Court Opinion

ID: 9417084
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 20:02:33.261629+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:21:35.872287
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Field
delivered tbe opinion of tbe court.
This is a suit brought by tbe beir-at-law of Marie Genevieve Thibault, late of Detroit, Mich., to cancel a conveyance of land alleged to have been obtained from her a few weeks before her death, when, from her condition, she was incapable of understanding tbe nature and effect of tbe transaction.
*507The deceased died at Detroit on the 4th of February, 1864, intestate, leaving the complainant her sole surviving heir-at-law. For many years previous to her death, and until the execution of the conveyance to the defendant, she was seised in fee of the land in controversy, situated in that city, which she occupied as a homestead. In November, 1868, the defendant obtained from her a conveyance of this property. A copy of the conveyance is set forth in the bill. It contains covenants of seisin and warranty by the grantor, and immediately following them an agreement by the defendant to pay her $250 upon the delivery of the .instrument ; an annuity of $500 ; all her physician’s bills during her lif¿ ; the taxes on the property for that year, and all subsequent taxes during her life; also, that she should liave the use and occupation of the house until the spring of 1864, or that he would pay the rent of such other house as she might occupy until then. The property was then worth, according to the testimony in the case, between $6,000 'and $8,000. The deceased was at that time between sixty and seventy years of age, and was confined to her house by sickness, from which she never recovered. Sh'e lived alone, in a state of great degradation, and was without regular attendance in her sickness. There were no persons present with her at the execution of the conveyance, except the defendant, his agent, and his attorney. The $250 stipulated were paid, but no other payment was ever made to her; she died a few weeks afterwards.
As grounds for cancelling this conveyance, the complainant alleges that the deceased, during the last few years of her life, was afflicted with lunacy or chronic insanity, and was so infirm as to be incapable of transacting any business of importance; that her last sickness aggravated her insanity, greatly weakened her mental faculties, and still more disqualified her for business ; that the defendant and his agent knew of her infirmity, and that there was no reasonable prospect of her recovery from heNsickness, or of her long surviving, when the conveyance was taken; that she did not understand the nature of the instrument ; and that it was obtained for an insignificant consideration, and in a clandestine manner, without her having any independent adviée.
These allegations the defendant controverts, and avers that *508the conveyance was taken upon a proposition of the deceased; that at the date of .its execution she was in the full possession of her mental faculties, appreciated the value of the property, and was capable of contracting with reference to it, and of selling or otherwise dealing with it; that since her death he has occupied the premises, and made permanent improvements to the value of $7,000; and that the complainant never gave him notice of any claim to the property until the commencement of this suit.
The court below dismissed the bill, whereupon the complainant appealed here. The question presented for determination is, whether the deceased, at the time she executed the conveyance in question, possessed sufficient intelligence to understand fully the nature and effect of the transaction; and, if so, whether the conveyance was executed under such circumstances as that it ought to be upheld, or as would justify the interference of equity for its cancellation.
Numerous witnesses were examined in the ease, and a large amount of testimony was taken. This testimony has been carefully analyzed by the defendant’s counsel; and it must be admitted that the facts detailed by any one witness with reference to the condition of the deceased previous to her last illness, considered separately and apart from the statements of the others, do not show incapacity to transact business on her part, nor establish insanity, either continued or temporary. And yet, when all the facts stated by the different witnesses are taken together, one is led irresistibly by their combined effect to the conclusion, that, if the deceased was not afflicted with insanity for some years before her death, her mind wandered so near the line which divides sanity from insanity as to render any important business transaction with her of doubtful propriety, and to justify a careful scrutiny into its fairness.
