Hough v. Foster

1952 OK 463, 254 P.2d 364, 208 Okla. 226, 1952 Okla. LEXIS 901
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedDecember 23, 1952
DocketNo. 35255
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 1952 OK 463 (Hough v. Foster) 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
Hough v. Foster, 1952 OK 463, 254 P.2d 364, 208 Okla. 226, 1952 Okla. LEXIS 901 (Okla. 1952).

Opinion

BINGAMAN, Justice.

This action was brought by Claude Hough, guardian of Claude Foster, an incompetent, against Harold Foster and certain other defendants, seeking to cancel certain conveyances from the mother of plaintiff and defendant to the defendant Harold Foster, on the ground that the mother, at the time of the conveyances, was mentally incompetent and the victim of' undue influence on the part of said defendant, and seeking further to establish a trust in the property to the extent of one-half thereof in favor of plaintiff. The defendant in his answer admits the conveyances of the property to him by his mother but denies that she was infirm and incompetent or acting under-the influence of fraud, undue influence or false representations. The trial court heard the evidence of the parties and rendered judgment denying the relief sought by plaintiff, but held that from all the evidence it concluded that the . mother intended that the plaintiff should be taken care of out of the property, and ' awarded plaintiff the sum of [366]*366$1,800 to pay for back expenses, including hospital bills while in Tulsa, and the sum of $90 per month from the date of the judgment. Plaintiff appeals.

The record is voluminous, consisting of one large volume of pleadings and testimony and two large volumes of exhibits, and it is impossible to set out the evidence in detail. Undisputed facts are as follows :

Plaintiff and defendant were the sons of Willard and Minnie Foster, plaintiff being the older of the two sons. Willard Foster died, testate, in 1931, leaving his entire property, which consisted of a family residence in Tulsa and a considerable number of royalty interests in various tracts of land in Oklahoma and Texas, to his wife, Minnie Foster, with a proviso in the will that should she remarry each of his sons was to receive an -undivided one-third interest in the property; that both plaintiff and defendant, at the suggestion of .the attorney who probated the will, and acting upon the belief that their mother, who was then past sixty years of age, would never remarry, signed a relinquishment of the provision in the will giving them a one-third interest in the property in the event she did remarry. This was done at the suggestion of the attorney in order that the handling of the estate might be more easy and expeditious. Plaintiff, ever since his early yoiith, had been afflicted with a disability in his hip due to tuberculosis of the joint, which disability necessitated his having his hip operated upon and drained at intervals. In 1927 he married his second wife who divorced him in the fall of 1932. By this wife he had a son and by a family agreement alimony of $75 a month was paid to the divorced wife and $30 per month paid for the support and maintenance of the child. The divorced wife married again in 1940 and thereupon the mother of' plaintiff discontinued payments of alimony, but continued for a while to assist in providing for the son. Later these payments were also discontinued.

Plaintiff was addicted to the excessive use of alcoholics, and for a time was kept on a ranch in Arizona under the supervision of the party operating the ranch,, apparently in order to prevent his continued' indulgence in alcoholic liquors. Some time in 1934 he left the ranch and went to California, where in 1935, he began living with another woman in a common-law marriage. Later, in 1948, he married this-woman by a legal ceremony. Early in 1942, on account of his mental condition,, his common-law wife placed him in a sanitarium, but later, when the defendant refused to pay the expenses of keeping him there, had him transferred to a state hospital for mental cases. She testified that his condition at that time was due to a nervous breakdown caused by his worrying over finances. It appears, however* both from her letters and from statements, of the physicians at the state hospital, that the plaintiff’s condition at that time was due to over indulgence in alcoholics, which had softened his brain and made him the subject of various hallucinations. He was in this hospital in this condition .at the time, in July, 1942, when his mother deeded the property of the estate to defendant. In 1947 the hospital physicians advised defendant that, in their judgment, his condition was permanent and incurable.

While plaintiff was in Arizona and California and other, places the defendant stayed at home assisting his mother in the management of the estate and looking after her. For a time he worked, but later abandoned his work and spent his entire time assisting his mother in -the management of the estate and in looking after- her.. At the time the estate of the deceased Willard Foster was probated and shortly after the time when plaintiff and defendant signed their renunciations of their contingent interest in the will of their father, she made a will giving each of them an undivided one-half interest in the property. At that time both resided in the home. Later, in 1939, she made another will leaving the plaintiff and defendant each one-half of the property, and appointing defendant and a minister, a long standing friend of the family, as trustees for plaintiff to administer his one-half of the estate. At about the time she conveyed [367]*367the property'to defendant'she made a third will devising all the property to defendant. In 1944, plaintiff was paroled from the ■state hospital to the custody of his wife in order that he might go to Arizona to receive treatment by a physician who had treated him while he was on the ranch. Instead he came to Tulsa, where the brother signed a petition to have him declared insane and he was found mentally incompetent and returned to California to the state hospital; Up to that time apparently 'his brother had contributed every month •or almost every month to his wife to provide for plaintiff’s comfort in addition to the provision made by the hospital, but after that time he sent his contributions to the hospital. Plaintiff was again paroled at some time after the death of his mother and came to Tulsa and instituted this action by his guardian.

During all this time defendant had remained in Tulsa looking after the estate and caring for his mother. The mother transferred her account in the bank to defendant and her jointly and thereafter transferred it entirely to defendant, who from that time apparently assumed com-pleté charge of all her affairs and business •of every kind. At the time of her death the mother was past eighty years of age.

Plaintiff to reverse the. judgment of the lower court makes five contentions. The first is that where the lawyer probating the estate persuaded the two sons to renounce their contingent interest in the ■estate by telling them that the widow would leave tfie property in equal shares to them, and subsequently a will was made by the widow which divided the property equally between the sons, the later conveyance to •one son of all the property was a violation •of the agreement, and the property should be impressed with a trust for the beneficial interest of plaintiff to the extent' of one-Tialf thereof. In support of this contention plaintiff cites Bunte v. Hasley, 122 Okl. 81, 251 P. 591; Stricker v. Billingsley, 169 Okl. 145, 36 P.2d 474; Perry v. Shaver, 101 Okl. 248, 225 P. 359, and many decisions from other jurisdictions. Examination of these cases, however, discloses either a contract between the parties, or an understanding between them, by which the -parties claiming the existence of the trust were assured that their interest in the property ■would be protected and vested in them at a later date.-- The evidence in the instant case wholly fails to establish anything of this sort.

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Bluebook (online)
1952 OK 463, 254 P.2d 364, 208 Okla. 226, 1952 Okla. LEXIS 901, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hough-v-foster-okla-1952.