Morris v. Vyse

117 N.W. 639, 154 Mich. 253, 1908 Mich. LEXIS 711
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 15, 1908
DocketDocket No. 38
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 117 N.W. 639 (Morris v. Vyse) 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
Morris v. Vyse, 117 N.W. 639, 154 Mich. 253, 1908 Mich. LEXIS 711 (Mich. 1908).

Opinion

Moore, J.

The defendants Kuhn and Richards demurred to complainant’s bill of complaint. The court sustained the demurrer, and dismissed the bill as to them. The case is brought here by appeal.

The bill of complaint avers, in substance, that Charles L. Fish, á resident of Cleveland, upwards of 84 years of age, died in March, 1903, and the appointment of complainant as administrator by the probate court for the county of Wayne, Mich. It avers that in November, 1902, the defendant Tillie Yyse, by fraud, artifice, and the exercise of undue influence, obtained from Charles L. Fish the sum of $11,000. The bill details the representations that it is claimed were falsely made. It avers that thereafter Tillie Yyse brought the money to Detroit, and bought therewith real estate, the title to one piece of which she caused to be placed in the name of her sister, and the title to another piece in the name of her mother. It also avers that said Tillie Yyse, by means of fraud and artifice, obtained from Charles L. Fish the further sum of $5,000, which she brought to Detroit, and deposited in her own name in the bank, the name or names of which the complainant is unable to give. The bill further states as follows:

“(10) That the said Mary A. Richards and Maud A. Kuhn have no actual interest in said real estate, but, as your orator is informed and believes, and therefore [255]*255alleges, are holding the same for the use and benefit of the said Tillie Vyse, and in furtherance of the perpetuation of the fraud practiced by the said Tillie Vyse upon said Charles Charles L. Fish, by means of which she obtained the money aforesaid.
“ (11) That your orator is without adequate remedy, except in this court of equity, and he therefore prays' that the said Tillie Vyse, Mary A. Richards,-and Maud A. Kuhn be made parties defendant to this his bill of complaint, and required to appear and answer the same without oath,, their answer on oath being hereby expressly waived, and that your orator may be granted relief herein as follows:
(a) That the said Tillie Vyse may be decreed by this court to hold such moneys fraudulently obtained, as have not been used in the purchase of said real estate, in trust for your orator as administrator of said estate, and that said Tillie Vyse be decreed to be trustee thereof for the use and benefit of your orator; and that said Tillie Vyse may be required, by a decree of this court, to pay such money, with interest thereon, to your orator as administrator of said estate.
(b) That the title to the real estate hereinbefore described be impressed with a trust in favor of your orator, as administrator of the estate of the said Charles L. Fish, deceased, and that the said defendants Mary A. Richards and Maud A. Kuhn may be adjudged and decreed to hold said real estate in trust for your orator, as administrator of said estate, to the extent of the money fraudulently received by the said Tillie Vyse from the said Charles L. Fish, deceased, and invested in the purchase thereof, and that such real estate, so purchased by said Tillie Vyse in the name of Mary A. Richards and Maud A. Kuhn, may be sold, and out of the proceeds of the sale your orator paid the amount of money belonging to the said Charles L. Fish so invested in said property.
“ (c) That your orator may have such other and further relief in the premises as shall be agreeable to equity and good conscience.”

The only averment of fraud as to defendants Richards and Kuhn is as above stated. The bill of complaint does not aver that Tillie Vyse is pecuniarily irresponsible. The defendants Kuhn and Richards demurred to the bill for the following reasons:

[256]*256“(1) That the act charged in the bill of complaint, and on which said bill is based, occurred without the State of Michigan, and that complainant’s intestate was a resident of Cleveland, Ohio, at the time of his death, and that his administrator is a resident of Cleveland, Ohio; that the said Tillie Vyse, against whom all of the wrongs in said bill complained of are charged, is a resident of Cleveland, Ohio, and that the courts of this State have no jurisdiction in the matter.
“(2) That there is no wrong charged against these defendants, nor any such relief sought, as a court of equity should grant.
“(3) That complainant has an adequate remedy in a court of law.
"(4:) That said bill does not set forth sufficient facts to entitle complainant to the relief prayed for against them in a court of equity.
“(5) That the complainant is not a proper person to complain of the facts alleged in said bill.”

A demurrer having been interposed to the bill of complaint, its averments must be taken as true.

Reasons 1 and 3 may be considered together, as they are so argued by the solicitors for defendants. (1) Have the courts in this State no jurisdiction in the matter ? (3) Has the complainant an adequate remedy at law ? It is insisted by the solicitors for the defendants that, as to defendants Kuhn and Richards, there is no charge that the money was procured by fraud, or that they knew at the time, or have known at any time since, that duress, fraud, or undue influence were exerted upon said Fish for the purpose of procuring the property, or that the said Yyse, having, as it is claimed by complainant, procured the property, did anything other than purchase the property in the name of these defendants, she (the said Tillie Yyse), and not the defendants herein, having, by the allegations of the bill, purchased the property; and that, as there is no averment of insolvency of Tillie Yyse, that the complainant has an adequate remedy at law, and that the remedy of complainant, if he has any, is peculiarly within the province of the law side of the court. Quotations are [257]*257freely made from the decisions of this court, which, it is claimed, sustain the contention. The trouble with this contention, we think, grows out of the assumption that fraud is not brought home to the defendants Kuhn and Richards. It is true they are not charged with being parties to the fraud in procuring the money from Mr. Fish, but it is charged in the bill that Tillie Vyse paid for the real estate with the money she had obtained fraudulently, and caused the title to be placed in the name of her mother and sister, and that they have no actual interest in the real estate, but “are holding the same for the use and benefit of the said Tillie Vyse, and in furtherance of the perpetuation of the fraud practiced by the said Tillie Vyse upon the said Charles L. Fish, by means of which, she obtained the money aforesaid.” We think this a sufficient averment of fraud to confer upon the equity court jurisdiction.

The bill charges fraud and undue influence, and seeks to trace and recover specific property held in perpetuation of the fraud.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
117 N.W. 639, 154 Mich. 253, 1908 Mich. LEXIS 711, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/morris-v-vyse-mich-1908.