Kressler v. Flynn

83 N.E.2d 876, 323 Mass. 610, 1949 Mass. LEXIS 511
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedFebruary 3, 1949
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 83 N.E.2d 876 (Kressler v. Flynn) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kressler v. Flynn, 83 N.E.2d 876, 323 Mass. 610, 1949 Mass. LEXIS 511 (Mass. 1949).

Opinion

Ronan, J.

This is a petition filed in the Probate Court for Worcester County by the conservator of one Wood, to set aside a conveyance of two parcels of land to his daughter, the respondent, made on September 6, 1945. The respondent appealed from a decree reciting that there was no consideration for the conveyance and that Wood at the time [611]*611of the transfer was mentally incapacitated, and adjudging the conveyance to be “null and void and said ward is the lawful owner of the described premises.”

These recitals in the decree as to want of consideration and lack of mental capacity are amply supported by the findings of material facts made by the judge. We do not understand that the respondent now makes any contention to the contrary. The findings of material facts bring the suit within the principle that a deed of an insane or mentally incompetent grantor is ineffectual to convey title to land good against the grantor, his heirs or devisees, unless ratified by the grantor, if subsequently restored to sound mind, or by his conservator or guardian thereto duly qualified or by his heirs or devisees. Sutcliffe v. Heatley, 232 Mass. 231. Brewster v. Weston, 235 Mass. 14. Hermanson v. Seppala, 272 Mass. 197. Cleaveland v. Malden Savings Bank, 291 Mass. 295.

The petition, which should have been brought in the name of the ward by the conservator,1 alleges that shortly after the conveyance the respondent, acting as a volunteer and not at the request of the ward, “redeemed the said tax title” by paying to the town out of her own funds the amount due for taxes and received and recorded a certificate of redemption in the registry of deeds. The judge found that, soon after she received the deed from her father, the respondent paid the tax collector of the town the amount necessary to redeem the property and received from him a deed running to her, that her brothers had in 1936 at the request of the ward paid the taxes and received a tax title and allowed the ward and his wife to occupy the property, and that her brothers never took any steps to foreclose the ward’s right to redeem the property. The judge did not find the amount paid by the respondent. The judge found that the respondent upon paying the taxes took a tax title from the town, but the petition alleges that she took a certificate of redemption. The respondent contends that she should be reimbursed for this payment.

[612]*612Whatever the law may be in other jurisdictions, the principle of law was early established in this Commonwealth and has been frequently followed that the restoration of the consideration is not a condition precedent to setting aside a contract entered into by a mentally incompetent person or a minor. Our decisions rest upon the theory that if the right of insane persons or minors to avoid their contracts were conditioned upon the restoration of the consideration, then the full measure of protection that the mentally helpless and incompetent should have under the law would not be afforded them. In the course of some of our decisions applying this principle of law, the court, sensing that a hardship might result to the other party to the contract, took occasion to remark that the court was not determining the remedy, if any, which such party might have, especially, where some of the consideration was still retained by the one seeking to set aside the contract, or where the defendant had placed valuable improvements upon the land. Gibson v. Soper, 6 Gray, 279, 283. Chandler v. Simmons, 97 Mass. 508, 514. Bartlett v. Drake, 100 Mass. 174, 176. Brigham v. Fayerweather, 144 Mass. 48, 52. Foss v. Twenty-Five Associates of Roxbury, Inc. 239 Mass. 295, 298. Hermanson v. Seppala, 272 Mass. 197, 201. In an action by a beneficiary against an insurance company, it has been held that the company was entitled to be credited with the cash surrender value paid in good faith to the insured and without knowledge of his insanity when the insured, while insane, surrendered the policy to the company. Wodell v. John Hancock Mutual Life Ins. Co. 320 Mass. 1. The ward is in equity and upon the facts found, being entitled to have the conveyance set aside, he ought to do equity. Upon the payment of taxes assessed upon real estate by one having an interest therein and the recording of the certificate of payment, all right and title acquired by a town in the land under a collector’s deed are extinguished. See G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 60, §§ 62, 63, as amended. The payment has thus accrued to the sole benefit of the ward. It follows that reimbursement of the respondent should be made a condition of granting relief to [613]*613the ward. Thomas v. Beals, 154 Mass. 51, 54-55. Lang v. Giraudo, 311 Mass. 132, 139. Jurewicz v. Jurewicz, 317 Mass. 512, 517. Bowen v. Morgillo, 128 Conn. 442, 447. Restatement: Restitution, § 158, comment b.

The petitioner contends that, as the payment was not made at the request of the ward or with his knowledge or consent, the respondent is not entitled to reimbursement. It is true that a mere volunteer or intermeddler would not be entitled to reimbursement for the taxes paid. Massachusetts Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Green, 185 Mass. 306, 307. Foote v. Cotting, 195 Mass. 55, 61. Newell v. Hadley, 206 Mass. 335, 342-343. But in this case the only rational inference that can be drawn from the findings of the judge with reference to the payment of taxes by the respondent (Distasio v. Surrette Storage Battery Co. 316 Mass. 133, 135) is that she released the property of her father from an adverse interest in the mistaken belief that she was thereby discharging a lien upon property which she thought she had acquired by a good conveyance from him. She had the color of title and was not a mere intermeddler or volunteer. In these circumstances she is not barred from reimbursement. Dayton v. Stanard, 241 U. S. 588. Clark v. Knox, 32 Colo. 342. Swingley v. Riechoff, 112 Mont. 59. Grosch v. Kessler, 256 N. Y. 477. Central Wisconsin Trust Co. v. Swenson, 222 Wis. 331. Utah State Building & Loan Association v. Perkins, 53 Utah, 474. Restatement: Restitution, § 43. If an insane person has in his possession or control the consideration or its proceeds or the benefits which accrued to him out of the transaction which he seeks to set aside, he should upon the granting of rescission be required to restore to the other party what he derived and still has from the transaction. This limited duty to make restitution in no way interferes with the purpose of the law in permitting the rescission of contracts by those who are unable to protect themselves. It merely prevents the incapacity to enter into a contract from resulting in an unjust enrichment. The claim for restitution is good only to the extent that it can be satisfied out of what the ward still has from the transaction. Here the claim is based upon the benefit con[614]*614ferred upon the land and resort may be had to the land for the satisfaction of the claim. Hudson v. Union & Mercantile Trust Co. 148 Ark. 249, 256. Ortman v. Kane, 389 Ill. 613. Norelius v. Home Savings Bank,

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Bluebook (online)
83 N.E.2d 876, 323 Mass. 610, 1949 Mass. LEXIS 511, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kressler-v-flynn-mass-1949.