Kelley v. Kelley

150 P.2d 347, 158 Kan. 719, 1944 Kan. LEXIS 44
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedJuly 8, 1944
DocketNo. 36,035
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 150 P.2d 347 (Kelley v. Kelley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kelley v. Kelley, 150 P.2d 347, 158 Kan. 719, 1944 Kan. LEXIS 44 (kan 1944).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Wedell, J.:

This action was instituted by three prospective heirs at law against their father and two other prospective heirs and their wives to have certain deeds executed in 1930 to five of the six prospective heirs declared valid and to have certain deeds executed by the father in 1941 to three of the same prospective heirs declared [720]*720invalid, or in the alternative for a decree that the parties take as heirs under the law of intestate succession. Defendants relied on the 1941 deeds and prevailed. Plaintiffs appeal.

The grantors in the 1930 deeds were Daniel Kelley and Ida May Kelley, the parents of the principal parties to the action. Ida May Kelley died intestate in March, 1933. No administration was had on her estate. The instant action was filed May 20, 1941. The testimony of the father, Daniel Kelley, was taken in this case by appellants in September, 1941, before the same district court that tried the instant case in order that his testimony might be preserved. He died intestate July 14, 1942, at the age of eighty-eight years. The original plaintiffs were Claude F. Kelley, Emma J. (Kelley) Tripp, and C. W. Kelley, also referred to as Clarence Kelley. No deed was made to the latter in 1930 or 1941. The reason for not executing a deed to him will appear later. The plaintiff Claude F. Kelley withdrew from the case as a plaintiff while the action was pending for reasons to be stated later. Opal Stull, a granddaughter, entered the case as a plaintiff later when attention was called by defendants to the fact there was a defect of parties. The defendants were the father, Daniel Kelley, and two sons, George William Kelley and Charles W. Kelley, and their wives. We shall hereafter refer to the defendant, George William Kelley, as George.

The general contentions of appellants as reflected by their second amended petition, in substance, were:

Separate deeds were executed in 1930 by Daniel Kelley and Ida May Kelley, his wife, to five children of the grantors, that is, to all of the children except C. W. Kelley; the 1930 deeds had been placed in the possession of A. G. Mead, an attorney, by the grantors with instructions to record them upon the death of the survivor of the grantors; A. G. Mead died April 21,1933; C. R. Hubbard, an officer in The Guaranty State Bank of Beloit, was appointed administrator of Mead’s estate and took charge of the deeds and placed them in that bank for safekeeping and to carry out the duties of Mead according to the instructions given to Mead; the defendant George and other defendants at his request waited until Daniel Kelley was eighty-eight years of age and until his wife had died and Daniel Kelley was incompetent to understand the nature and character of transactions involving the distribution of his property before they obtained the 1941 deeds; after Daniel Kelley had become so incapacitated defendants unlawfully and fraudulently obtained the [721]*7211930 deeds from the bank and destroyed them on or about April 10, 1941; on the latter date and sometime prior thereto George had voluntarily assumed management and control oyer the business affairs of his father; the father was under his dominion and control and a confidential relation existed between them; without independent advice the father was induced by George and his attorney, William N. Tice, to execute and deliver the 1941 deeds without understanding the effect thereof; the 1941 deeds were without consideration and were fraudulently obtained; under the agreement had by the father and .mother and the heirs prior to the execution of the 1930 deeds each child receiving a deed to 160 acres of land was required to pay to Emma J. Kelley Tripp $1,000 which entitled her to the sum of $4,000 in addition to the city property conveyed to her by the 1930 deed.

Appellees’ contentions, as reflected by their answer, in substance, were:

The 1930 deeds were executed but were placed in the hands of Mead, an attorney, merely for safekeeping and were subject to recall by the grantors at any time; there was no such agreement between the father and mother with respect to the 1930 deeds as pleaded by appellants but .if there was it was in violation of the statute of frauds; there was no valid delivery of the 1930 deeds; William N. Tice was not attorney for George or for any other defendant prior to the commencement of the instant suit; (this denial was made under oath) the father was not mentally incompetent to understand the nature and effect of the 1941 deeds; no undue influence was exercised over him with respect thereto'; when the father made certain' changes in the property conveyed by means of the 1941 deeds and as a part of that same transaction and on the same date he entered into a written contract with George whereby the latter became bound by the obligations it imposed upon him to other heirs (these things are set forth in the findings of fact to be noted later and need not be narrated here); the plaintiffs, Claude F. Kelley and Emma J. Tripp had accepted payments under the 1941 contract and George had canceled a note of Emma J. Tripp pursuant to the 1941 contract and they were estopped to deny the validity of that contract; George was ready, able and willing to perform all the remaining obligations to other heirs required of him under that contract.

After the 1941 contract between the father and George was attached to defendants’ supplemental answer and it disclosed the [722]*722plaintiff, Claude F. Kelley, was actually to receive such portion of his father’s estate thereunder as he considered proper and right Claude F. Kelley formally withdrew from the case as a plaintiff.

The remaining original plaintiffs filed a reply in which they denied the existence of the 1941 contract and alleged that if it was made it was void by reason of the father’s mental incapacity. They also .alleged Wi-lliam N. Tice was attorney and agent for George at all times involving the 1941 transaction and further alleged other factual matters designed to avoid the effect of the 1941 contract, the terms of which .averments need not be noted now.

Opal Stull, the granddaughter and only child of Averta M. Kelley Birt, deceased, with leave of court, filed a petition in which she adopted and ratified the second amended petition of the plaintiffs and described the quarter section of land which the 1930 deed conveyed to her mother. She further, in substance, alleged:

When she learned George was recording the 1941 deeds she recorded the deed to her mother on February 8, 1941 (she did not state how she obtained that deed); promptly after recording that deed an action purported to have been brought by her grandfather was filed against her, her husband, Charles W. Stull, and her father, Harry Birt, to set aside the recorded deed; the action was not in fact filed by her grandfather; her stipulation of settlement filed in that action was void for the reason that when she made the settlement she did not know the action in fact had not been brought by her grandfather; she was tendering back the land she received in such settlement.

To the petition of Opal Stull defendants filed an answer and cross petition in which they, in substance, alleged:

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Bluebook (online)
150 P.2d 347, 158 Kan. 719, 1944 Kan. LEXIS 44, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kelley-v-kelley-kan-1944.