Davis v. Davis

124 S.W. 525, 93 Ark. 93, 1910 Ark. LEXIS 290
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedJanuary 3, 1910
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 124 S.W. 525 (Davis v. Davis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Davis v. Davis, 124 S.W. 525, 93 Ark. 93, 1910 Ark. LEXIS 290 (Ark. 1910).

Opinion

Battle, J.

William Davis, Eliza J. Davis, Oscar E. Davis, Lelia A. Beauchamp and Ella B. Davis, William being the father, and Eliza J. Davis being the mother, of the other three, constituted one family. Discord reigned among them. Father and children lost respect for, and confidence in, each other, and indulged in disparagement; and paternal feeling and filial love and affection seemed for awhile to have departed from their midst. Finally the mother died, and was buried, and the children made ready to depart, and the old man softened, and invited them to remain with him in the old homestead, and they accepted his invitation. They remained a short timé when the same old bickerings, ill-will, discord and vituperation returned. The old man grew tired of the children, and brought this suit against them, on -the twenty-first day of August, 1908, in the Benton Chancery Court, to drive them from his home. He alleged in his complaint that-he is the owner of a certain tract of land containing forty acres, “and that he resides thereon, and cultivates the same as his only méans of support, and that for a long time the defendants have habitually and unlawfully, against his will and consent, interrupted plaintiff in the possession and quiet enjoyment of his property by persisting in residing thereon and assuming the authority to manage and control same, and by preventing plaintiff’s tenants and other employees from occupying and cultivating the same, and by otherwise unlawfully interfering with plaintiff’s peaceable enjoyment of said premises and to his great personal discomfort and financial injury and damage, and threaten to and will continue to do so unless restrained from so doing. He asked that they be perpetually enjoined from such interference and interruption in plaintiff’s quiet and undisturbed enjoyment of his property and his home.”

Mrs. Beauchamp, a defendant, answered and admitted that the legal title in the land is vested in the plaintiff, but denied the other allegations in his complaint. And she alleged:

“And this defendant says that in the month of August, 1907, she was requested by the plaintiff to take up her residence upon said premises; that in compliance with the said request she did so; that plaintiff agreed that if she would do so he would make title to this defendant, to her brother, Oscar E. Davis, and to her sister, Ella B. Davis, to an undivided one-fourth interest each in the lands and premises set forth in the complaint, and, as a further consideration for her doing so, that he would deed to her sons, John E. Beauchamp and Earl R. Beauchamp, an undivided one-eighth interest each in the lands and premises. * * * * That by reason of her contract with plaintiff she declined an offer of $65 a month and her expenses as a traveling saleslady; that she could have made during said time as saleslady the sum of $780, but that, instead of accepting the sum, she, in compliance with her contract with plaintiff, has devoted all of her time and attention to him and his business, to her great loss, towit,' in the sum of $780. And the defendant, further answering, says that, as a part of her contract with William Davis, she was to occupy the land and premises during the lifetime of William Davis, free from any charge for rent or otherwise from her, together with her brother, Oscar E. Davis, and her sister,, Ella B. Davis. And this defendant prays that this plaintiff be enjoined and restrained from in any manner selling or disposing of the real estate, or from mortgaging or incumbering the same in any manner whatever. And defendant, having fully answered, prays that, upon a final hearing of this cause, she be decreed an undivided one-fourth interest in the lands; that the court find that she is entitled to occupy the same in connection with her brother, Oscar E. Davis, during the lifetime of the plaintiff. That she have and recover all her costs in their behalf laid out and expended, and that she have and recover all other'proper legal and equitable relief to which in good conscience she is entitled, and will ever pray.”

Oscar F.. Davis answered, and made the denials contained in the answer of Mrs. Beau-champ, and by way of cross-complaint pleaded the same contract with the plaintiff, and asked for specific performance of the same.

Ella B. Davis answered and denied the allegations contained in the complaint of plaintiff, and, further answering, said:

“The defendant, answering further- and by way' of cross complaint, states that on or about the 14th day of December, 1895, Eliza J. Davis, the mother arid wife of plaintiff, inherited as her share from her father’s estate the sum of $357.76, and gave of this inheritance $300 to the plaintiff, with which plaintiff built the house upon the premises, and otherwise improved the same. That Eliza J. Davis, prior to her death, bequeathed to the co-defendant, Ella B. Davis, this money, together with her interest in the land, and requested the plaintiff to pay the money to this defendant, which the plaintiff has' failed to do. That this defendant has an interest in the S. W. J4 S. W. ¿4 of section 5, township 17, R. 33 W., in the sum of $300 and interest at the rate of 6 per cent from the 14th day of December, 1895. And the defendant, further answering, states that in the year 1885 the plaintiff employed her to labor as a domestic in his family and agreed to pay her reasonable compensation per week for her services. That she labored for the plaintiff as domestic for twenty-three years. That her services were reasonably worth the sum of $5 per week, and that there is due her for services aforesaid the sum of -$5,980. That eighteen years ago plaintiff employed this defendánt as a nurse to nurse and care for his sick wife, and agreed to pay her therefor what her services were reasonably worth, and that her services as a nurse were reasonably worth {he sum of $1 per day, and that the'plaintiff is justly indebted to her in the sum of $6,205 for services as nurse. That, from the -time that the defendant entered the services of the plaintiff, there has been running between them a mutual running account, and that no settlement has ever been had with the plaintiff for the services so rendered by this defendant, and that there is now due and unpaid to this defendant the sum of $12,185. And the defendant, further answering, says that in the month of August, 1907, the plaintiff approached Mrs. L. A. Beauchamp, and stated to her that he desired this defendant, her brother, Oscar F. Davis, and Mrs. E. A° Beauchamp to remain with him and care for him during his declining years, and- stated that, as compensation for their care and attention, he would leave to each of them a one-fourth interest in the lands and premises herein-before described in plaintiff’s complaint, and would leave to John L.' Beauchamp and Karl R. Beauchamp an undivided one-eighth interest in said estate. And' this defendant thereupon accepted the proposition so made by William Davis, and has since continued to remain at his home 'and to do and perform all duties incumbent upon her and to care for and nurse and minister to the said William Davis and look after his wants and household affairs as best her abilities would permit.”

And she prayed as follows:

“The premises being proved, this defendant prays that the court determine what interest she has in said premises, and that she have partition thereof. That she have specific performance of the contract so entered into by and between William Davis and this defendant.

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Related

Penix v. Pumphrey
188 S.W. 816 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1916)
Fletcher v. Pfeifer
146 S.W. 864 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1912)
Davis v. Beauchamp
138 S.W. 636 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1911)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
124 S.W. 525, 93 Ark. 93, 1910 Ark. LEXIS 290, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/davis-v-davis-ark-1910.