Case Title: Johnson v. Larson

Citation: 56 N.W.2d 750

Docket Number: 

State: north-dakota

Court: North Dakota Supreme Court

Date: 1953-01-26T00:00:00Z

Document:
56 N.W.2d 750 (1953) JOHNSON v. LARSON et al. No. 7312. Supreme Court of North Dakota. January 26, 1953. Walter O. Burk, Williston, for plaintiff-appellant and defendants Ida McKoane, May Angrinsen, John Egge and Tillie Oberg. Eugene A. Burdick, Williston, for defendant Anna Albin Larson. SATHRE, Justice. The plaintiff, Thomas Johnson, brings this action against the defendants to quiet title to a quarter section of land situated in the county of Williams, State of North Dakota and described as follows: The South half of the Southwest quarter (S½SW¼) of Section Twenty-nine (29) and the North half of the Northwest Quarter (N½NW¼) of Section thirty-two (32) in Township One Hundred Fifty-nine (159) North of Range One Hundred Two (102) *751 West of the Fifth Principal Meridian, North Dakota, containing 160 acres, more or less. The defendants Anna Albin Larson, Ida McKoane, May Angrinsen, are sisters of the plaintiff and John Egge is a brother of the plaintiff. The defendant Tillie Oberg is a daughter of a deceased sister of the plaintiff and defendants. The complaint alleges that on the 7th day of September, 1935, one Mathia Egge made, executed and delivered to the defendant Anna Albin Larson a special warranty deed covering the land described in the complaint. This deed was filed for record in the office of the register of deeds of Williams county, North Dakota on the 20th day of September 1935, and was duly recorded in Book 80 of Deeds on page 346. The complaint further alleges that said deed was executed without any money consideration whatsoever and was made, executed and delivered with a specific understanding and agreement that the grantor was to have the exclusive occupancy of the said premises during her natural life and that after her death said property was to be deeded to and divided among the children of the said grantor Mathia Egge, share and share alike. Mathia Egge died on the 5th day of June 1940 and left surviving her as her heirs, the plaintiff and defendants in this action. The complaint then alleges that notwithstanding the said understanding and agreement, the defendant Anna Albin Larson refused and neglected to execute a deed covering the premises described in the complaint and that she has collected rents and profits from the said land ever since the death of said Mathia Egge and that she has failed to make any accounting whatsoever of the rents and profits which she has received from the said land and that she has failed to account for the proceeds from the sale of buildings situated on said lands and has failed and neglected to pay any part of said amounts to any of the other children of the said grantor Mathia Egge. Judgment is demanded that the plaintiff and the defendants be decreed to have an undivided one sixth interest in the land and that the defendant Anna Albin Larson be required to make an accounting of the use and occupancy of the land and the proceeds of the sale of the buildings. The defendants Ida McKoane, May Angrinsen, John Egge and Tillie Oberg filed an answer admitting all of the allegations in the complaint. The defendant Anna Albin Larson answered separately admitting that the said Mathia Egge was the owner of the property described in the complaint and that as such owner she deeded the same to the defendant Anna Albin Larson. She denied specifically that the deed from Mathia Egge to herself was executed without any money consideration or with any understanding or agreement that the grantor was to have the exclusive occupancy of said premises during her natural life, or that said property was to be deeded and divided among the children of said Mathia Egge, share and share alike. By way of counterclaim she alleged that she had an estate in fee simple in the property described in the complaint and that she was entitled to the immediate possession of said property. She then demanded judgment that title to the premises be quieted in her; that the claims of the plaintiff and the other defendants be adjudged null and void and that they be decreed to have no estate or interest in or lien or incumbrance upon said property. The defendant Anna Albin Larson filed an amended answer alleging laches on the part of the plaintiff in bringing the action, and that the cause of action, if any, accrued more than ten years prior to the commencement thereof and that the same is barred by the statute of limitations. The case was tried without a jury before the Honorable Roy A. Ilvedson, Judge of the District Court at Williston in the county of Williams, State of North Dakota on the 13th day of March 1951. At the close of the hearing on said day an adjournment was taken to enable