Keller v. McConville

141 N.W. 652, 175 Mich. 479, 1913 Mich. LEXIS 819
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedMay 28, 1913
DocketDocket No. 28
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 141 N.W. 652 (Keller v. McConville) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Keller v. McConville, 141 N.W. 652, 175 Mich. 479, 1913 Mich. LEXIS 819 (Mich. 1913).

Opinion

Stone, J.

In this cause the bill of complaint was filed by Rose Hannah Brooks, in her own right, as mother, and as administratrix of the estate of William McConville, deceased, to set aside certain transfers of real estate and personal property made by him, about two months before his death, to his brother, the defendant John McConville. The grounds alleged in the bill for setting aside such transfers were two: (1) A weakened mental condition, brought about (a) by the excessive use of liquor resulting in frequent intoxication, and (b) a severe beating on the head a short time before his death; (2) the exercise of wrongful and undue influence over the mind of William McConville by the defendants, and threats and falsehoods, by which they, the defendants, induced [481]*481William McConville to make the transfers complained of, while he was in such weakened mental condition. The answer of defendant John McConville denies that William McConville was a hard drinker and often intoxicated, and denies that he was in a weakened mental condition, and avers that up to within a very few days before his death he was a man of strong mentality, and in full possession of all his faculties; denies that he was severely beaten about the head a short time before his death, and avers that the only time he was ever beaten was some two years prior to his death, and then not severely, and that he suffered no permanent ill effects therefrom. (2) The answers deny that any threats were made, or falsehoods were told to William McConville by defendants, or either of them, or that any undue or wrongful influence was exerted by defendants, or either of them, over the mind of William McConville.

The answer of the defendant Delia McConville denied, substantially, the allegations of the bill as above stated, and denied any wrongdoing on her part. This answer is not printed in the record, and we have had to refer to the original returns to ascertain its contents. The answer of the defendant John McConville claims the benefit of a cross-bill, alleging that, as to a certain loan made to Harry M. Baxter and A. William Baxter, on which William McConville had taken a deed and given back a land contract on certain real estate, he (William McConville) had not only assigned the land contract, but had executed a deed to John Mc-Conville of the premises covered by the land contract, which had been lost or mislaid, and prayed for affirmative relief, and that a deed be given him in place of the one lost or destroyed.

By reason of the death of the complainant, Rose Hannah Brooks, subsequent to the entry of the decree in the court below, the proceedings were revived in the [482]*482name of Robert Keller, administrator do bonis nonoí the estate of William McConville, deceased. Rose Hannah Brooks left a will, a certified copy of which, by stipulation, has been filed in this court and made a part of the record. By the terms of this will she left all her property, including the proceeds of this litigation, if any, to her four daughters, each of whom testified as a witness for the complainant in this cause.

William McConville died February 14, 1910, at the age of 45, unmarried, leaving as surviving relatives Mrs. Brooks, his mother, James McConville and John McConville, brothers, and Mrs. Keller, the wife of the administrator, Mrs. Maroney, Mrs. Morgan, and Mrs. Pierson, sisters. Defendant Delia McConville is the wife of John McConville. Up to a few weeks before his death William McConville had been engaged with his brother John, one of the defendants herein, in the retail grocery and meat business at 915 Fourth avenue in the city of Detroit. The brothers had been in this business for a number of years, a partnership having been formed between James, an older brother, and John and William in 1883. John was then 21 years old and William 18. James withdrew from the firm about 11 years before William’s death, and from that time up to the time when William was forced, through physical incapacity due to his last illness, to retire, the business had been conducted by John and William as equal partners. The three brothers lived together for some time over the store, keeping what might be termed “bachelors’ hall.” John finally got married, and James lived with defendants and William six or seven years, and then got a room down town. William lived on with the two defendants until he died. The relations between the three brothers had always been of a close and intimate nature.

The same friendly relations did not exist between the brothers and their mother, the original complainant. The testimony shows a very unfortunate and un[483]*483happy condition existing between them. The mother testified upon the hearing that she had not spoken to William for 18 years prior to his death, although, with the exception of 3 years, they had lived in the same city. She had- married a second time. At the time of her marriage to Mr. Brooks she removed from the building above the grocery store, where she had lived with the sons a number of years, and after that time lived apart from them, living with her daughter Mrs. Keller during the last years of her life. When she married Mr. Brooks she took all of the furniture from the house, and the brothers, after a day or two, got some furniture and lived alone together until John’s marriage.

William McConville began to fail in health in the spring of 1909. At that time he suffered from what was diagnosed by Dr. Grimes as a rectal fistula. Later on tuberculosis developed, and this was the cause of his death. The deceased was a man of some means. On December 14 and 15, 1909, while confined to his room, and realizing that he was about to die, he executed several instruments, designed to transfer and convey to his brother John practically all of his property, real and personal; and it was to set aside these transfers that the bill of complaint was filed in this, cause.

Upon the hearing in the court below, at the close of voluminous testimony, the trial judge dismissed the bill of complaint upon its merits, and granted the relief prayed for in the cross-bill. The complainant has. appealed. The position of complainant is: (1) That these several assignments and conveyances must be sustained as gifts inter vivos, if they can be sustained at all; (2) that William McConville did not intend to make an absolute gift of all his property to John Mc-Conville, did not understand that such was the legal effect of his acts, and had the intention only of putting his estate beyond the reach of an imaginary claim on [484]*484behalf of his former physician, one Dr. Grimes, and that the transactions lacked the element or intent to make a gift, and are therefore not sustainable as such; (3) that defendants took advantage of William Mc-Conville’s mental and bodily weakness,, of his delusion relative to Dr. Grimes, and of the opportunity offered by his residence with them, to influence him to execute the instruments conveying title to John McConville; (4) that as to the assignment by William McConville of his interest as vendor in the land contract without the execution of a conveyance sufficient to pass the legal title to the land covered thereby, it was not sufficient to constitute a gift of land, and that there was no evidence whatever that any conveyance of said land was ever executed.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
141 N.W. 652, 175 Mich. 479, 1913 Mich. LEXIS 819, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/keller-v-mcconville-mich-1913.