Carroll v. Flanagan

63 S.E.2d 490, 135 W. Va. 234, 1951 W. Va. LEXIS 55
CourtWest Virginia Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 30, 1951
DocketNo. 10199
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 63 S.E.2d 490 (Carroll v. Flanagan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering West Virginia Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Carroll v. Flanagan, 63 S.E.2d 490, 135 W. Va. 234, 1951 W. Va. LEXIS 55 (W. Va. 1951).

Opinion

Riley, Judge:

This is a suit in equity, brought in the Circuit Court of Wood County by L. B. Carroll, Lilah Murdoch and Josephine Nelson, as the surviving heirs at law, next of kin, and distributees of Celia Gartlan, deceased, 'and as the devisees and legatees under the decedent’s will, dated December 1, 1934, duly probated and recorded in the County Clerk’s Office of Wood County on September 13, 1945, and L. B. Carroll, the executor of decedent’s will, as plaintiffs, against Martha Flanagan, as defendant, wherein plaintiffs seek: (1) To set aside a certain deed of decedent to Martha Flanagan, dated November 9, 1944, on the grounds that grantor decedent lacked mental capacity to make the deed and further that the deed was procured by fraud, undue influence and coercion; (2) to require the defendant to yield the possession of the real estate purportedly conveyed by the deed so that the same may be sold and the proceeds of sale paid to the individual plaintiffs in accordance with decedent’s will; (3) to require the defendant to account for and pay over the rents, issues and profits of the real estate during the period of defendant’s wrongful usurpation of the possession thereof; (4) to require the defendant to disclose and account for personal property of the decedent alleged to have been wrongfully appropriated by defendant both before and after decedent’s death and that defendant be required to deliver the same to the plaintiff executor; and, among other things, (5) to require defendant to deliver to plaintiff executor decedent’s books, papers, and records so as to facilitate the execution of his duties in the administration of decedent’s estate.

The circuit court sustained defendant’s demurrer to plaintiffs’ bill of complaint, and plaintiffs not desiring to amend, the court dismissed the bill. From the decree [236]*236sustaining the demurrer and dismissing the bill of complaint the plaintiffs prosecute this appeal.

The pertinent allegations in plaintiffs’ bill of complaint stated narratively are as follows:

The decedent died on June 26, 1945, leaving the three individual plaintiffs, L. B. Carroll, Lilah Murdoch, and Josephine Nelson, a brother and two sisters who, so far as the instant pleadings are concerned, would be her only heirs at law and distributees if decedent had died intestate.

A list of life and annuity policies, and certain securities, together with a direction as to the management of the disposition of decedent’s clothing, furniture and household effects, dated March 20, 1940, was attached to the will of December 1, 1934. In the will decedent disposed of all of her property, real and personal, to her “living brothers and sisters”. In Item “A” of the will she provided for the payment of her debts; in Item “E” she directed that her personal and household goods be sold and the proceeds derived from the sale be divided equally among her “living brothers and sisters”; and in Item “F” ■she provided that the home in’which she was living at the time of her death in the City of Parkersburg be sold and the proceeds thereof divided equally among her “living brothers and sisters”, with the provision that the property was not to be kept or purchased by any member of decedent’s family.

On or about November 27, 1944, there was admitted to record in the office of the Clerk of the County Court of Wood County a deed dated November 9, 1944, which recites a consideration of five dollars and other good and valuable considerations, all in hand paid, whereby the decedent, Celia Gartlan, purportedly conveyed to the defendant, Martha Flanagan, the decedent’s home property on Juliana Street in the City of Parkersburg, subject to the reservation of a life estate in decedent.

On March 29, 1944, the decedent purportedly signed and [237]*237published a codicil to her will, which bears the signature of two attesting witnesses, and purports to revoke Item “E” of decedent’s will, with reference to her furniture and household effects and provides that “in lieu thereof I give and devise all my household and kitchen furniture of every kind and character, including window shades, curtains, drapes' and rugs, and all other such items now located in my home at 1041 Juliana Street, to Martha Flanagan”; and the purported codicil further provides that Item “F” of decedent’s will of December 1, 1934, relating to the sale of decedent’s home in the City of Par-kersburg and the distribution of the proceeds of sale to the individual plaintiffs, be revoked “as I have heretofore deeded the same to Martha Flanagan, who has been exceedingly kind and attentive to me through my long illness.”

On April 20, 1943, the defendant, Martha Flanagan, a practical nurse, who is alleged in the bill of complaint to be “a woman of dominating mind and designing character, moved into the home of the said decedent * * *, as her paid and fully compensated attendant, and there remained, and took, maintained and held the custody and the actual, manual, physical possession of the person of the decedent, continuously thenceforward until the date of the death of said decedent, and during said period, by fraud, deception, duress, coercion and undue influence, obtained, maintained and held complete and absolute domination and control over the mind, will, person, affairs and property of the said decedent, to the complete and total exclusion of the use or exercise by the said decedent of her own free will and volition. During the whole of said period, from on or about April 20, 1943, to on or about June 26, 1945, the said decedent was of greatly advanced age, of weakened and impaired mind, memory and intellect, and was so weak in body, mind and will as to be wholly unable to resist the overpowering and dominating influence, mind and will of the said defendant, which was then and there directed to the achievement of the defendant’s carefully designed and contrived scheme and plan [238]*238of wrongfully and unlawfully acquiring and appropriat- ' ing to her own use the real and personal property of said decedent or as much thereof as possible.”

The bill of complaint further alleges that “Before and after the death of said decedent, the defendant systematically and methodically looted the property and estate of said decedent, pursuant to the carefully designed and contrived scheme and plan hereinbefore alleged, and wrongfully and unlawfully took over and appropriated to her own use valuable items of personal property of said decedent, including money, stocks, bonds, jewelry, household furniture, personal effects and other things of value, claiming and pretending, through falsely, deceitfully and fraudulently, that the same were given, donated or presented to her by said decedent during her lifetime. The plaintiffs are not informed or advised as to the exact amount, kinds, nature and extent of the money, stocks, bonds, jewelry, household furniture, personal effects and other things of value so wrongfully taken over and appropriated to her own use by the said defendant.”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
63 S.E.2d 490, 135 W. Va. 234, 1951 W. Va. LEXIS 55, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carroll-v-flanagan-wva-1951.