Fibikowski v. Fibikowski

1941 OK 396, 121 P.2d 304, 190 Okla. 152, 1941 Okla. LEXIS 391
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedDecember 2, 1941
DocketNo. 30247.
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 1941 OK 396 (Fibikowski v. Fibikowski) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fibikowski v. Fibikowski, 1941 OK 396, 121 P.2d 304, 190 Okla. 152, 1941 Okla. LEXIS 391 (Okla. 1941).

Opinion

DAVISON, J.

In this action plaintiff in error, hereinafter referred to as plaintiff, sought to establish his ownership of certain real estate in Lincoln county. The tract of land in question is the southeast quarter of a 160-acre farm which belonged to plaintiff’s mother, Mrs. Mary Jezewski, who ’ died in December, 1931, leaving him and three other adult children surviving her.

Prior to 1927, plaintiff lived with his older brother, Frank, and his mother in the latter’s home on the farm. During that year plaintiff was married, and with the exception of one year, has since lived on the particular portion of the farm involved herein in a house he erected thereon in anticipation of his marriage.

About two months prior to her death, Mrs. Jezewski made a will in which she devised the 40 acres to plaintiff’s son, John Charles Fibikowski, who was then approximately three years of age, and made no provision therein for the plaintiff, except a specific bequest of one dollar.

After the testator’s death, plaintiff administered her estate, and it was distributed in accord with the terms of her will and the final decree of the probate court.

Thereafter, in 1933, plaintiff was appointed guardian of his minor son, John Charles, and acted as such until he was removed in May, 1937, upon the petition of his former wife, Jessie Fibikow-ski, from whom he was divorced in 1934 or 1935. After said removal, Jessie was appointed the child’s guardian and was so acting when on August 4, 1937, plaintiff instituted the present action, naming both his minor son, John Charles, and the latter’s mother and guardian as the defendants therein.

In his amended petition filed in the action, plaintiff charged, among other things, that the defendant guardian was threatening to dispossess him of the 40-acre premises hereinbefore described, and asked that she be enjoined from so doing, and that he be declared the owner of said property. Plaintiff’s claim to the ownership of the property was based upon allegations to the effect that his mother’s devise vested only the naked legal title in his son, John Charles, and that the equitable and beneficial ownership had vested in himself by reason of the performance of his obligations under an alleged oral agreement had with his mother many years before, whereby she was to “bequeath” him the property in consideration of love and affection and his caring for her during the feeble period of her life. Some of the more specific details of plaintiff’s allegations are set forth in the opinion promulgated in Fibikowski v. Fibikowski, 185 Okla. 520, 94 P. 2d 921, wherein this court reversed the trial court’s judgment sustaining the defendants’ demurrers to plaintiff’s above-described pleading, and held that the facts therein alleged were sufficient to establish that the real estate in question was the subject of a resulting trust in plaintiff’s favor.

Upon reinstatement of plaintiff’s cause of action in compliance with the mandate issued in the above-mentioned appeal, the defendants filed answers denying that there had been any agreement between Mrs. Jezewski and plaintiff whereby the latter was to inherit the property, or to hold, own, use or occupy same and appropriate the rents and profits therefrom; and specifically denying that there had been any consideration for such an agreement.

*154 Plaintiff filed separate demurrers to certain parts of defendants’ answers in which they claimed in substance that as plaintiff had procured the distribution of his mother’s estate in accordance with the terms of her will, and, as guardian of John Charles, had acknowledged the latter’s ownership of the property in question, he was thereafter estopped from disputing it. These demurrers were overruled and the cause was tried without a jury. Judgment was entered in favor of the defendants, denying plaintiff the relief sought.

In this appeal plaintiff urges three principal propositions for reversal of the trial court’s judgment. Under the first of these he takes the position that the evidence introduced at the trial was sufficient to establish the allegations of his amended petition, which, as herein-before noted, were upheld as against defendants’ demurrers in Fibikowski v. Fibikowski, supra. Our conclusion in said appeal that plaintiff’s amended petition was sufficient as an allegation of a resulting trust in his favor was based upon the proposition that where a father has paid the consideration for land and had it conveyed to his child, a resulting trust will arise in the father’s favor, if “. . . it clearly appears from the accompanying facts and circumstances that the beneficial interest was not intended to be transferred with the legal title.

The evidence on behalf of plaintiff tends to show that for several years previous to her death, Mrs. Jezewski had intended for her four children to inherit equal portions of her farm. Pursuant to this intention, her son, Frank, was to have the northeast quarter thereof, and plaintiff the southeast quarter, in accord with preferences they had each expressed, but the evidence falls far short of establishing an enforceable agreement that the farm should be so conveyed. The provisions of her will reveal that she carried out this plan, except as to the portion that has been referred to as intended for plaintiff, but the evidence is insufficient to negative the conclusion that she changed her mind or her previous intention regarding this tract before making her will. Nor does it clearly appear that plaintiff instigated or was responsible for his mother’s devise of the property to his son. Much emphasis is placed upon the fact that the testator consulted with the plaintiff as well as with at least one of her neighbors before deciding to will the tract to said devisee. All that this positively proves, however, is that the devisor sought and obtained the advice and approval of the plaintiff in this, as in other matters concerning her property. And it does not clearly appear from the facts and circumstances proved that it was not intended by said devise to transfer the beneficial interest in the property, as well as the legal title thereto, to the devisee, John Charles Fibi-kowski.

In apparent recognition of such deficiencies in the proof, counsel for plaintiff calls our attention to section 11809, O. S. 1931, 60 Okla. St. Ann. § 137, and contends that under such statutes, as well as at common law, the important thing is not whether there was any specific agreement or contract and contemplation by the parties of the legal effect of their acts, but that the principal and most important consideration in determining the existence of a resulting trust is whether or not one person has paid the consideration for the conveyance to another of the legal title to the property comprising the subject of the trust. Assuming that this argument is soundly premised, the question which then arises is whether the facts of this case render jt applicable here. The answer to this question depends upon whether the provision devising the real estate in question to John Charles Fibikowski was made a part of plaintiff’s mother’s will because of a consideration which plaintiff gave her for such devise.

The consideration upon which plaintiff relies to establish himself as the beneficiary under his mother’s devise consists of the contributions which his counsel say he made to her care and support, and the upkeep and improvement of the farm upon which they lived. The case of Taylor v. Taylor, 79 Kan. 161, 99 P.

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Bluebook (online)
1941 OK 396, 121 P.2d 304, 190 Okla. 152, 1941 Okla. LEXIS 391, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fibikowski-v-fibikowski-okla-1941.