In Re Estate of Parish

20 N.W.2d 32, 236 Iowa 822, 1945 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 363
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedOctober 16, 1945
DocketNo. 46704.
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 20 N.W.2d 32 (In Re Estate of Parish) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Estate of Parish, 20 N.W.2d 32, 236 Iowa 822, 1945 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 363 (iowa 1945).

Opinion

Mantz, J.

On June 29, 1937, Charles A. Parish, aged eighty-four, of Cedar Falls, Iowa, and Fannie Belle Shreeve, aged seventy-six, of Alberton, Montana, were married at Reinbeck, Grundy County, Iowa. Following the marriage the parties lived at Cedar Falls, Iowa, where the husband died June 3, 1943, leaving his widow, applicant herein, who died April 28, 1944. This was the third marriage for Mr. Parish and the second for Mrs. Parish.

The parties first met about the year 1935, the occasion being a visit by Mrs. Shreeve to Cedar Rapids, where she was introduced to Mr. Parish by his wife, Ida Parish, an old and intimate friend of Mrs. Shreeve. Mrs. Shreeve returned about a year later intending to visit Parish and his wife but was informed by the former that the wife, Ida, had died a few days previously. Shortly thereafter Mrs. Shreeve returned to ber home in Montana. Following this, Parish and Mrs. Shreeve corresponded and about six weeks later, by such means, became *824 engaged. She came to Cedar Falls on June 29, 1937, and went with Parish to Grundy Center, Iowa, and they there secured a marriage license and were married later in the day.

Charles A. Parish died testate. His will was dated in 1928 and therein he devised to a sole surviving child, a daughter, Jessie A. Parish, substantially all of his property. To this will he made a codicil on May 4, 1943, wherein he devised to his wife, should she survive him, the sum of $50 per month as long as she lived and at her death $100 on her funeral expenses. The will and codicil were admitted to probate on June 18, 1943. Jessie A. Parish was appointed executrix and'has since acted in that capacity.

On July 31, 1943, the widow applied to the court f‘or the admeasurement of her distributive share of the estate of Charles A. Parish. This application was resisted by Jessie A. Parish, as executrix and also as an individual. She alleged that the widow was not entitled to the share claimed by her in that prior to the marriage of Charles A, Parish and Fannie Belle Shreeve the parties entered into an antenuptial contract wherein their property rights were determined and fixed. The claim of the executrix was resisted, applicant alleging that the so-called antenuptial contract between Charles A. Parish and Fannie B. Shreeve was in fact a postnuptial agreement, being entered into after the marriage; that same was not binding upon applicant in that at the time entered into a confidential relation existed between her and Charles A. Parish; that she knew nothing of the nature and extent of his property rights; and that the same was grossly unfair and inequitable and that by reason thereof it was not binding upon her and that she is entitled to her full distributive share as the widow of Charles A. Parish. The pleadings are quite voluminous and cover fifty-one pages of the record. However, in essence, they relate to the matters above set forth.

I. The decree of the trial court was filed March 30, 1944. It denied the claim of the widow and dismissed her application. Applicant died April 28, 1944. To prosecute this appeal, her administrator, P. H. Paulsen, was substituted.

The resistance to the application was carried on by Jessie *825 A. Parish, executor of the Charles A. Parish estate, and also by Jessie A. Parish as an individual. Hereinafter Jessie A. Parish will be referred to as the appellees, and the applicant, Fannie

B. Parish and her administrator, P. H. Paulsen, will be referred to as the appellant.

As before stated, by agreement of the parties the cause was tried in equity. Because of some questions raised on this appeal as to the procedure, and particularly as to the burden of proof, we will briefly outline the procedure followed at the trial below:

1. The appellant established her marriage to Charles A. Parish, his later death, and rested.

2. Appellees offered the antenuptial contract between Charles A. Parish and Fannie Belle Shreeve, the execution and signatures to which were admitted, and rested.

3. Appellant then offered evidence to support her claim that such contract was executed after the marriage, and again rested.

4. Appellees then offered rebuttal testimony to further establish that the contract was executed prior to the marriage and was free from fraud and deceit, and again rested.

The major controversy in the ease revolves around the question whether the contract entered into between Charles A. Parish and Fannie B. Shreeve was executed before or after their marriage.

The trial court held that the record showed that the parties entered into the contract, Exhibit N, before they were married.

II. The preamble to the instrument recites the residence of the parties; the contemplated marriage; that C. A. Parish has an estate and children by a former marriage, and that Fannie Belle Shreeve possesses property in her own right; and that the parties to the contract desire to limit and determine the interest and control which each of said parties may have in the estate of the other during the marriage relation.

It further provides that in the event of the death of C. A. Parish, his wife surviving him, then the widow should receive $5 from his estate, to be paid by the administrators, and that this sum was to be in full of all claims and demands of every kind and character which the widow would have against the *826 estate, the same to cover distributive rights therein and right of inheritance.

On the other hand it was provided that should C. A. Parish survive Fannie Belle Shreeve, and the latter should die during the marriage relation, the amount which C. A. Parish could claim from her estate would be limited to $1 and that was to be in full of all claims which he might have as husband or widower, including distributive rights and the right of inheritance.

It further provided that during the continuance of the marriage relations contemplated by the contract each party was to have full, complete, and perfect right to control and dispose of his or her separate property as if no marriage existed, and that each would have a right to dispose of and sell any or all real or personal property owned or hereafter owned without the other party joining.

The contract further sets forth the purpose and intent of the agreement, which was to fully, perfectly, and completely define and limit the claims and demands which each of the parties to the contract would have against the estate of the other, and that should either party die during the pendency of the contract, or should the contract be determined by legal proceedings, the claims herein stipulated and defined would be the limit which either party might have against the estate of the party dying.

The following paragraph of the contract is set out verbatim:

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Bluebook (online)
20 N.W.2d 32, 236 Iowa 822, 1945 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 363, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-estate-of-parish-iowa-1945.