Griffin v. Miller

87 S.W. 455, 188 Mo. 327, 1905 Mo. LEXIS 19
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedMay 16, 1905
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 87 S.W. 455 (Griffin v. Miller) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Griffin v. Miller, 87 S.W. 455, 188 Mo. 327, 1905 Mo. LEXIS 19 (Mo. 1905).

Opinion

GANTT, J.

This is the second appeal in this cause. The first appeal will he found in the 176 Mo. 392, under the style of Susan B. Griffin et al. v. J. H. McIntosh.

The judgment on the first appeal was reversed and the cause remanded.

After the first cause had been appealed and before the reversal in this court, the defendant McIntosh conveyed the land to Miller, and the latter was substituted as defendant. On the trial anew in the circuit court judgment was rendered for the plaintiffs, and the defendant Miller appeals.

The action now, as then, is one in ejectment to recover two undivided eighths of certain real estate in Polk county, by plaintiffs as heirs at law and children of Oollon McIntosh and Jane his wife.

The answer admits that Mrs. Griffin and Mrs. Wingfield are two of the eight children and heirs at law of Collon McIntosh and Jane McIntosh his wife, both deceased. Defendant further alleges that said Oollon McIntosh and Jane his wife conveyed to James McIntosh, another of the children and heirs of said Collon McIntosh, the land in controversy, and that thereafter said James H. McIntosh conveyed to the defendant Miller sixty acres of said land therein; that at the time of the making of the deed from Collon McIntosh to J ames McIntosh the grantor was old,' feeble and illiterate; that by the mistake of the scrivener and without [331]*331the direction or knowledge of the grantor the following clause was inserted in the deed, which is in the form of a general warranty deed, except as to said clause: “Upon this express condition that the said Collon McIntosh and Jane McIntosh is to live on the farm till their death as one of the family and to hold the deed in their possession till their death, then this deed is to he delivered to James H. McIntosh or his heirs.”

The defendant alleges that the said deed was made in consideration of the support, care, nursing and attention given Collon McIntosh by James H. McIntosh, and that said deed was delivered in the lifetime of the grantor. He prays that the deed be reformed so as to show the true intention of the grantors by striking out the clause above stated, and that a full and perfect and complete title be declared to be vested in him.

On the former appeal it was held by this court that the said instrument was testamentary in character and did not pass a present interest in the land to the grantee and hence was not good as a deed, although all the parties thereto intended that it should take effect at the maker’s death; and that the evidence showed that in turning over the deed to the grantee, Collon McIntosh did not make an unequivocal delivery and relinquishment thereof, and the authorities were cited authorizing that conclusion.

By the answer in this case it will be observed that the defendant seeks to have said instrument reformed by striking out the testamentary condition above recited, and the sole question presented is whether the circuit court erred in refusing the reform of the instrument as prayed by the defendant. As in the former case, the evidence tends to show that, at the time of the execution of this instrument, Collon McIntosh and his wife were old people and were growing very feeble, and that James McIntosh at their request had gone to live with them and had cared for and attended the old man up to the time of his death; that Collon Me[332]*332Intosh. requested John "W. Crow, a justice of the peace in said county, to draw a deed from said Collon and Jane McIntosh to said James H. McIntosh. The justice testified that he went over to the residence of Collon McIntosh and they talked freely about the matter; that he inserted the said condition that Collon and his wife were to live on the farm until their death as one of the family and to hold the deed in their possession until their death, of his own motion; that the old man did not direct him to put that clause in there; that he did it to protect the old man; that he did not remember that he read the deed twice to him before it was executed, but that he did read the deed over to him; that he always read a deed over to anybody for whom he wrote one; and that he remembers that he read this deed over to him before it was executed; that his memory was better when he testified on the former trial in relation to just what took place when the deed was made than it is now; that he did not remember how he testified before, but that he read this deed and this clause to him before it was executed; that the old man knew it was in there, and made no objection to it, and did not say anything about it, and that both the old man and the old lady knew this condition was in there, because ,he read it over to them.

Mr. Templeton, the official stenographer of the court, testified that he took the evidence on the former trial and made a transcript of the testimony in that case. He produced his notes of the evidence in which it appeared that the justice, Mr. Crow, testified in answer to the question, “Q. Did the old man know it .[this condition] was in there? A. -Of course he did, I read it over twice to him.” Mrs. Crane, a daughter of Collon McIntosh, testified that her father told her he had destroyed a will which he had made devising the land to her and James H. McIntosh, and had made Tom a deed to the one hundred and ten acres; that she was at her father’s house about two weeks before he [333]*333died; that he said he was aiming to come up and see her; that on that occasion he told her mother to get the deed and give it to Tom, and Tom would take care of it. On cross-examination she said her father said. “ ‘Tom can take care of it;’ he said he would just give it into Tom’s care and he would take care of it.”

John McIntosh, another son, testified that he was at his father’s house about two weeks before he died, and stepped into the room where his brother James H. and his sister Mrs. Crane were with his father and mother just as his mother was handing James H. a deed. At the suggestion of James IT. he asked his father if he might accompany James H. to Fair Play where he could put the deed in the bank until James H. could have it recorded, and his father said that he might. The brother and he went to Fair Play and gave the deed to John Painter; that he, John, never read it until after his father’s death. There was evidence that Collon McIntosh was a man of ordinary business capacity, and could read and write. On the former appeal it was earnestly urged by counsel for James H. McIntosh that notwithstanding the instrument expressly stipulated it was not to be delivered until after the death of Collon McIntosh, the old man waived that condition and delivered it in his lifetime, and that it became effectual from the moment of its delivery. Upon the examination of the evidence on that point we held that giving the testimony its full effect it did not amount to proof of unequivocal delivery and relinquishment of all dominion over the deed, and a waiver of the plain condition therein written.

On a re-examination of the testimony heard on the first trial and reproduced in this and the additional testimony taken on the last trial we think there is no substantial difference in the evidence upon the first and the last trial, and we still adhere to our former decision that there was not an unconditional delivery of the deed in the lifetime of Collon McIntosh, and that there [334]*334was no evidence .that he waived the express condition in the deed.

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Bluebook (online)
87 S.W. 455, 188 Mo. 327, 1905 Mo. LEXIS 19, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/griffin-v-miller-mo-1905.