Jasper v. James

10 V.I. 235, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15604
CourtDistrict Court, Virgin Islands
DecidedOctober 29, 1973
DocketCivil No. 121-1969
StatusPublished

This text of 10 V.I. 235 (Jasper v. James) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, Virgin Islands primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jasper v. James, 10 V.I. 235, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15604 (vid 1973).

Opinion

CHRISTIAN, Chief Judge

OPINION

The plaintiff, Richard Jasper, has brought this suit in his representative capacity as the administrator of the estate of Phillipina Solomon Ifield. Named as defendant in the action is one Lavina James, who now holds the legal title to the real property in controversy, Lot No. 53A of Estate Grove Place, St. Croix, Virgin Islands. By order of the court, sua sponte, Joshua Ifield, surviving spouse of Phillipina Solomon Ifield, was joined as a party defendant, and John P. Burke, Esquire, appointed his guardian ad litem to represent his interest. Jasper, the plaintiff, is the son of the late Phillipina Solomon Ifield, the decedent whose estate he administers.

The decedent and Joshua Ifield were married on March 28, 1948. She had been previously married to one James Holder who predeceased her. While married to Holder, she and Holder had entered into a contract for the purchase of No. 53A from the St. Croix Labor Union. The evidence indicates that sometime prior to Holder’s death, plaintiff’s decedent completed the purchase of the tract of land by paying the full balance then remaining. However, for reasons not made clear in the evidence, a deed was not then issued to her. It was not until sometime after decedent’s marriage to Ifield that the Labor Union executed and delivered the deed for No. 53A. Title was conveyed to Joshua Ifield as sole grantee.

Ifield, also, had undertaken to purchase a parcel of land at Grove Place from the Labor Union. The ownership of this parcel also subsequently conveyed by him to defendant James, is not involved in the present controversy.

Sometime in 1961, Lavina James, niece of Joshua Ifield, at that time, as now, a resident of New York City, made a [237]*237trip to St. Croix and paid several visits to the then elderly-couple at their residence, located on No. 53A, which, incidentally, was comprised of some 0.3895 U.S. acres. By this time, Joshua Ifield was no longer able to work and was receiving some form of pension. Phillipina, then 80 years old, was totally blind and partially deaf. She was also completely illiterate as distinguished from her husband, who, it appears, was able to read and write to some degree, at least to the extent of signing his name. During one of her visits to the Ifield home, La vina James claims that the Ifields brought up the matter of their real property and put forward the suggestion that they would convey their real property to her in return for her promise to come down from New York upon the death of the survivor of them and see to it that the said survivor was properly buried. Their understanding, according to her, contemplated that the surviving Ifield would look after the burial of the spouse who first died. Thereafter, defendant sought out an attorney and engaged the firm of YOUNG, ISHERWOOD, GIBBS & CARNEY to look after the conveyance. She it was who alone went to the attorneys, taking with her the Ifields’ “papers”, presumably their deeds from the Labor Union. Any instructions given to the lawyers were given by her for at no time did the lawyers confer with, or even see, the Ifields in connection with the preparation and execution of the deed. After the execution of the deed on September 22, 1961, Mrs. James then returned to her home in New York.

In 1962, allegedly unaware of the prior conveyance to James, plaintiff, at his mother’s suggestion, he testified, built his home, a second structure on No. 53A. Since that time he has paid the property tax on the dwelling, while Mrs. James has paid the tax on the land. He claims that he first learned of defendant’s interest in the land when she visited St. Croix, early in 1963, after Mr. Ifield had suffered a stroke. It is the contention of the plaintiff that both [238]*238the conveyance from the Labor Union to Ifield and the one from his mother and Joshua Ifield should be annulled, and that his mother, and consequently her estate, should be declared the owner, in equity, of Plot No. 53A Grove Place.

Although there is no evidence as to Mrs. Ifield’s health and mental capacity in 1961, it is clear that, for at least several years preceding her death in 1967, at the age of 86, she was blind, partially deaf, and always illiterate. It is also a fact that the defendant James is extremely attached to her uncle Joshua Ifield, by virtue of having been brought up as a child in his mother’s home, in which he too lived.

On her part, Mrs. James declares that the conveyance was entered into with the full knowledge and consent of both grantors, for the consideration of $10, and the agreement that Mrs. James would arrange for the funeral of the surviving grantor. She offers as evidence of her good faith the fact that she has, from time to time, over the years, sent the Ifields holiday gifts and small contributions of money. She also offered the testimony of Blanca Rodriguez Ropes, a notary with the law firm of YOUNG, ISHERWOOD & MARSH, that she (Ropes) had read and explained the document to the Ifields before they signed it.

The evidence is plentiful and conflicting. Dates of certain occurrences, essential to determination of knowledge by the plaintiff of the conveyance to the defendant, are presented in contradictory testimony by the parties involved, the most notable being their inability to agree as to the date of Mr. Ifield’s stroke. The significance of this is the fact that Jasper claims that not until that occasion did he have notice of the existence of defendant’s deed to the land. While there is proof in the record that plaintiff’s building permit was issued in June of 1962, the disparate contentions as to the date of the stroke preclude positive establishment that he was or was not aware of the deed to defendant before building his house. Mr. Jasper insists that the date [239]*239of Ifield’s stroke was February, 1962, yet adamantly states that when he began building he had no notice of the deed. Mrs. James asserts that the stroke occurred in February of 1963, and that until that time she was not even aware that Mrs. Ifield had a son. It is to be noted that defendant’s account of the sequence of events would bear out plaintiff’s assertion that, at the time the building permit was issued, he was unaware of the deed. Also, since plaintiff testified that he lived in his own house until Joshua Ifield’s illness, it seems clear that the illness could not have occurred until 1963 when the house had been completed, a finding which we adopt.

There is also conflicting testimony as to Joshua Ifield’s intentions regarding the disposition of Lot 53A. He himself stated when questioned by the court and counsel, at a session of the court, specially convened at the Grigg Home, for the taking of his testimony, and as it developed, that of the administrator of the institution, that he and Phillipina had agreed to convey both parcels. Mrs. Ropes, who notarized statements previously made in 1963, testified that Ifield had then expressed awareness only of deeding his lot to Mrs. James, and “didn’t know anything about the plot that belonged to Jasper’s mother.” (T. 131). Moreover, the testimony of Beatrice Benjamin, a friend of Mrs. James, to the effect that the grantors claimed not to have heard from Jasper for 11 years, is in direct conflict with that of the plaintiff that he had sent his mother money at irregular intervals while he was living in New York. Moreover, regarding his contributions to his mother, Jasper avowed that before moving to New York City, he had been living and working in Puerto Rico.

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Bluebook (online)
10 V.I. 235, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15604, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jasper-v-james-vid-1973.