Thus, some of the witnesses speak of the deceased as having low and filthy habits; of her being so imperfectly clad as at times to expose immodestly portions of her person; of her eating with her fingers, and having vermin on her body. Some of them testify to her believing in dreams, and her imagining she could see ghosts and spirits around her room, and her claiming to talk with them; to her being incoherent in her conversation f *509passing suddenly and without cause from one subject to another; to her using vulgar and profane language; to her making immodest gestures; to her talking strangely, and making singular motions and gestures in her neighbors’ houses and in the streets. Other witnesses testify to further peculiarities of life, manner, and conduct; but none of the peculiarities mentioned, considered singly, show a want of capacity to transact business. Instances will readily occur to every one where some of them have been éxhibited by persons possessing good judgment in the management and disposition of property. But when all the peculiarities mentioned, of life, conduct, and language, are found in the same person, they create a strong impression that his mind is not entirely sound; and all transactions relating to his property will be narrowly scanned by a court of equity, whenever brought under its cognizance.
The condition of the deceased was not improved during her last sickness. The testimony of her attending physician leads to the conclusion that her mental infirmities were aggravated by it. He states that he had studied her disease, and for many years had considered her partially insane, and that in his opinion she was not competent in November, 1863, during her last sickness, to understand a document like the instrument executed. The physician also testifies that during this month he informed one Dolsen, who had inquired of the condition, and health of the deceased, and had stated that efforts had been made to purchasé her property, that in his opinion she could not survive her sickness, and that she was not in a condition to íáake any sale of the property “ in a right way.”
This Dolsen had at one time owned and managed a tannery adjoining the home of the deceased, which he sold to the defendant. After the salé, he carried on the business as the defendant’s agent. Through him the transaction for the purchase of the property was conducted. The deceased .understood English imperfectly, and Dolsen undertook to explain to her, in French, the contents of the paper she executed. Some attempt is made to show that he acted as her agent; but this is evidently an afterthought. He was in the employment of - the defendant, had charge of his business, and had often talked with him about securing the property; and in his interest be *510acted throughout. If the deceased was not in a condition to dispose of the property, she was not in a condition to appoint an agent for that purpose.
The defendant himself states that he had seen the deceased for years, and knew that she was eccentric, queer, and penurious. Il is hardly credible that, during those years, carrying on business within a few yards of her house, he had not heard that her mind was unsettled; or, at least, had not inferred that such was the fact, from what he saw of her (conduct. Be that as it may, Dolsen’s knowledge was his knowledge; and, when he covenanted to pay the annuity, some inquiry must have been had as to the probable duration of the payments. Such covenants are not often made without inquiries of that nature; and to Dolsen he must have looked for information, for he states that he conversed with no one else about the purchase. With him and with his attorney he went to the house of the deceased, and there witnessed the miserable condition in which she lived, and he states that he wondered how anybody could live in such a place, and that he told Dolsen to get her a bed and some clothing. Dolsen had previously informed him that she would not sell the property; yet he took a conveyance from her at a consideration which, under the circumstances, with a certainty almost of her speedy decease, was an insignificant one compared with the value of the. property.
In view of the circumstances stated, we are not satisfied that the deceased was, at the time she executed the conveyance, capable of comprehending fully the nature and effect of the transaction. She was in a state of physical prostration; and from that cause, and her previous infirmities, aggravated by her sickness, her intellect was greatly enfeebled; and, if not disqualified, she was unfitted to attend to business of such importance as the disposition of her entire property, and the securing of an annuity for life. Certain it is, that, in negotiating for the disposition of the property, she stood, in her sickness and infirmities, on no terms of equality with the defendant, who, with his attorney and agent, met her alone in her hovel to obtain the conveyance.
