Allen v. Allen

196 Ga. 736
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedOctober 7, 1943
DocketNo. 14623
StatusPublished

This text of 196 Ga. 736 (Allen v. Allen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Allen v. Allen, 196 Ga. 736 (Ga. 1943).

Opinion

Wyatt, Justice.

The petition is challenged by general demurrer on the grounds that (1) no cause of action is set forth either at law or in equity; (2) that if any cause of action is stated, it is barred by the statute of limitations; and (3) that it seeks to set out a cause of action upon an express trust in parol, and is therefore void.

The petition appears to have been cast in the mold of the cases of Teasley v. Bradley, and Rucker v. Maddox, cited above, and the rulings there made being controlling, a cause of action is stated.

Whenever a husband acquires possession of funds which are the separate property of his wife, for the purpose of investing, reinvesting and managing the same, subject to the wife’s demand, and running from year to year, the husband is in a fiduciary rela,tion to his wife and occupies towards her the position of a confidential and continuing agent; and the statute of limitations would not begin to run “against the right of the wife to call for an accounting, until there has been an account rendered, accompanied by an offer to settle, a refusal upon demand to settle, a notice of adverse claim, an express repudiation of the fiduciary relation, such [743]*743a change of circumstances of the parties as would be reasonably calculated to put the wife on notice that the relation was no longer recognized, or something to indicate to a reasonably prudent person that the relation has ceased.” Barber v. Barber, 125 Ga. 226 (3) (53 S. E. 1017). See Oliver v. Hammond, 85 Ga. 323 (11 S. E. 655); Teasley v. Bradley and Rucker v. Maddox, supra; Murphy v. Johnston, 190 Ga. 23, 25 (8 S. E. 2d, 23). In the circumstances last referred to, the law would presume a demand after the lapse of a reasonable time, and from, such time the statute would begin to run. Teasley v. Bradley, supra. Where, as in the instant case, such agency had continued from August 16, 1919, and June 11, 1920, being the dates on which the wife delivered to her husband her property (money) for the purposes aforesaid, and on November 1, 1935, the husband abandoned the wife without cause with the statement “that he was through with petitioner,” and left her to reside alone, and on November 28, 1941, the wife made written demand upon the husband for the return of her original moneys or the proceeds and profits therefrom, and upon his refusal to comply with said demand suit was filed on November 29, 1941, for accounting, to trace funds, to impress a trust on certain stocks in a private corporation and chosés in action held in the husband’s name, and for other equitable relief) such suit was not barred by the statute of limitations by reason of the contention of the husband that such abandonment was a sufficient change in the circumstances of the parties as would reasonably be calculated to put the wife on,notice that the husband no longer, recognized the existence of the agency and fiduciary relation, that he ceased from that time to be her confidential and continuing agent, and that he was holding her property adversely; it being contended that the husband had held the same adversely for more than four years, and under the Code, § 85-1706, had obtained prescriptive title thereto. The plaintiff in error relies om Barber v. Barber, supra, as supporting the contention that the abandonment of the wife by the husband with the statement “that he was through with petitioner” was “such a change of circumstances of the parties as would be reasonably calculated to put the wife on notice that the relation was no longer recognized, or something to indicate to a reasonably prudent person that the relation has ceased.” In the cited case the husband, after having .been in possession of the [744]*744wife’s property for twenty-one j^ears without having rendered to her an account, delivered possession to his wife of the property then remaining in his hands, which as contended by the wife was less than what she was entitled to, according to her suit against the executor of her husband, which was filed sixteen years after the time the husband had made delivery of the property to his wife. The court held that such delivery of the remaining property in his hands and abandonment of all control of it was “a loud-sounding notice to her,” in effect saying, “I consider myself under no further liability to you on account of your property which I have been managing/’ and that the wife failed at her peril to heed this notice. The court further stated that it was not necessary to determine exactly what would be a reasonable time after this surrender from which the statute would begin to run; for under any circumstances after the lapse of sixteen years from the time of surrender the suit would be barred. The mere fact of abandonment of the wife, without surrendering or accounting to her for the property or any part thereof, is not inconsistent with the continuation of the agency and fiduciary relation respecting the management of the wife’s property; and especially is this true where no reference was made, either express or implied, that would indicate a repudiation of the agency, or notice of an adverse claim. In Ewing v. Tanner, 184 Ga. 773, 779 (193 S. E. 243), it was said: “The nature of the possession of personal property and that of realty, required to give title by prescription, is the same. Blocker v. Boswell, 109 Ga. 230, 237 (34 S. E. 289). In order for a possession to be the foundation of prescription, or to be adverse, it must meet all the requirements specified in [the Code] § 85-402. . . Among these requirements is that the possession must be accompanied by a claim of right. The term ‘claim of right’ is synonymous with ‘claim of title’ and ‘claim of ownership.’ ” Citing 2 C. J. S. 571, § 55. In the absence of some expression or act on the part of the husband at the time of the abandonment, indicating a “claim of right” adverse to the wife with reference to the property held by him as her confidential continuing agent, it must be held that the husband’s possession was the possession of the wife until her demand and his refusal for an accounting.

The petition was not subject to demurrer on the ground that it seeks to set out a cause of action upon an express trust in parol, [745]*745because of the husband’s verbal-agreement at the time of delivery of the funds to him by the wife to receive the money, to invest and reinvest same from time to time for the benefit of the wife, and to hold the proceeds and profits thereof subject to the wife’s demand. Such a trust arising in these circumstances is not destroyed by an express verbal, and therefore unenforceable, agreement of the husband. The parol agreement cannot be enforced as an express trust, but equity will enforce the implied trust arising under such circumstances. It- is also permissible to show the express agreement to rebut the inference of a gift by the wife. Jackson v. Jackson, 150 Ga. 544, 549 (104 S. E. 236); McDonald v. Dabney, 161 Ga. 711, 731 (132 S. E. 547); Romano v. Finley, 172 Ga. 366 (157 S. E. 669); Hemphill v. Hemphill, 176 Ga. 585, 590 (168 S. E. 878); Guffin v. Kelly, 191 Ga. 880, 886 (4 S. E. 2d, 50).

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Thornton v. Martin
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Orr v. Cooledge
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McKenzie v. Thomas
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Bluebook (online)
196 Ga. 736, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/allen-v-allen-ga-1943.