the attorneys to procure further evidence and exhibits to be submitted to the court at a future date. The hearing was resumed at Williston, North Dakota on the 11th day of June 1951. The district court held that the plaintiff had *752 failed to establish a cause of action and ordered judgment to be entered in favor of the defendant Anna Albin Larson adjudging her to be the owner in fee simple of the premises described in the complaint. The plaintiff Thomas Johnson and the other defendants have appealed and have demanded a trial de novo in this court. The facts developed at the trial are substantially as follows: Mathia Egge is the mother of the plaintiff and defendants Anna Albin Larson, Ida McKoane, May Angrinsen, John Egge and the grandmother of Tillie Oberg, the daughter of a deceased daughter of the said Mathia Egge. On September 7, 1935, Mathia Egge executed a special warranty deed of the property described in the complaint to her daughter Anna Albin Larson. She was assisted in the drawing of the deed by one Ole A. Lee, who had the deed recorded in the office of the register of deeds in Williams county and thereafter mailed it to the said Anna Albin Larson at her address at Spokane, Washington. Ole A. Lee was not present at the trial, but it was stipulated by the parties that a letter written by him to Burdick and Burdick dated March 12, 1951, defendant's exhibit "F", be admitted in evidence and that if said Ole A. Lee were present he would testify according to the tenor thereof. The letter is as follows: Two other letters were introduced in evidence as defendant's exhibits D and E, written by the Rev. A. J. Sheldahl of Fergus Falls, Minnesota, during the first part of March 1951. He was well acquainted with Mathia Egge, having been her pastor and spiritual adviser at Grenora for several years. It was agreed by counsel that if Rev. Sheldahl were present he would testify in accordance with the contents of exhibit "D" and "E". They are as follows: The plaintiff, Thomas Johnson, and the defendant Ida McKoane testified that on the morning of June 5, 1940, the day that the mother Mathia Egge, died, they ate breakfast together with the defendant Anna Albin Larson at Williston, North Dakota. Thomas and Ida testified that while they were eating breakfast together the defendant Anna stated that she would divide the land among the sisters and brothers. Anna however denied this and stated that she could not recall that she ever made such statement at that time. Ida McKoane testifying for plaintiff admitted that sometime prior to July 6, 1949 she received a letter from her sister Anna, the defendant, complaining about her brother Thomas that he was bothering her very much about the land and was drinking heavily. Ida replied to this letter July 6, 1949, and her letter was admitted in evidence without objection as defendant's exhibit A. The part of the letter pertinent to the matter before us is as follows: referring to her brother the plaintiff. Plaintiff admitted the defendant Anna had sent money to their mother but he did not know how much. He testified further that in the spring of 1935 his mother wanted to deed the land to him, that she intended to apply for old age assistance and she ddi not want it to go against the land. He said further that he consulted an attorney at Williston and that he was told that it would be a fraud for him to take the deed so he did not accept it. His mother talked to him later and said that she would deed the land to Anna so there wouldn't be a pension against it. That his mother said at that time, "when I leave it in Anna's name it is just like mine she will divide it with the rest of us." Another letter written by Mathia Egge to her daughter the defendant, Anna Larson on Feb. 15, 1939 was introduced in evidence as defendant's exhibit C. It was written in the Norwegian language and was translated by Lilly Oberg. The part of it translated in the English language is as follows: The defendant Anna Albin Larson testified in substance as follows: She had never had any talk with her mother about the land and knew nothing about the deed until she received it. She sent money to her mother at different times and in various amounts of $5 to $20. She was unable to state the total amount of money that she had sent to her prior to receiving this deed. In regard to this matter she testified as follows: *755 In the summer of 1936 she received a letter from the county welfare board of Williams County about the matter of her mother getting old age assistance. The substance of this letter was as to whether or not she would be willing to give a mortgage on this land to secure old age assistance for her mother since she had received a deed to the land. In the fall of 1936 she and her husband signed a mortgage to the public welfare board of Williams