Youtsey v. Hollingsworth

• Decision Date: 01 June 1915
• Docket Number: No. 17109.,17109.
• Citation: 178 S.W. 105
• Parties: YOUTSEY v. HOLLINGSWORTH et al.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

178 S.W. 105

YOUTSEY v. HOLLINGSWORTH et al.

No. 17109.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 1.

June 1, 1915.

Rehearing Denied June 30, 1915.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Jasper County; David E. Blair, Judge.

Suit by Mary A. Youtsey against Christina M. Hollingsworth and another to cancel two deeds to real estate. Decree for defendants, and plaintiff appeals. Reversed and remanded, with directions to enter judgment for the plaintiff.

H. T. Harrison and J. D. Harris, both of Carthage, for appellant. Thomas & Hackney, of Carthage, for respondents.

BROWN, C.

This is a suit instituted November 2, 1911, to set aside two deeds made by the plaintiff July 14, 1911, to the defendant Christina M. Hollingsworth whose husband, Elliott Hollingsworth, is impleaded with her as codefendant. One of these deeds conveys a tract of timber land of 30 acres and a tract of 35 acres under cultivation, while the other conveys a lot and house thereon in the city of Carthage. All the land is in Jasper county.' The petition alleges, as grounds for the relief asked, mental and physical weakness and incompetency on the part of the plaintiff, and undue influence amounting to mental coercion by the defendant grantee in procuring the execution of the deeds. No question is made upon the sufficiency of the pleadings to completely cover the case made by the evidence, and it is therefore not necessary to set them out.

The plaintiff, at the time of the execution of the deeds in question was about 75 years old, and very feeble. According to undisputed medical testimony there were indications that she had suffered from partial paralysis, indicated by unsteady gait, dizziness, constant headache, defective memory and congestion of the brain apparently due to arterial sclerosis, interfering with proper circulation. The medical witness who had examined and visited her during the period from August 28th to September 29, 1911, characterized her condition generally as senility or senile debility. Her husband had been dead about 15 years, having left two children—the defendant Christina, who at the time of the transactions in issue here was 48 years old, and a son, John, two years younger, who was unmarried, and with whom the plaintiff had lived during her widowhood. After the death of the husband and father the widow and children divided the property left by him between them according to their legal rights, and the part taken by the widow has proven to be a bone of contention, out of which this contest has grown. On June 22, 1911, the plaintiff conveyed to her son an 80 acres of land owned by her in Jasper county, taking a conveyance from him at the same time of 35 acres, which seems to be the little farm involved in this suit. Mrs. Hollingsworth lived with her husband at Reeds in Jasper county, where he was engaged in the mercantile business, while plaintiff and her son lived in the house in Carthage, which she had acquired from the proceeds of property left her by her husband. On July 12, 1911, Mrs. Hollingsworth went to Carthage to visit her mother, and it was out of this visit that the execution of these deeds seems to have grown. Mrs. Hollingsworth, in her testimony, relates these proceedings substantially as follows: She came to Carthage with her son on the 12th, and during their talk before dinner the mother said to her: "Tena, I am going out to your place in a few days to make you equal with John." Mrs. Hollingsworth then went downtown to do some shopping, and when she returned her mother had prepared the dinner, and John had eaten and gone back to his store. He had already ordered a cab, and her mother said to her that she had decided to go over to Reeds that same afternoon and talk with Mr. Davis (a banker with whom Mr. Hollingsworth transacted his business) on that subject. They took the train and, arrived at Reeds, they walked to a store from which Mrs. Hollingsworth sent word to her husband, who came and got them. Before leaving Carthage she had procured, from a bureau drawer indicated by her mother, deeds containing a description of the real estate, and on the 14th she and her mother went to the bank, where the latter had a talk with Mr. Davis, and when Mrs. Hollingsworth afterward went into the bank the deed to the 35-acre farm adjoining her own and the 30-acre timber tract had been made, but her mother had declined to make the deed to the town property. Mrs. Hollingsworth said to her, "Ma, you told me you came out here on purpose to make me equal with John," and told her that she wanted a deed to the home place to make her equal, and pulled two letters out of her pocketbook in which John had promised that she should be made equal, and read them to her mother, and got her to make the deed to the home place because she had promised to do it. As the result of what was said there the mother signed the deed. The letters from John contained information of the conveyance his mother had made to him and the promise to his sister of similar treatment to her. She says she read them to her mother in the bank "to show that she had promised to do me right, and my brother also promised," and for the purpose of getting her to make this deed to the home place, and that it accomplished the purpose. After the completion and delivery of the deeds Mrs. Hollingsworth executed the following instruments of writing.

                                "Reeds, Mo., July 14, 1911
                

"Whereas, Mary A. Youtsey has this day deeded to me thirty-five acres of land the same being off of the east side of the southwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section twenty-seven, township twenty-eight range thirty, I hereby agree to pay to said Mary A. Youtsey, one-third of all grain or other crops raised upon said land delivered at the market in Reeds, Mo., during the term of her natural life, aforesaid Mary A. Youtsey by accepting this contract agrees to pay all taxes assessed against said land during her lifetime.

                                 "Mrs. C. M. Hollingsworth
                

"Subscribed and sworn before me this the 14th day of July, A. D. 1911.

                   "[Notary Seal]      Carl H. Spencer
                                            "Notary Public
                  "My commission expires Oct. 19, 1913."
                              "Reeds, Mo., July 14, 1911
                

"Whereas, Mary A. Youtsey has this day deeded me part of lot No. 139, in the original town of Carthage, Jasper county, Missouri, described as follows, beginning at the southwest corner of said lot, thence north one hundred and seventy-seven feet, thence east fifty feet, thence south one hundred and seventy-seven feet, thence west fifty feet to place of beginning, I hereby agree that said Mary A. Youtsey shall have full possession of said lot for her own use during the full term of her natural lifetime said Mary A. Youtsey by accepting this contract hereby agrees to pay all taxes that may be assessed against said lot.

                                  "Mrs. C. M. Hollingsworth.
                

"Subscribed and sworn to before me this 14th lay of July, A. D. 1911.

                   "[Notary Seal.]     Carl H. Spencer,
                                           "Notary Public.
                  "My commission expires Oct. 19, 1913."
                

The first relates to the 35-acre farm, and the other to the home property in Carthage, conveyed on the same day. These were transmitted to the plaintiff by mail after her return home.

The plaintiff testified, in substance, that when she went to Reeds at the time the deeds were executed she knew nothing about the making of any deeds, and was too sick to talk about it; that she was taken there to be cared for by her daughter and doctored by Dr. Brighton; that...