Guarantee Title & Trust Co. v. Siedhoff

58 P.2d 66, 144 Kan. 13, 1936 Kan. LEXIS 178
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedJune 6, 1936
DocketNo. 32,676
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 58 P.2d 66 (Guarantee Title & Trust Co. v. Siedhoff) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Guarantee Title & Trust Co. v. Siedhoff, 58 P.2d 66, 144 Kan. 13, 1936 Kan. LEXIS 178 (kan 1936).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Thiele, J.:

Plaintiff appeals from an adverse judgment in proceedings in aid of execution, two principal questions being involved. One is whether certain expenditures made by the father of the defendant, Charles F. Smyth, were loans or advancements. This question involves some subdivisions which will be hereafter separately discussed. The other question is whether an attempted restraint on alienation of a devise to Charles F. Smyth, contained in the will of his father, is valid.

On June 16, 1930, the plaintiff recovered a judgment against Charles F. Smyth for $15,000. The proceedings in question were had in an effort to collect it. Charles F. Smyth was the son of Charles H. Smyth, a man of wealth who lived in Wichita prior to his death in November of 1933. The age of the son was not shown, but from about 1918 he seems to have been engaged in many busi[14]*14ness ventures, all of which, with one exception, resulted in losses. About the year 1928 the father and son participated in the sale of the Orient Railroad, whatever its correct title may have been, with a resulting profit of over $200,000. In an action in the United States district court, involving the father’s income tax for 1928, the father represented that he and his son were equal partners in the Orient matter; that half of the earning was the son’s, but that the son was indebted to him for losses and obligations incurred by the son and paid by the father, and therefore his retention of the entire amount did not make it all income. The father prevailed. Whether the settlement there made covered all matters to that date is not clear, but it may be so assumed. Thereafter the son became interested financially in the construction of a theater in Wichita. The judgment of $15,000 mentioned grows out of that matter, and is a part of the transaction involved in Siedhoff v. Campbell, 141 Kan. 255, 40 P. 2d 404. Although the evidence is perhaps susceptible of various interpretations, it appears the father protected the son in the subsequent bankruptcy of the theater company by advancement or loan of moneys in an amount of at least $42,500. Owing to the fact that much of the testimony referred to the matters prior to the income tax claim, and that in many instances the abstract fails to show dates, names and amounts clearly, we do not refer to some claimed loans that perhaps were considered by the trial court. But subsequent to 1928, the father advanced for the son’s use to pay for life insurance premiums, revenue taxes, living expenses, payments to his wife, etc., at least $25,000 more. On May 4, 1933, the father and son took account of the moneys advanced by the father, and the son then executed and gave to his father his demand note for $51,274. No part of this note had been paid when the father died in November, 1933. The father left a will which was duly probated. His widow, Anna M. Smyth, was appointed and qualified as executrix. So far as we need here notice, the will gave to the wife a life estate in the personal property with power of disposal, the identifiable remainder to the testator’s three children, Charles F. Smyth and two daughters. Subject to a monthly payment of $500 each to his three children, he also gave his wife a life estate in his real estate. Subject to the wife’s life estate, he gave to his son a life estate in certain real estate, and provided for' the disposition of the remainder, with which disposition we are not concerned. Somewhat similar devises were also made to the two daughters. Any of the life tenants was [15]*15given power to lease on limited terms. The twelfth paragraph of the will then provided:

“Until the termination of the life estates herein devised, no person shall have any right to sell, mortgage or otherwise dispose of any interest in said real estate (except leasing as aforesaid), nor shall the same be subject to the debts of said devisee by execution, garnishment, attachment or other process, provided,” etc.

The provision referred to the power of a daughter to handle an undivided interest in real estate so that she could protect the same. Following the qualification of the executrix, Charles F. Smyth executed and delivered to her an assignment of the $500 per month bequest “in consideration of the indebtedness due from me to the estate of Charles H. Smyth.” The present proceedings were commenced May 19, 1934, and hearings were continued from time to time. In October, 1934, Anna M. Smyth, as executrix, was permitted to interplead and set up the assignment by Charles F. Smyth and later to ameúd and set up the note of $51,274. At the conclusion of the hearings, the trial court rendered judgment that the Charles F. Smyth note to his father constituted a valid indebtedness to the father’s estate; that it was not necessary to determine whether or not an equitable lien was created in favor of the estate for the indebtedness superior to the judgment of plaintiff, that question being reserved and not decided; that plaintiff recover nothing, and that an injunction theretofore issued against further proceedings by execution against any of the property coming to Charles F. Smyth by virtue of his father’s will be made permanent. Plaintiff’s motion for a new trial being denied, it appeals.

Taking up for consideration the question first propounded as outlined above, it is contended the advances and expenditures made by the father to the son were advancements; that the note was given in contemplation of the then existing and unpaid judgment of plaintiff; that the assignment was given in contemplation of that same judgment; that in any event if the advance represented by the note was a loan, it was forgiven by the will. The statements of Charles F. Smyth as to the manner in which he secured the moneys represented by the note, together with much supplementary proof in connection therewith, most certainly made a sufficient showing to warrant the trial court in holding a valid indebtedness existed. The statement of facts herein summarizes the testimony, and we see no reason to disturb the conclusion. The fact the father took the note [16]*16from the son is of itself very persuasive evidence he had not considered advances previously made as gifts or advancements. Neither did he have to be solicitous about plaintiff’s judgment — it would have been quite natural that he feel his property should not pay it. An examination of the will as abstracted shows the contention the will forgave the debt is not good.

We pass now to the provision of the will of Charles H. Smyth restricting alienation. The trial court, by enjoining further proceedings by execution, in effect held the provision of the will restricting alienation was valid. The attempted restriction is quoted above. It will be observed that although it provides there shall be no sale, mortgage or other disposal until after termination of the life estates devised, there is no provision penalizing an alienation in violation thereof. Many authorities are cited in the briefs, but we shall refer to only a few which include those relied upon by appellant and appellees.

In Wright v. Jenks, 124 Kan. 604, 261 Pac. 840, the testatrix devised a life estate to her husband and thereafter equally to her two children “during their natural lives and to their children of their bodies after them, they not having the right to sell, encumber or dispose of the same; in event of either dying without heirs the property to revert to the survivor of heirs.” (p. 605.)

During the lifetime of the father, the son in 1911 conveyed his interest to Jenks.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
58 P.2d 66, 144 Kan. 13, 1936 Kan. LEXIS 178, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/guarantee-title-trust-co-v-siedhoff-kan-1936.