Court Opinion

ID: 9779272
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 21:42:08.863636+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:33:24.589469
License: Public Domain

ON REHEARING
Plaintiffs urge in their motion for rehearing that they should have judgment for the $10,000 which Joe received by the check dated February 10, 1971, from Constance. Plaintiffs say that the jury found as a fact, not only that Joe exercised undue influence upon his father, but also the jury refused to find that Constance intended to make a gift of $10,000 to Joe when he delivered the check to him. We adhere to our holding that Joe did not exercise undue influence upon his father. While there are legal relationships other than that of a gift which could arise out of the delivery of the check to Joe, our re-examination of the record in this cause convinces us that Joe’s claim to the funds from that check was grounded upon gift. According to Joe, the reason that he wrote the word “gift” on the lower left-hand corner of the check was that his father told him to do so. We must give force to the jury finding which defeats Joe’s only claim of right to the funds.
We grant plaintiffs’ motion for rehearing in part, we set aside our former judgment, and we affirm that part of the judgments of the courts below which awarded actual damages to plaintiffs in the sum of $20,358.39 together with interest, which sum is eight-ninths of the funds on deposit in the joint account after deducting certain expenses and Joe’s share of the funds. We reverse that part of the judgments below which awarded exemplary damages to plaintiffs and ordered the cancellation and rescission of the release which Constance Dulak executed on February 25, 1971, and on those matters we render judgment that the plaintiffs take nothing.
The judgments of the courts below are affirmed in part and reversed and rendered in part.