Snyder v. Guthrie

193 Iowa 624
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedApril 4, 1922
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 193 Iowa 624 (Snyder v. Guthrie) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Snyder v. Guthrie, 193 Iowa 624 (iowa 1922).

Opinion

Preston, J.

„ . verS^sup^11611 r°rted- — 1. Appellee invokes the rule that sustaining the motion for new trial is within the discretion of the trial court, and that the Supreme Court is- slow to reverse. This is the general rule, and is so well established that citation of authority is unnecessary. It is not, however, absolute. In a proper case, the Supreme Court will not hesitate to review the order. Riley v. Monohan, 26 Iowa 507; Stockwell v. C. C. & D. R. Co., 43 Iowa 470; Turley v. Griffin, 106 Iowa 161; Merchant v. O’Rourke, 111 Iowa 351; Busse v. Schaeffer, 128 Iowa 319; Nelson v. Western Union Tel. Co., 162 Iowa 50; Mullong v. Mullong, 178 Iowa 552. In the instant case, the evidence is quite fully set out, and the situation is substantially as fully presented to us as it was to the trial court. Furthermore, it is said that appellant has presented all the evidence it is possible for her to present. The effect of sustaining the ruling of the trial court would be to end the case. In other words, if, on a new trial, the evidence is the same as now, it would be the duty of the trial court to direct a verdict for the defendants. Under such' circumstances, the [626]*626question is, to all intents and purposes, a question of law, whether the undisputed evidence, or conflicting evidence, is sufficient to take the case to the jury. Under such circumstances, we ought to, and we are disposed to, now determine this vital question. In addition to the cases above cited, see the following cases: Farnsworth v. Umlandt, 177 Iowa 39, 49, where the granting of a new trial was reversed on the evidence, the court holding that the evidence was sufficient to sustain the finding of the jury. In that case, there was a verdict for plaintiff, and a new trial granted on the ground that the verdict was not supported by the evidence. Campbell v. Centerville Block Coal Co., 190 Iowa 18, where the evidence was reviewed, and the ruling of the trial court sustained, but the opinion recites that, on a retrial, the evidence probably will be more definite and certain. See, also, Cooper W. & B. Co. v. National B. F. Ins. Co., 188 Iowa 425, 429.

2 wobk and tíon°becSSrSP’ family relation, 2. It is contended by appellees that plaintiff and deceased were members of the same family, and that claimant was a member of the family in which these children were placed, and that, therefore, the presumption arises that plaintiff's services, if any, were gratuitous. We are agreed that such is not the fact. Much of the argument of appellees is based upon the assumption that claimant and deceased were members of the same family. A family is defined in In re Estate of Bishop, 130 Iowa 250, 253. In that case, the evidence is set out, and was held sufficient to take the case to the jury upon the proposition that claimant was not a member of the family. See, also, Snyder v. Nixon, 188 Iowa 779, 782, 783; Armstrong-McClenahan Co. v. Rhoads, 180 Iowa 710, 713. Claimant is a maiden lady, 58 years of age, and has made her home with her father and mother, J. M. Snyder and wife, in the town of Norwalk, Iowa. At the time the alleged arrangement was made, she was about 30 years old. She still lives in that home, her parents having died after the services claimed for had ended. Deceased was the son of J. M. Snyder. Before the marriage of deceased, he, with two brothers and the claimant and his father and mother, composed the family. At about the time of the marriage of deceased, the J. M. Snyder family was composed of the foregoing and a grandmother. When deceased [627]*627married, he left the parental home, and moved to Cummings, Iowa. At the time of the death of the mother of the five children, the oldest child was about six and one-half years old, and the youngest, three months. The youngest was a boy, who died less than a year after his mother. The other four were girls. Upon the death of the mother, the five children were taken to the home of J. M. Snyder, and turned over to the claimant, under an agreement, as she claims, that she was to care for the children, look after their personal welfare, keep their clothes clean and repaired, look after their schooling and training, and do whatever else was necessary to> give them the motherly care and attention such children would require, for which she alleges she was to be paid liberally out of the estate of her brother, C. F. Snyder. At the time this alleged arrangement was made, deceased was a contractor and builder, just beginning a successful career. He had a number of building jobs, and was employing a number of men, so that it was important that he should have some arrangement. with respect to the children that would make it possible for him to devote his time to his business. Appellant also alleges that it was also arranged between deceased and claimant and his parents that the children’s board, as well as their clothes, was to be paid for by deceased, as their needs required. The children remained with claimant at this time for about a year and a half, when deceased married again; and after he re-established a home, the four girls, the boy having died, were moved from the J. M. Snyder home, and from the care of claimant, to the home of the deceased, for a period of two years, and they were cared for by the stepmother. Because of trouble between the children and the stepmother, the four girls were returned by the father to the care of the sister, under the same arrangement as before, as plaintiff alleges: that claimant was to have full and complete charge of the care, education, and training of the girls, and was to be paid, as before stated. After the children were returned to claimant, or, as defendants choose to call it, to the home of J. M. Snyder, the four girls remained there and were cared for by claimant until they arrived at their maturity and marriage. One of the girls so remained for something over nine years, another more than ten years, another twelve, and the youngest nearly fourteen years. Claimant’s two brothers mar[628]*628ried, and left the J. M. Snyder home. The'evidence tends to show that deceased was away from Norwalk a part of the time, and that, when in Norwalk, he made his father’s home his headquarters, and for a time, after the death of Ms wife and before his second marriage, lived in the home of his father. We understand that the reason, or at least one of the reasons, for the rule that, where parties are members of the same family, their services are presumed to be gratuitous, is because one rendering service to the other or others receives reciprocal services in return. It is not claimed, and could not be, under the evidence, that deceased was the head of the J. M. Snyder family, wherein the children were placed, or that it was under his management. He was not supporting that family, nor ivas claimant receiving support from him therein. If there were the usual small amenities between brother and sister, this would not constitute support by him of the family, or create the family relation. Deceased, to say the most, was temporarily, and at intervals for a brief time, staying at the home of his parents, prior to his second marriage. Claimant was not a member of his family, and the fact that the children were placed in claimant’s charge and care, and that they lived in the same home with her parents, is not material. She is not claiming compensation from the children, but cláims compensation from their father, for their care.

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Bluebook (online)
193 Iowa 624, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/snyder-v-guthrie-iowa-1922.