Muller v. Weinstein

219 F. Supp. 230, 1963 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9325
CourtDistrict Court, D. New Jersey
DecidedJune 27, 1963
DocketCiv. A. No. 457-62
StatusPublished

This text of 219 F. Supp. 230 (Muller v. Weinstein) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Jersey primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Muller v. Weinstein, 219 F. Supp. 230, 1963 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9325 (D.N.J. 1963).

Opinion

WORTENDYKE, District Judge.

This action was instituted on June 1, 1962. The complaint is in four counts. The plaintiff seeks a judgment declaring that she is the equitable owner of certain lands and premises in the Village of Ridgewood, Bergen County, New Jersey, particularly described in the complaint. The legal title to the premises is concededly vested in the defendant; but plaintiff alleges that he holds the title in trust for her. She prays that he be required to reconvey the legal title to her; to give her possession of the premises; to assign to her any lease thereon; and to account to her for rents and profits derived by him from the property.

It is alleged in the first count (and these allegations are incorporated by reference in the succeeding counts) that the premises in question were conveyed by the plaintiff to the defendant at the latter’s request, and without realization on her part that the effect of such conveyance was to transfer to the defendant the beneficial ownership of all of plaintiff's remaining real estate in New Jersey. She further claims that this conveyance was induced by the defendant’s representations that the documents which she executed, effectuating and in connection with the conveyance, were necessary to [231]*231enable the defendant to collect rents from the premises as they accrued and to remit the same to the plaintiff after collection. She charged that her execution of those documents was induced by his misrepresentations and false statements, upon which she relied. (As hereinafter indicated, she withdrew, at the pretrial conference, all charges that the defendant was guilty of any fraud or misrepresentation which induced her execution of the documents.)

In her second count the plaintiff alleges that the defendant had been her agent with respect to the property conveyed, and that by reason of such agency a fiduciary obligation arose requiring the defendant to account to the plaintiff for the rents of the property. She charges that he violated that obligation by refusing to reconvey the property to her when she terminated his agency, and by his failure to account to her for the rents thereof. The third count alleges that her conveyance of the real estate to the defendant was without consideration, and has unjustly enriched him. The fourth count alleges that she was induced to convey the property by the dominance of the defendant, upon whom she relied for advice and assistance.

Although she has withdrawn the charges of fraud, she still contends that she was not aware of the legal effect of the documents which she executed in November, 1947; that she did not realize, until shortly prior to the commencement of this action, that she had conveyed the legal title to the defendant; but believed she had merely entered into a contract of agency; or executed a power of attorney, for the purpose of enabling the defendant to manage the property in her absence, to collect the rents and to account to her therefor. She asks this Court, therefore, to require the defendant to reconvey to her the legal title to the premises, and to account to her for all rents which defendant has collected therefrom. She recognizes, however, her obligation to pay to the defendant reasonable compensation for the services which he has rendered to her in dealing with the property for her benefit; and she concedes the right of the present tenant to continue to enjoy possession of the premises under the existing lease thereof.

The defendant, answering the complaint, admits that the plaintiff had been the sole owner of the premises described prior to her conveyance of the legal title thereto to him; and that a close friendship had existed between the parties for many years previously. He contends that he is under no obligation to reconvey the property to the plaintiff; claims that he has legal and equitable title thereto; and denies the agency status alleged in the complaint. As affirmative defenses, the answer pleads failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, estoppel, laches, and the statute of frauds. The defendant also counterclaimed against the plaintiff for damages alleged to have resulted from wilful and malicious acts and statements of the plaintiff which prevented him from consummating a sale of the property, which he had an opportunity to accomplish. On appropriate motion, at the close of all of the evidence, the Court dismissed this counterclaim, with prejudice, for insufficiency of proof.

Shortly after the institution of the present action, Mrs. Muller instituted another action against the present tenant of the property. In that action Weinstein was joined as a third-party defendant. (C-696-62 Muller v. RidgewoodFranklin Co. v. Weinstein). In the latter suit, Mrs. Muller prayed judgment that she be declared to be the lessor in the lease from Weinstein to RidgewoodFranklin Co.; that the tenant be required to pay her the rents called for under that lease; and that it be enjoined from paying any of said rents to Weinstein. By this Court’s order of September 24, 1962, Mrs. Muller and Benjamin Weinstein were required to interplead their respective claims to the fee of the demised lands, and to the rent due and to grow due therefrom, under Weinstein’s lease to RidgewoodFranklin Co.; RidgewoodFranklin Co. was required to pay all such rents into the registry of the Court; and [232]*232Mrs. Muller and Mr. Weinstein were temporarily enjoined from instituting or prosecuting any proceedings against Ridgewood-Franklin Co. based upon its lease from Weinstein. That action (C-692-62) was consolidated with the captioned action of Muller v. Weinstein. The determination of the RidgewoodFranklin case is necessarily dependent upon my decision in the instant case.

The pretrial conference in this case required two sessions. One was held on October 22, 1962, and the other on February 27, 1963. At the former, the plaintiff contended that the transfer of title to the defendant of the real estate in question in this case was “a result of misrepresentations and false statements made by Weinstein.” At the pretrial conference session of February 27, 1963, the plaintiff contended that Weinstein became her trustee with respect to the lease entered into by Weinstein with Ridgewood-Franklin in September of 1952, covering lands described in the deed of November 12, 1947. While still asserting that she is the sole beneficial owner of the premises conveyed by the deeds of November 8 and 12, 1947, “she expressly disclaims * * * any fraud on the part of or chargeable to the defendant; anything in the complaint to the contrary notwithstanding.” She conceded the genuineness of her signature on each of the documents which she is alleged to have executed in November, 1947, but she insists that she has no recollection of having executed them, and that she did not understand that the effect of the deeds was to vest title to the premises described therein in Weinstein. She testified that, at the time the documents were executed, she was about to enter a hospital for surgery, and that she merely intended to employ the defendant as her agent to collect the rents under the then existing lease. She further contended that, upon the termination of the so-called Arlaura lease, Weinstein’s efforts to sell or relet the premises were performed as her agent, and that he became accountable to her for the rents from Arlaura, and subsequently from Ridgewood-Franklin, the succeeding lessee. She concedes that there was an hiatus between the termination of the Arlaura lease and the commencement of the term of the subsequent RidgewoodFranklin lease, during which interval no rents accrued from the premises in question.

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Bluebook (online)
219 F. Supp. 230, 1963 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9325, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/muller-v-weinstein-njd-1963.