanna E. Wallace and William B. Collins declined to act as executors of the will in the state of Colorado. Woodruff then resided at Quincy, Ill., where also lived Mrs. Wallace, with whom Eleanor D. Rice (now Walker) and plaintiff, Elizabeth L Rice (now Williams) resided. Shortly after the death of Rice Mrs. Wallace had defendant, Woodruff, call at her residence in Quincy, and informed him that he was named as one of the executors of the will; that she and the other executor did not care to accept the executorship; and that it was desired that Mr. Woodruff come to Colorado and administer the estate. This he did. He came to Colorado, was duly appointed executor by the court, administered the estate, made his final settlement, and was discharged in the month of August, 1881. At the close of the administration it was found that the estate would pay but 52 cents upon the dollar of the claims allowed against it; the remaining 48 per cent. of such indebtedness and the specific legacies still remaining unpaid. Without attempting to describe the real estate of the decedent, it may be classified as follows: Incumbered property, unincumbered property, and certain property of which he was the owner of an undivided one-half; the other half being owned by Edward C. Smith, upon whose interest Rice held a deed of trust to secure the payment of a promissory note for $1,450. Of the incumbered property one portion was mortgaged to N. P. Hill. After the letters testamentary were issued, and previous to the closing of the estate, Hill foreclosed his deed of trust, and the property was purchased by one J. M. John, as the agent of Woodruff. The note secured by the other deed of trust was held by John. He proceeded to foreclose. Just previous to the date of sale Woodruff purchased the note, and John, at Woodruff's instance purchased the property at trustee's sale. It is not quite clear whether John purchased this property in his own right, and subsequently sold Woodruff a half interest therein, or whether he purchased it as an agent of Woodruff, and subsequently purchased a half interest therein. However, this is immaterial, as we view the case. Mrs. Wallace, the sister of Rice, was one of the heaviest creditors of the estate, and, when it became necessary to sell the unincumbered real estate at administrator's sale, she purchased it at Woodruff's suggestion. The administrator's deed went to Mrs. Wallace; Mr. Woodruff supplying the money to make the purchase. She immediately executed a deed to the same property to T. D. Woodruff, brother of defendant, and T. D. Woodruff executed his bond for a deed, wherein he agreed to reconvey this property upon payment of the advances made by defendant. At the time of the death of Rice the interest upon the Smith note had not been paid for several years. Smith was dead, having died insolvent. The county court of Las Animas county, in which the estate of Rice was being administered, made an order authorizing the administrator to sell the Smith note for a sum not less than $1,450. T. D. Woodruff purchased this note, with money advanced by defendant, for the sum of $2,000. This deed of trust was defective, because no trustee was named. There was a second deed of trust held by the relatives of Smith. T. D. Woodruff purchased the second deed of trust, foreclosed it, purchased the property at the sale, and obtained a quitclaim deed from the Smith heirs. In 1885, defendant purchased from Mrs. Wallace, for the sum of $5,000, all of the lands which she had purchased from the Rice estate and which had not theretofore been sold. She had, previous to this time, discharged her indebtedness to defendant on account of the money advanced for the purchase price of said land; Woodruff giving to her his notes for the $5,000, and securing their payment by an assignment of a life insurance policy. Joel M. Rice, the father of James M. Rice, died in Iowa shortly before the latter died in Colorado. Decedent also left estates in Iowa and Illinois. Mrs. Wallace was appointed as the administratrix of the estate of Joel M. Rice. Defendant, Woodruff, and William B. Collins declined to act as executors of the estate of James M. Rice in Iowa and Illinois, and Mrs. Wallace was appointed sole executrix of the will in those two states. The estate of Joel M. Rice obtained a judgment against the estate of James M. Rice for the sum of $12,000. The estates of James M. Rice in Iowa and Illinois proved insolvent. Plaintiff, Williams, Was served, personally and by mail, with certain processes issued from the courts in each of those states, and in one instance filed her answer to a petition to sell real estate belonging to the estate of James M. Rice. There is no evidence which shows that defendant at any time communicated to plaintiff, Williams, the condition of the estate in Colorado, although he says that he is under the impression that she was present at some of the conversations between Mrs. Wallace and himself. There is no evidence to show that he concealed or attempted to conceal any of his actions concerning the estate here from Mrs. Wallace or any of the other heirs or creditors.

This action was instituted by plaintiff, Williams, and her aunt Mrs. French, upon the 4th day of December, 1894. Defendant demurred to the complaint; the demurrer was sustained; plaintiffs brought the matter to this court; the decision of the district court was reversed, and defendant was held to answer. A composition or settlement was made between plaintiff French and defendant, and the action was dismissed so far as Mrs. French was concerned. The action then went back, to result in a judgment that plaintiff, Williams, was entitled to one-fourth of all the real estate described in the judgment, being the lands then owned by Thomas T. Woodruff which had at one time been the property of James M. Rice or the property of Smith, embraced in the deed of trust to Rice; and for the sum of $48,244.60, being one-fourth of the rents and profits collected by defendant from said property. Defendant acquired title to all the lands which had at one time been the property of decedent, Rice, either by deeds direct from Mr. John, T. Dewey Woodruff, or from Mr. Wallace, less such portions as had been sold at administrator's sale, or by the parties above named to other individuals. So that in 1885 Woodruff had the record title to all of such property, with the exceptions above noted. Much of this property was situate in or near the town of La Junta, which, at the time of the close of the administration, was a hamlet struggling for existence. Subsequently a railroad built some shops and hospitals there, and made it the end of the division, causing it to be a somewhat prosperous railroad town. It also became the county seat of Otero county. During the period between the time when Woodruff obtained the deeds to this property, and the commencement of this action, for the purpose of increasing the value of the La Junta property, he donated to the town of La Junta about $18,000 for a public library, and about $2,000 to the public schools. He also constructed a public drinking fountain upon a portion of the property, and devoted some money toward the creation of a park in front of part of this property. At Trinidad he expended $5,467 for a public library, founded a kindergarden, and devoted some money to railroad surveys. All of which was done for the purpose of promoting the welfare of the towns, and incidentally increasing the value of this property. The money so expended amounted to upwards of $28,000. In the accounting which was had in this case no allowance was made to defendant for any of these expenditures. In addition to this outlay of money, the defendant improved the property by extensive buildings, one of which cost upwards of $16,000, and others less amounts. The defendant devoted practically all of his time from 1882 until 1902 to the promotion, welfare, and development of the communities in which this property was situate. At the time of the death of Mr. Rice, plaintiff, Williams, was 22 years of age. She was residing with her aunt, Mrs. Wallace, and continued to reside there until her marriage to Mr. Williams in February, 1882. Soon after the death of Mr. Rice, Mrs Williams learned that he had left an estate. About a month after his death she learned that she was one of the devisees, and that Thomas T. Woodruff was named as one of the executors. She knew that Woodruff had gone to...