Choate v. State Department of Public Health & Welfare

296 S.W.2d 189, 1956 Mo. App. LEXIS 204
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 21, 1956
DocketNo. 7567
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 296 S.W.2d 189 (Choate v. State Department of Public Health & Welfare) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Choate v. State Department of Public Health & Welfare, 296 S.W.2d 189, 1956 Mo. App. LEXIS 204 (Mo. Ct. App. 1956).

Opinion

McDOWELL, Presiding Judge.

The State Department of Public Health and Welfare prosecutes this appeal from a judgment of the Circuit Court of Newton County, Missouri, rendered May 5, 1956, which decreed that said cause be remanded to the State Department of Public Health and Welfare for redetermination. The judgment stated that Martha A. Choate, the petitioner, held title to the property in question in trust for her son, Aaron C. Choate, and was not the equitable owner thereof; that she did not sell said property without receiving a fair and reasonable consideration and that the decision of the Director of the State Department of Public Health and Welfare is arbitrary and unreasonable, and is not supported by substantial evidence.

The facts show that M. Alice Choate, respondent, was striken from the Old Age Assistance rolls in February, 1955, on the basis that she had made a transfer of property without receiving a fair and valuable consideration therefor, for the purpose of rendering herself eligible or increasing her needs for old age assistance. From this decision she appealed to the Department of Public Health and Welfare. A hearing was held on June 8, 1955, and, on June 29, 1955, the Director of the Department of Public Health and Welfare found respondent was ineligible to receive benefits on the basis that she had made an assignment or transfer of property for the purpose of rendering [191]*191herself eligible for old age assistance, or to increase her needs for benefits. Respondent appealed to the Circuit Court of Newton County where a judgment was rendered October 10, 1955, remanding the case to the Department of Public Health and Welfare for redetermination of the issues on the basis that the decision was arbitrary and unreasonable.

A hearing was held before the Referee on January 26, 1956, for redetermination of the issue and the Department of Public Health and Welfare rendered a decision holding respondent transferred her property without receiving a fair and valuable consideration as required by the statute, section 208.010 Cum.Supp.1955, V.A.M.S., and that she was ineligible to receive old age benefits. Respondent appealed, again, to the Circuit-Court to Newton County where the court, on May 5, 1956, again, rendered judgment finding that the decision of State Department of Public Health and Welfare was arbitrary and unreasonable and remanded the cause for further consideration.

In the trial court’s conclusions of law he stated:

1. That the first judgment of the Circuit Court (October 10, 1955) was final, conclusive and binding, and was res adjudicata on the ground that no appeal had been taken from said judgment and no new facts had intervened or had been shown in evidence since said judgment.

2. That the respondent had established a prima facie case of eligibility for old age assistance and that the burden of the evidence then shifted to the Department of Welfare to support by proof that the property was sold by petitioner without receiving fair and reasonable consideration, and

3. That the decision of the Department was arbitrary and ■ unreasonable and not supported by substantial evidence.

We adopt appellant’s statement of facts which, respondent states, is substantially correct:

“The parties waived the rules of admissibility of evidence. Respondent first applied for Old Age Assistance in 1940 and it was approved in February, 1941. (The entire transcript of the testimony and evidence of the first hearing, by agreement, was made a part of the record of the second hearing, and, therefore, any citation to the transcript will refer to that of the first hearing, unless otherwise indicated.) Respondent was removed from the rolls in 1943 and did not reapply until December 10, 1946. On December 1, 1925, property at 323 Patterson Street, Neosho, Missouri, was purchased in her name. Affidavits offered into evidence by respondent, her son Aaron Choate, and a third party stated that the property at 323 Patterson Street, Neosho, Missouri, was purchased by Aaron C. Choate and was owned by him, title being purchased in respondent’s name only because the wife of Aaron C. Choate was out of town on the date of the purchase of said property. On-July 29, 1932, this property was conveyed by her to Eva Rebecca Choate, subject to an unpaid balance of $1,203.80 due on two-deeds of trust, which the grantee agreed to pay. Eva Rebecca Choate is the wife of Aaron Choate, who is the only child of-respondent. On December 17, 1932, Eva Rebecca Choate and Aaron Choate conveyed the property to Martha A. Choate (Respondent) subject to the two deeds of trust which grantee agreed to pay. Respondent told the case worker on December 10, 1946, that she had paid the deed of trust from her earnings from 1943 to 1946. On March 8, 1948, she signed a statement listing the property belonging to her, in which she listed the property at 323 Patterson Street, Neosho, Missouri, at $2000, subject to a mortgage of $1000. In 1950, she signed a property statement listing the house at 323 Patterson Street as her property, valued at $2000 and subject to a mortgage of $1000. In February, 1951, she likewise signed a statement listing the property at $2000, subject to a mortgage of $1000 to Paul Hays. On January 3, 1954, she signed a property statement listing the home on Patterson Street as owned by her, valued at $3000, [192]*192and not subject to a mortgage. During all this time respondent was living in the home at 323 Patterson Street, Neosho, Missouri. On July 16, 1951, respondent executed a deed of the property at 323 Patterson Street, Neosho, Missouri, placing the same in escrow to be delivered to her son, Aaron Choate, upon respondent’s death. On January 4, 1954, when the county welfare worker went to respondent’s home at 323 Patterson, respondent told her that she had conveyed the home to her son, reserving a life estate for herself, but that the deed had not been delivered. Respondent told the welfare worker at that time that she conveyed the property to her son because she was afraid a neighbor would try to influence her in obtaining the property. The county welfare worker cautioned her at that time about making a conveyance without receiving a fair and valuable consideration. On May 13, 1954, respondent conveyed the property at 323 Patterson Street to her son. There is no contention that he paid respondent any consideration for the property at the time of the conveyance, and there is no evidence that the property has been returned to the respondent. The property has now been sold by her son, Aaron Choate, for a sum between $3000 and $4000. A letter written by the son, Aaron Choate, to Mr. Paul Carver, Attorney for Respondent, July 16, 1955, and entered as evidence by respondent, tends to show that the son sold the property at 323 Patterson Street, Neosho, Missouri, for his mother, respondent, and is holding the proceeds, after deducting from the selling price the expenditures made by him, in trust for the respondent.”

Our attention is first directed to respondent’s motion to dismiss the appeal. The grounds pleaded for such dismissal are that appellant failed to comply with 42 V.A.M.S. Supreme Court Rule 1.04 in that it failed to furnish respondent with a transcript of the testimony without which respondent is unable to prepare a brief on appeal in compliance with the court rule.

Supreme Court Rule 1.04(e) provides:

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Bluebook (online)
296 S.W.2d 189, 1956 Mo. App. LEXIS 204, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/choate-v-state-department-of-public-health-welfare-moctapp-1956.