Duling v. Markun

152 F. Supp. 683, 1957 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3454
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Indiana
DecidedMay 31, 1957
DocketCiv. No. 3688
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 152 F. Supp. 683 (Duling v. Markun) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Indiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Duling v. Markun, 152 F. Supp. 683, 1957 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3454 (S.D. Ind. 1957).

Opinion

STECKLER, Chief Judge.

This is the second time the trial court has considered the issues in this cause. On May 20, 1955, this court granted the defendants’ motions for summary judgment based upon the pleadings, affidavits and deposition on file in support of the motions, concluding that there was no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the defendants were entitled to judgment as a matter of law. This conclusion was based upon the court’s interpretation of paragraph Sixth of the last will and testament of the decedent, Jack Marks, as viewed in light of the pleadings, affidavits and deposition then before the court; the court having regarded the two $25,000 checks received by the defendant, Louis R. Markun, from the decedent, as being technical legal, advancements as defined in probate,law. Plaintiffs appealed from the ruling of this court and the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that the defendants were not entitled to judgment as a matter of law and that this court had erred in granting summary judgment. The case was remanded for trial upon the merits. See Duling v. Markun, 7 Cir., 1956, 231 F.2d 833.

At the time this court made its ruling on the motions for summary judgment, the last will and testament of the decedent, Jack Marks, had not been construed by the Circuit Court of Harrison County, West Viginia, the court having jurisdiction of the decedent’s will and his estate, the decedent having died a resident of Harrison County, State of West Virginia.

Except for such evidence and the oral evidence in the trial of this cause pertaining to the relationship existing between the defendant Louis R. Markun and the evidence concerning certain statements made by the decedent during his lifetime regarding his intentions with respect to the alleged gift in the amount of $50,000, there is little difference in the evidence before the court at this time and the record which was before the court at the time of its prior ruling. This, coupled with the holding of the Court of Appeals in regard to the admissibility of certain evidence under the Indiana Dead Man’s Statute, Burns Ind.Stats. (1946 Repl.) § 2-1715, however, compels the trial court to come to a different conclusion in connection with the present proceeding.

Evidence was heard by this court on March 14, 1957, and the court having considered such evidence, together with the post-trial briefs of the parties and the proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law which were ordered filed, now makes the following findings of fact and conclusions of law:

Findings of Fact

1. The plaintiffs in this action are the executors of the estate of Jack Marks, deceased, who died in Harrison County, West Virginia, the place of his residence, on July 27, 1952. The decedent’s will was duly probated in [685]*685Harrison County, West Virginia, and the plaintiffs qualified as his executors, on July 31, 1952. The plaintiffs are residents of the City of Clarksburg, Harrison County, West Virginia. The defendant Louis R. Markun, a nephew of the decedent, is a resident of the City of Indianapolis, Indiana; and the defendant Maple Road Village, Inc., is an Indiana corporation, owned and operated by the defendant Markun and his family, Markun being the president and a director of the corporation. The amount in controversy in this action is in excess of $3,000, exclusive of interest and costs. This court has jurisdiction of the action.

2. The controversy in this action rose out of a $50,000 transaction between the decedent, Jack Marks, and the defendants which took place in the latter part of the year 1950, and involved two checks for $25,000 each sent by Jack Marks to the defendant Markun. In their three alternative causes of action pleaded in the complaint, the plaintiffs assert the right to recover the unpaid balance of the $50,000, with accrued interest, from the defendants, or from at least one of them, on the ground that, in the light of the surrounding facts and circumstances, and the conduct of the parties, the $50,-000 transaction constituted and was a loan of money to the defendants, thereby giving rise to an interest bearing debt owing to Jack Marks.

The defendants’ version of the $50,000 transaction is stated in paragraphs 4 and 5 of the answer of the defendant Louis R. Markun filed in this action. Such answer alleges that the $50,000, evidenced by the two $25,000 checks mentioned, was paid to the defendant Louis R. Markun by Jack Marks, not as an outright or unconditional gift or advancement, but subject to a verbal agreement between the decedent and the defendant Markun for a somewhat involved repayment arrangement, the nature of which is outlined in the above mentioned paragraphs of Markun’s answer.

3. Around the end of August, 1950, Jack Marks sent to the defendant Markun a check for $25,000, dated August 28, 1950, payable to the order of Markun. Markun immediately endorsed this check over to the defendant, Maple Road Village, Inc., and, as shown by an endorsement stamped on the back of the check, it was deposited in an Indianapolis bank on September 2, 1950. Thus, the check was received by Markun in Indianapolis some time between August 28 and September 2, 1950.

4. A little over two months later, Jack Marks sent to the defendant Markun a second check for $25,000, dated November 13, 1950, which Markun handled in the same way that he did the original one. He immediately endorsed the check over to the defendant Maple Road Village, Inc., and as shown by an endorsement on the back of the check, it was deposited in an Indianapolis bank on November 17, 1950. Thus, this check was received by Markun in Indianapolis some time between November 13 and November 17, 1950.

5. Following the delivery of these two $25,000 checks by Jack Marks to the defendant Markun, and the deposit and payment thereof, twenty-two regular monthly payments on the $50,000 transaction were made to Jack Marks. These twenty-two monthly payments, aggregating the sum of $10,500, were made to the decedent by checks drawn upon the account of the defendant Maple Road Village, Inc., in an Indianapolis bank.

Photostatic copies of these checks of the defendant corporation were filed in evidence at the trial. Twenty of the checks were signed by the defendant Louis R. Markun, and the other two by his wife Mildred Markun. All of the twenty-two checks, with the exception of two, have entries thereon noting that the checks are in payment of “interest”; and as the other two checks are for the same monthly amounts, it may be fairly inferred that they also covered “interest.” These monthly payments of “interest” were made regularly to Jack Marks by checks of the defendant Maple Road Village, Inc., until his death in July, 1952.

6. At the direction of Jack Marks, his bookkeeper, Miss Wyckoff, entered [686]*686monthly in the, regular course of business, in a .formal 'journal or ledger in which personal business transactions of Jack Marks were recorded, the series of twenty-two monthly checks of the defendant Maple Road Village, Inc., as being in payment of “interest.” Such “interest” payments were recorded by her on a page of the journal or ledger bearing the heading “Maple Road Village, Inc., (50,000.00) Louis R. Markun.”

7. At Jack Marks’ direction, his bookkeeper turned over to Mrs. Campbell, the public accountant who made out his income tax returns, the list of interest payments on the $50,000 transaction recorded in the decedent’s journal or ledger book.

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Related

Duling v. Markun
251 F.2d 361 (Seventh Circuit, 1958)

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Bluebook (online)
152 F. Supp. 683, 1957 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3454, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/duling-v-markun-insd-1957.