Court Opinion

ID: 9719893
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 08:08:05.670124+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:10.868256
License: Public Domain

POCHÉ, J.
I fully concur in parts II, III, and IV, of the lead opinion, and I reluctantly agree in result in part I.
At trial this was obviously a very close case. The evidence showed that at the time of the execution of the quitclaim deed, wife had a tenth grade *505education, did not have a bank account and had never held a job. During the marriage, husband had paid all the bills, purchased the groceries, and prepared the tax returns. It was husband who had negotiated the purchase of the family residence, dealt with the real estate agent and title insurance people. When wife decided to separate from husband and move to Arkansas, she signed the quitclaim deed because husband had offered her $3,000.1 In wife’s words, “I put it in his name so I could have the money.” “I was in an awful hurry.” After the reconciliation in Arkansas some 10 months later, the expenses of the car trip home with husband were paid from wife’s $3,000.
When wife signed the deed she understood that she was giving up her interest in the house, but she had no idea what interest (50 percent) she had or what value the house had (some $45,000 minus an existing loan of $18,000). However, husband never misrepresented to her the value of the house; he made no representations whatsoever. Wife never thought to ask about the value of her entitlement to the property: some $13,500.
On appeal the task of the judge is much more limited. On this record, I can find evidence sufficient to support the trial court’s finding that there was no duress or fraud in the transaction. I also agree that the reconciliation by its own force does not nullify the deed especially in light of husband’s testimony, obviously credited by the trier of fact, that the parties did not intend to nullify the deed by their reconciliation. Nevertheless I continue to have serious doubt that this transaction is legally conscionable: a quick three (or four) thousand dollars in exchange for an equity interest having at least triple that value.

 Husband believed he paid closer to $4,000; the trial court never resolved that factual dispute.