County so as to enable her mother to obtain old age assistance. She drove to Grenora in the summer of 1937 and visited her mother and her niece Tillie Oberg accompanied her. During this visit her mother told her that she had given her the deed to this land because she was the one that had helped her. It was stipulated by the parties that the defendant Anna Albin Larson paid $596 in taxes after she received the deed from her mother that she paid old age assistance which her mother had received in the sum of $725, and that she paid $150 for her mother's casket, and $35 costs for enbalming, and that she put up a tombstone for her mother at the cost of $225; that she sold some buildings that were on the land for which she received $1,100. The land in question was farmed by tenants during the years 1941 to 1949 and it was stipulated by the parties that the defendant Anna Albin Larson received various amounts, the proceeds of sale of crops from the land during those years. It is the contention of the plaintiff that under the facts and circumstances surrounding the execution and delivery of the deed to Anna Albin Larson a constructive trust was created by operation of law and that Anna Albin Larson held the land in trust for all of her brothers and sisters the heirs at law of Mathia Egge. In support of this contention the plaintiff cites the case of Arntson v. First National Bank of Sheldon, 39 N.D. 408, 167 N.W. 760, 764, L.R.A.1918F, 1038, and McDonald v. Miller, 73 N.D. 474, 16 N.W.2d 270, 156 A.L.R. 1328. The case of Arntson v. First National Bank was decided on a state of facts entirely different from the facts in the case at bar. The question in that case was whether the oral agreement between I. E. Arntson and his five sons relative to the disposition to be made of his land after his death created an implied trust. He called his five sons and told them that he had not much property but that he wanted their mother to have it all and that she had to have someone to take care of her and he wanted the boys to deed it to her when he was gone, and that this will be as good as a will. The five boys agreed to this and so told their father who died a few days later, and about a month after their father's death, they deeded the land to their mother. In that case the court held that a constructive trust was created. We quote from the opinion. In the case of McDonald v. Miller, supra it was held that where it is sought to establish a constructive trust the existence of a confidential relationship between the parties is of major importance. In the case at bar, however, there is no proof whatever of any confidential relations existing between Mathia Egge the grantor and Anna Albin Larson, the grantee prior to the execution of the deed. Anna Albin Larson knew nothing about the deed until she received it in the mail after it had been executed and filed for record; nor is there any evidence that the defendant Anna Albin Larson had any understanding or agreement with her mother with reference to a division of the property after the execution of the deed. The letters from Rev. Sheldahl *756 and from Ole E. Lee which were admitted in evidence by stipulation of the parties, clearly establish that it was the intention of the mother Mathia Egge to make an unconditional transfer of the land to her daughter Anna Albin Larson and she made such transfer by a special warranty deed, absolute in form, and thereupon delivered it to the grantee. The grantee Anna Albin Larson testified that she sent money to her mother annually for many years prior to the execution and delivery of the deed, the amounts thereof being sometimes as high as $200 per year and this testimony is not contradicted by the plaintiff or the other defendants. Implied trusts are governed by section 59-0106, NDRC 1943, which reads as follows: We have carefully considered the facts, circumstances and the evidence in connection with the execution and delivery of the deed by Mathia Egge to the defendant Anna Albin Larson and fail to find anything giving rise to an implied trust under the provisions of the statute quoted. The rule is well settled that in order to establish an implied or constructive trust the evidence must be clear and convincing. In the case of Bodding v. Herman, 76 N.D. 324, 35 N.W.2d 561, 563, this court said: We quote also from 54 Am.Jur., Trusts, Sec. 620, page 478. We are satisfied that the evidence is ample to sustain the counterclaim of the defendant Anna Albin Larson under the special warranty deed from her mother Mathia Egge as against the claim of the plaintiff and the other defendants. It will not be necessary therefore to consider the defenses of laches and the statute of limitation. The judgment of the district court is affirmed. MORRIS, C. J., and CHRISTIANSON, GRIMSON and BURKE, JJ., concur.