Rickes v. Rickes

141 N.E. 486, 81 Ind. App. 533, 1923 Ind. App. LEXIS 241
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 21, 1923
DocketNo. 11,443
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 141 N.E. 486 (Rickes v. Rickes) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rickes v. Rickes, 141 N.E. 486, 81 Ind. App. 533, 1923 Ind. App. LEXIS 241 (Ind. Ct. App. 1923).

Opinion

Batman, J.

This is an action by appellee to have a trust declared in his favor in certain real estate and personal property, the legal title to which is in appellant. On the trial of the cause, the court found in appellee’s favor as to the real estate, but against him as to the personal property, and adjudged that appellee was the owner of-the real estate in fee simple, subject to the life estate of appellant therein. Appellant filed a motion to modify the judgment, and also a motion for a new trial, each of which was overruled. In this appeal, it is alleged that the court erred in each of said rulings.

Appellant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the decision on which the judgment is based. An examination of the record discloses substantial evidence tending to show the following facts: In the year 1900, appellant was living with her husband and two sons in property on Prospect street in the city of Indianapolis, which she had purchased some years before for $900, and on which, there was an unsatisfied mortgage to secure $700 of the purchase price. Appellee was one of the two sons who composed the family. He was in business for himself as a plumber, and had accumulated some money. When the interest on said indebtedness became due in the year mentioned, appellee offered to procure a release of the mortgage by paying the entire amount secured thereby. Appellant gave her consent, and stated to appellee, in substance: If you will save your money, and place it in my hands, I will take care of it, and it will come back to you when I die. Then you will not have to work and depend on someone else [536]*536like your father. Following this promise, appellee paid the indebtedness secured by the mortgage. In about a year thereafter, he purchased a house and lot ©n Pleasant street in said city for $2,000, and, without any fraudulent intent, had the same deedéd to appellant. He paid $1,200 of the purchase price with his own money at the time the property was acquired, and assumed the payment of an $800 mortgage. After-wards he spent several hundred dollars of his own money in making improvements thereon. Some time afterwards, the Prospect street property was sold for $1,250. Of this amount,- $850 was used in paying an agent’s commission for making the sale, and in discharging the mortgage indebtedness on the. Pleasant street property. The remainder was used in making improvements thereon. In 1904 appellee purchased a small farm near said city for $2,300, and, without any fraudulent intent, had the same deeded to appellant. He paid $1,500 of the purchase price in cash with his own money, and a mortgage was placed thereon to secure the remaining $800. About a year afterwards, the Pleasant street property was sold for $3,000. Of this amount, $800 was used in discharging the mortgage on the farm, and the remainder, together with other money furnished by him, was used in making improvements thereon, and in buying stock and machinery to be used in connection therewith. The house on the farm burned, and appellee collected $800 fire insurance thereon. This amount, together with a few thousand dollars additional, furnished by appellee, was used in rebuilding the house. In 1914, appellant and her husband, without the consent of appellee, sold the farm for $15,000. They invested the proceeds from such sale in the real estate involved in this action,, the title to which was taken in the name of appellant and her husband as tenants by the entirety, and also in stocks, bonds and [537]*537savings account, one-half to each. The face value of the personal property so acquired amounts to $7,057.92, which has an estimated value, as stipulated, of $5,656.82. After the sale of the farm, appellee requested appellant to make some legal arrangement whereby the property which he had placed in her hands would come back to him when she died,. as they had agreed, and as he expressed it, “so there would be no argument about it.” Appellant made a positive refusal of this request, saying that “she wanted to divide the money equally.” Prior to the trial of the cause, appellant’s husband had died, leaving appellee and his brother as her sole heirs at law. In addition to the foregoing, there is substantial evidence tending strongly to show, either directly or by reasonable inference, the following further facts, which throw light upon the relations of the parties, and the several transactions involved: The husband of appellant and the father of appellee was given to strong drink, and, as a consequence, was frequently unemployed. While he contributed something toward the support of the family during the years, he never accumulated any property. Appellant was a good wife and mother, patient with her husband’s faults, and industrious in caring for her family, but without opportunity to earn much to lay aside for the “rainy day.” During the first twenty years of their married life, which covered appellee’s youth and early manhood, they were in limited circumstances, financially, having only acquired an equity of $200 in a piece of property costing $900, outside of their household effects. Appellee began early in life to aid the family by contributing his earnings, but it was only after he had learned a trade, entered business on his own account, and was earning from $3,000 to $7,000 annually, that the affairs of the family were changed for the better in a substantial way. Appellant’s [538]*538younger son was of little aid in promoting the affairs of the family, and contributed but little more than was required for his own subsistence.

It will be observed that the legal title to the real estate involved in this action is in appellant. In order to determine her interest therein, we must consider the origin of the fund from which the purchase price was paid. Accepting the facts stated above as true, as we may rightfully do under the evidence, it is clear that such fund had its origin in the amounts contributed by appellee in the purchase and improvement of the Pleasant street property, and the small farm near Indianapolis. We shall first consider whether' a trust was created in favor of appellee in the Pleasant street property, under the facts stated. In considering this question, we should bear in mind that a resulting trust will arise in this state notwithstanding the inhibition found in §4017 Burns 1914, §2974 R. S. 1881, where it appears that, by agreement and without any fraudulent intent, the party to whom the conveyance is made, or in whom the title vests, is to hold the same, or some interest therein, in trust for the party paying the purchase money, or some part thereof, as provided in §4019 Burns 1914, §2976 R. S. 1881. It appears that appellee purchased the Pleasant street property, and, without any fraudulent intent, caused it to be conveyed to appellant. It further appears that he paid the purchase money therefor. True, he only paid $1,500 thereof when the conveyance was made, but we are of the opinion that it sufficiently appears that he subsequently paid the remaining $800 in discharge of an absolute obligation incurred by him as a part of the original transaction of purchase. This was sufficient as regards the payment of the purchase money. 3 Pomeroy’s Equity Jurisp. §1037; 39 Cyc 130; 26 R. C. L. 1224; Bibb v. Hunter (1885), 79 Ala. 351; [539]*539Yetman v. Hedgeman (1913), 82 N. J. Eq. 221, 88 Atl. 207; DeRoboam v. Schmidtlin (1907), 50 Ore. 388, 92 Pac. 1082; Kauffman v. Kauffman (1920), 266 Pa. 270, 109 Atl. 640.

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Bluebook (online)
141 N.E. 486, 81 Ind. App. 533, 1923 Ind. App. LEXIS 241, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rickes-v-rickes-indctapp-1923.