Bryan Memorial Hospital v. Steinmeyer

297 N.W. 159, 139 Neb. 284, 1941 Neb. LEXIS 63
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 28, 1941
DocketNo. 31005
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 297 N.W. 159 (Bryan Memorial Hospital v. Steinmeyer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bryan Memorial Hospital v. Steinmeyer, 297 N.W. 159, 139 Neb. 284, 1941 Neb. LEXIS 63 (Neb. 1941).

Opinion

Yeager, J.

Sarah Wullschleger Steininger died intestate in Lancaster county, Nebraska, on July 11, 1938. Thereafter, John F. Steinmeyer was appointed and duly qualified as administrator of her estate. After the appointment of the administrator, the Bryan Memorial Hospital, hereinafter referred to as appellant, filed a claim against the estate in the amount [285]*285of $4,000, which claim was based on a written instrument, and which instrument has been variously denominated an “estate pledge,” a “note,” a “pledge” and an “agreement.” The instrument is in form and content as follows:

“Date Febr. 7 1934 $4,000.00
“Bryan Memorial Hospital
“Lincoln, Nebr.
“In consideration of my interest in the Bryan Memorial Hospital of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and of the gift of Mr. W. J. Bryan and Wife, and of others subscribing to this fund, we severally and jointly, binding our separate estates therefor, hereby pledge and promise to pay to the Treasurer of the Board of Trustees of the Bryan Memorial Hospital, aforesaid, the sum of
Four Thousand and 00/100 Dollars $4,000.00
upon the following terms and conditions :
“1. This pledge shall be due and payable at the time of my decease and shall be paid out of the proceeds of my estate. May at the Donor’s option be paid by deeding Real Estate or the assigning of real estate-Mortgages or both at the equivalent of the above named amount. Except as it relates to the Gage County Mortgage and the University Place Property. *
“2. This pledge shall bear interest at the rate of ....% per annum, from........192.....
“Witness J. Jacob Name Sarah Wullschleger Steininger Steininger
“Solicitor F. E. Sala (indorsed on margin) ”

The administrator filed objections in the county court. A hearing was had and the county court allowed the claim. From the judgment of the county court the administrator, hereinafter to be referred to as appellee, on behalf of the estate appealed to the district court. In the district court the appellant herein filed a petition. To the petition the appellee herein did not file new objections, but by stipulation of the parties it was agreed that the objections filed in the county court, with an amendment allowed in the district court, should stand as the objections to the petition. To the [286]*286objections as stipulated a reply was filed. On the issues thus joined a trial was had to a jury which resulted in a verdict and judgment in favor of the objector, appellee herein. From the judgment of the district court, appellant has prosecuted an appeal to this court. Twelve assignments of error are set forth in the brief.

It is urged that the verdict is contrary to the law and the evidence, and complaint is made that the court erred in giving certain instructions and in refusing to give one tendered by the appellant.

Appellant contends that in instruction No. 1 the trial court, instead of setting forth the issues tendered by appellee which found support in the evidence, erroneously set forth all of the claims contained in the objections filed, some of which were not supported by any evidence. Appellant insists that the court should have submitted only those supported by evidence. In order to determine this question it has been necessary to examine the objections and the instruction. The examination shows that the objections are without chronological arrangement; and the instruction, in the statement of the issues tendered, follows quite closely the petition. As we interpret the instruction, it sets forth the following tendered issues:

The claim of the appellant herein should be disallowed for reasons that (1) it is contrary to law, (2) there is no indebtedness, (3) the instrument on which the claim is based was secured by fraud, undue influence and false promises, (4) the instrument was executed upon the express promise that the deceased would receive hospitalization at the hospital of appellant free of charge, and (5) at the time the instrument was executed the deceased was mentally incompetent to make the pledge represented by the instrument.

In the same connection appellant states that the trial court, in instruction No. 3, attempted, but ineffectively, to define and limit the issues presented by No. 1. Instruction No. 3 limited the consideration of the jury to three of the grounds of objection set forth by appellee. They are: (1) [287]*287That the pledge was secured from the deceased by the exercise of undue influence by an agent or agents of appellant; (2) that, at the time the pledge was signed and executed, deceased was mentally incompetent to make the pledge; and (3) that the pledge was secured from the deceased upon a promise of an agent or agents of the appellant that she would receive care and hospitalization during her lifetime without cost to her, which was refused. It is urged also that this instruction defines issues unsupported by evidence.

A determination of this question has required an examination of the entire record in this case. In the light of the conclusion arrived at from the examination of the evidence, it is not necessary to discuss the question of whether or not instruction No. 1 submits issues broader in scope than those submitted in instruction No. 3., since it is clear that instruction No. 3 clearly submitted issues not supported by any evidence.

As already pointed out, the court submitted the objection that the pledge was secured from the deceased by the exercise of undue influence, and also the objection that it was obtained under an agreement for hospitalization, which agreement was breached. Was there any evidence to support these two propositions ? We think not.

On December 27, 1924, on the solicitation of F. E. Sala, the deceased signed an estate pledge payable to the appellant out of her estate after death for $7,000. On February 7, 1934, she signed the pledge which is the basis of this action for $4,000, whereupon the first pledge was surrendered under a written promise by deceased that, if at any time during her lifetime she was in a position to do so, she would pay the $3,000 waived in the new pledge or the one for $4,000 made in 1934. The action is on the 1934 obligation, but all of the evidence as to undue influence, and as to agreement for hospitalization, relates to the 1924 obligation 'which was canceled by the 1934 obligation, and there is no word of direct testimony or competent testimony from which a reasonable inference could be drawn that conditions attaching to the first instrument should attach to the second. [288]*288The only information the record discloses as to execution and delivery of the second instrument is that deceased, with her husband, went to the office of Ernest M. Bair in the Citizens Bank at University Place, and there executed the instrument and took it away with her, and that some time after F. E. Sala delivered it to the hospital. How, when or under what circumstances the instrument came into the hands of Sala is not disclosed in the evidence. Appellee inferentially denies that the instrument was signed at the place and under the circumstances testified to, but offers no other explanation or information.

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Bluebook (online)
297 N.W. 159, 139 Neb. 284, 1941 Neb. LEXIS 63, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bryan-memorial-hospital-v-steinmeyer-neb-1941.