Hinzelin v. Bailly

22 So. 2d 43, 155 Fla. 837, 1945 Fla. LEXIS 672
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedMay 1, 1945
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 22 So. 2d 43 (Hinzelin v. Bailly) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hinzelin v. Bailly, 22 So. 2d 43, 155 Fla. 837, 1945 Fla. LEXIS 672 (Fla. 1945).

Opinion

BROWN, J.:

Pierre Bailly, a resident of Dade County, filed a bill in the Circuit Court of Dade County for rescission and accounting against his sister, Madeleine Hinzelin, and her husband, residents of Washington, D. C., and also against his brother, Andre Bailly,. a resident of Connecticut. The defendants interposed a motion to dismiss the bill for want of equity, stating several different grounds. The motion to dismiss was denied, and defendants have sought review by this Court of the order of dismissal by petition for certiorari under our rule. As our decision of the questions raised’may well prove determinative of the cause, we deem it advisable to state our reasons therefor.

The bill alleges that prior to March 1, 1943, Pierre Bailly, plaintiff in the court below and respondent here, had entered *838 into divers and sundry contracts with his sister and brother, defendants below and petitioners here, and was indebted to each of them for a large sum of money. Plaintiff owned numerous parcels of real estate on which said defendants held options. Differences with respect to the amount owed by plaintiff to each and the manner in which it should be paid had arisen and he had for a long time negotiated for the settlement of their differences regarding their obligations each to the other, and that on March 1,1943, in order to compromise and settle all the differences between him and the defendants, and with the intent and purpose of finally adjusting all differences and difficulties concerning their respective rights, plaintiff made an offer to his sister to transfer to her and her brother Andre, certain real and personal property in full and complete settlement of all his obligations to the defendants, which offer was contained in a letter dated at Miami, Florida, on March 1. The letter contemplated that the sister should take up plaintiff’s offer with her brother, and the bill alleges that the offer contained in the letter was accepted by the sister and brother by a telegram sent by the sister from New York on March 3, 1943. This letter contemplated the exchange of certain properties in Dade County by which plaintiff was to receive deeds to four properties, on one of which the Grant Hotel was located, and was to deliver a deed by which he conveyed the property on which the Versailles Hotel at Miami Beach was located, subject to the existing mortgage on the property. The letter also contemplated the conveyance to plaintiff of the Alton Dade (Nut Club) property for which, he was to pay $66,000.00, $55,000.00 in cash and $11,000.00 by “note Chateau-Renault.” The letter also told the sister to send all these papers, “signed by you and by your husband immediately to O. B. Simmons, Jr., attorney, c/o Evans, Mershon & Sawyer, Miami, Florida, by air mail special delivery.”

Said letter also contained the following paragraph:

“Inasmuch as I waive my dowry in the transaction, as we make it, I also have to have a paper from Andre and yourself, by which you obligate yourselves to return to Father’s estate your dowry. It goes without saying that should I waive my *839 dowry, you have to waive your dowry. I think that you did not overlook this point of view. The international situation allows us to hope for a possible settlement of Father’s affairs in France in the near future.”

The bill alleges that the defendants executed the necessary deeds and did everything that was required by plaintiff’s letter, excepting in one respect, the -waiver of their dowry, which will be reverted to later. The several deeds made by plaintiff’s sister and brother, drawn by plaintiff’s attorney, were promptly executed and returned to plaintiff, and being approved by plaintiff and his attorney, Mr. Simmons, these deeds were filed for record; likewise plaintiff’s deed to his sister, dated March 3, 1943, conveying the Versailles Hotel property, which the letter showed was valued at $552,625.00 “in excess of the mortgages,” was accepted by her and forwarded to Miami and duly recorded. This deed recites that it is made subject to a mortgage which had been made by plaintiff to the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company on which there was a principal balance of $190,000.00. So the agreement was made and the deeds all recorded in March, 1943. The bill alleges that plaintiff had performed every obligation required of him by the agreement, except the payment of $55,000.00 (due by him on the agreed purchase price of the “Nut Club” property conveyed to him) which plaintiff has offered to pay upon the execution of an agreement on the part of the defendants described in the third paragraph of the bill.

Meanwhile the bill alleges that plaintiff had paid taxes on property conveyed by him by the defendants and the defendant sister had received rent and paid sums for principal and interest on mortgages, insurance premiums and other sums on the hotel property conveyed to her. Photostatic copies of various deeds are attached as exhibits to the bill.

The third paragraph of the bill reads as follows:

“That one of the main considerations moving the plaintiff to enter in the agreement for the settlement and compromise of the differences between the plaintiff and the defendants was the. condition that an agreement be executed by the defendants, Madeleine Hinzelin and Andre Bailly, as specifically *840

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
22 So. 2d 43, 155 Fla. 837, 1945 Fla. LEXIS 672, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hinzelin-v-bailly-fla-1945.