It is not necessary, in order to secure the aid of equity, to prove that the deceased was at the time insane, or in such a *511state of mental imbecility as to render her entirely incapable of executing a valid deed. It is sufficient to show that, from her sickness and infirmities, she was at the time in a condition of great mental weakness, and that there was gross inadequacy of consideration for the conveyance. From these circumstances, imposition or undue influence will be inferred. In the case of Harding v. Wheaton, reported in the 2d of Mason, a conveyance executed by one to his son-in-law, for a nominal consideration, and upon a verbal arrangement that it should be considered as a trust for the maintenance .of the grantor, and after his death for the benefit of his heirs, was, after bis death, set aside, except as security for actual advances and charges, upon application of his heirs, on the ground that it was obtained from him when his-mind was enfeebled by age and other causes. “ Extreme weakness,” said Mr. Justice Story, in deciding the case, “ will raise an almost necessary presumption of imposition, even yrhen it stops short of legal incapacity; and though a contract, in the ordinary course of things, reasonably made with such a person, might be admitted. to stand, yet if it should appear to be of such' a nature as that such a person could hot be capable of measuring its extent or importance, its reasonableness or its value, fully and fairly, it cannot be that the law is so much at variance with common sense as to uphold it.” The case subsequently came before this court-; .and, in deciding it, Mr. Chief Justice Marshall, speaking of this, and, it would seem, of other deeds executed by the deceased, said: “If these deeds were obtained by the exercise of undue influence over a man whose mind had ceased to be the safe guide of his actions,’ it is against conscience for him who has obtained them to derive any advantage from them. It is.the peculiar province of a court of conscience to set them aside. That a court of equity will interpose in such a case is among its best-settled principles. Harding v. Handy, 11 Wheat. 125.
The same doctrine is announced in adjudged cases, almost without number; and it may be stated as settled law, that whenever there is great weakness of mind in a person executing a conveyance of land, arising from age, sickness, or any other cause, though not amounting to absolute disqualification, and the consideration given for the property is grossly inadequate, *512a court of equity will, upon proper and seasonable application of tbe injured party, or his representatives or heirs, interfere and set tbe conveyance aside. And tbe present case comes directly within tbis principle.
In tbe recent case of Kempson v. Ashbee, 10 Ch. Cas. 15, decided in the Court of Appeal in Chancery in England, two bonds executed by a young woman, living at the time with her mother and step-father, — one, at tbe age of twenty-one, as surety for her step-father’s debt, and tbe other, at the age of twenty-nine, to secure tbe amount of a judgment recovered on tbe first bond, — were set aside as against her, on tbe ground that she bad acted in tbe transaction without independent. advice; one of tbe justices observing that the court bad endeavored to prevent persons subject to influence from being induced to enter into transactions without advice of that kind. Tbe principle upon which the court acts in such cases, of protecting tbe weak and dependent, may always be invoked on behalf of persons in tbe situation of tbe deceased spinster in tbis case, of doubtful sanity, living entirely by herself, without friends to take care of her, and confined to her bouse by sickness. As well on tbis ground as on tbe ground of weakness of mind and gross inadequacy of consideration, we think the case a proper one for tbe interference of equity, and that a cancellation of the deed should be decreed.
Tbe objection of tbe lapse of time — six years —before bringing tbe suit cannot avail tbe defendant. If during tbis time, from tbe death of witnesses or other causes, a full presentation of tbe facts of tbe ease bad become impossible, there might be force in tbe objection. But as there has been no change in this respect to tbe injury of the defendant, it does not lie in bis mouth, after having, in the manner stated, obtained tbe property of tbe deceased, to complain that her heir did not sooner bring suit against him to compel its surrender. There is no statutory bar in tbe case. The improvements made have not cost more than tbe amount which a reasonable rent of tbe property would have produced, and the complainant, as we understand, does not object to allow tbe defendant credit for them. And as to tbe small amount paid on. tbe execution of tbe conveyance, it is sufficient to observe, that tbe complainant received from tbe *513administrator of the deceased’s estate only $113.42; and there is no evidence that be ever knew that this sum constituted any portion of the money obtained from the defendant. A decree must, therefore, be entered for a cancellation of the deed of the deceased and a surrender of the property to the complainant, but without any accounting for back rents, the improvements being taken as an equivalent for them.
Decree reversed, and cause remanded with directions to enter a decree as thus stated.