Nesbit v. Alton

45 Pa. D. & C.3d 683, 1986 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 147
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Chester County
DecidedDecember 4, 1986
Docketno. 85-01855
StatusPublished

This text of 45 Pa. D. & C.3d 683 (Nesbit v. Alton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Chester County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nesbit v. Alton, 45 Pa. D. & C.3d 683, 1986 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 147 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1986).

Opinion

SUGERMAN, P.J.,

Plaintiff, Thorpe Nesbit Jr., filed an amended complaint containing four counts. Three such counts sound in replevin and seek the return of various items of personal property presently in the possession of defendant, Virginia Alton. The fourth such count seeks a declaratory judgment determining that plaintiff is the sole and exclusive owner of a 39-foot Pearson [684]*684yawl now registered in the name of plaintiff and defendant as joint tenants with the right of survivorship.

Plaintiff’s theory underlying each of the counts is that all the property, including defendant’s interest in the yawl, was given to defendant by plaintiff as conditional gifts, in contemplation of marriage. Plaintiff asserts that as defendant terminated the parties’ engagement prior to the marriage, he is entitled to a return of all such property.

Defendant responded to plaintiff’s amended complaint with an answer containing new matter and a counterclaim. In her answer, defendant denies plaintiff’s assertion that the gifts were made by plaintiff conditionally, in contemplation of marriage as, defendant asserts, the parties were never engaged and defendant never promised or agreed to marry plaintiff. In defendant’s counterclaim, she seeks to recoup various sums of money she assertedly expended or advanced on behalf of plaintiff, including the cost of repairs and docking to and for the yawl. Plaintiff’s reply to the defendant’s counterclaim denies any obligation to reimburse the defendant for such expenditures.

With the issues thus drawn, we tried the matter without a jury on June 5, 1985, September 27, 1985, February 24, 1986, and February 25, 1986. Counsel for the parties have filed post-trial memoranda and the matter is ripe for disposition. From the transcript of the testimony and the evidence of record we make the following

FINDINGS OF FACT

(1) Plaintiff, Thorpe Nesbit Jr., is an adult individual residing at 3 Montgomery Lane, Radnor, Delaware County, Pa.

[685]*685(2) Defendant, Virginia Alton, is an adult individual residing at 31 Wingston Lane, Devon, Chester County, Pa.

(3) Plaintiff and defendant were introduced to each other on March 22, 1984, by plaintiff’s daughter and defendant’s son who worked together.

(4) Thereafter, the parties were together socially once or twice each week until early July 1984.

(5) In early July 1984, defendant accompanied plaintiff to Nova Scotia where plaintiff was renovating a dwelling; and while in Nova Scotia, the parties shared a room in each of three motels.

(6) During their stay in Nova Scotia, plaintiff proposed marriage to defendant but defendant declined, telling plaintiff that she was at the time involved in an ongoing relationship with a man named Lewis Beers.

(7) Shortly after the parties returned from Nova Scotia, defendant met with Mr. Beers on a boat owned by him and docked in Maryland; Beers and defendant became involved in an altercation and Beers apparently struck defendant. Thereafter, defendant received a threatening telephone call from Beers and then asked plaintiff to visit her.

' (8) As the result of the altercation, plaintiff instructed his attorney, John Rogers Carroll, to advise Mr. Beers to “stay away” from defendant. Defendant had not authorized such instruction and upon learning of it, asked plaintiff to cause it to be retracted

(9) On July 19, 1984, plaintiff again proposed marriage to defendant and defendant accepted such proposal.

(10) Plaintiff and defendant agreed to marry on October 6, 1984, the anniversary of defendant’s parents’ marriage. However; the date was postponed as defendant still “had feelings” for Mr. Beers, al[686]*686though plaintiff and defendant still planned to marry before the end of the year 1984. Finally, the parties decided to postpone their marriage until the close of the 1984 tax year.

(11) During the period July 1984 through December 1984, plaintiff paid various bills incurred by defendant and also gave defendant cash in amounts varying between $1,000 and $1,500 monthly, all aggregating in the sum of $18,570.

(12) In the late summer or early fall of 1984, plaintiff listed his dwelling at 1717 Martin’s Lane, Gladwynne, Pa., for sale with defendant, who was then a real estate salesperson, as plaintiff intended to reside with defendant at her dwelling in Devon.

(13) In preparation for the sale of plaintiff’s dwelling and future cohabitation with defendant, plaintiff caused various items of personal property in his dwelling to be lodged in the defendant’s dwelling in Devon.

(14) Plaintiff in contemplation of the pending marriage purchased furniture and caused it to be delivered to defendant’s dwelling for the future joint use of the parties.

(15) Throughout the fall of 1984, the parties attended various social functions together, including a party arranged by defendant for her parents on October 6, 1984, a wedding involving plaintiff’s stepbrother later in October, the Amethyst Ball on October 27, 1984, and a Thanksgiving Day dinner to which defendant invited plaintiff’s family.

(16) At plaintiff’s stepbrother’s wedding, supra, plaintiff introduced defendant as his fiancée, apparently without objection by defendant.

(17) On November 8, 1984, reporting on the Amethyst Ball, a newspaper, the Surburban and Wayne Times, published an article describing defendant as the “charming fiancée” of plaintiff, soon [687]*687to be married and defendant, although aware of the article, did not object to it and did not ask the newspaper to retract the article.

(18) In August 1984, defendant took plaintiff to inspect a 39-foot Pearson yawl named “Makai”, and the parties were guests of the owners of Makai on two cruises; and. in the course of a third cruise, plaintiff purchased the yawl for the sum of $68,000.

(19) The Makai at plaintiff’s direction, was titled in the names of plaintiff and defendant as joint tenants with the right of survivorship and plaintiff would not have so titled the yawl if the parties had not been engaged to be married as plaintiff desired that defendant be “protected” until he included her in his will.

(20) During the months of September and October 1984, the parties shopped for a wedding ring, and ultimately, on December 4, 1984, plaintiff puchased a custom-made diamond ring for defendant from Wayne Jewelers and Silversmiths for the sum of $8,500.

(21) The ring was shipped by the jeweler to defendant’s parents in New Jersey in order to avoid Pennsylvania sales tax and when defendant’s parents brought the ring to defendant’s dwelling in Devon on Christmas Eve 1984, defendant refused to wear it as the parties were not yet married. •

(22) On December 26, 1984, at .plaintiff’s request, plaintiff’s attorney, Frank G. Cooper, sent defendant’s attorney, Francis Recchuiti, a letter; and the letter described plaintiff’s assets and proposed an antenuptial agreement between the parties. .

(23) Plaintiff and defendant were booked to sail on a cruise ship from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on January 5, 1985; the reservations were made by plaintiff in the names of “Mr. and Mrs. Thorpe Nesbitt” as the parties had intended to be married by that [688]

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Bluebook (online)
45 Pa. D. & C.3d 683, 1986 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 147, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nesbit-v-alton-pactcomplcheste-1986.