Studybaker v. Cofield

61 S.W. 246, 159 Mo. 596, 1901 Mo. LEXIS 23
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedFebruary 12, 1901
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 61 S.W. 246 (Studybaker v. Cofield) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Studybaker v. Cofield, 61 S.W. 246, 159 Mo. 596, 1901 Mo. LEXIS 23 (Mo. 1901).

Opinion

VALLIANT, J.

This is a suit in equity by the collateral heirs of Joseph Boyer, deceased, to set aside a deed made by him a few days before his death to his niece, the defendant Elmira Cofield, on the ground that he was of unsound mind when he made the deed, and was induced to make it through her undue influence.

The deceased was eighty-five years old, had never mar[601]*601ried, and at his death left as his heirs two sisters, Catherine Tarman, one of the plaintiffs, and Susan Black, one of the defendants, and seventeen neices and nephews, children of deceased brothers and sisters, all of whom are plaintiffs except the defendant Elmira Oofield; the sister Susan Black, who was one of the defendants, was the mother of Elmira, and has died since this suit was begun. The deed assaulted conveys a farm of about 200 acres in Pettis county, which was the bulk of his property, to defendant Elmira. His estate was solvent, although the personalty amounted to only a few hundred dollars. He died intestate. The deed reserves in the grantor the use, possession, rents, and profits of the land for life. The consideration expressed is ten dollars cash, love and affection, and the obligation of the grantee to maintain and support her mother, the grantor’s sister, Susan Black, during her life. The petition charges that the deed was made (or essayed to be made) “when his mind had become so impaired by the accumulated ravages of age and disease that he was not capable of contracting or of intelligently transacting businessthat it was “procured and brought about by the selfish and wrongful entreaties, solicitations, machinations” of Elmira and her husband, who “were at the time the only relatives and confidential advisers of said Joseph Boyer in attendance on him and nursing him, and they wrongfully contrived by their position as relatives and nurses, and confidential advisers and their arts and blandishments, to obtain and assert an unfair and selfish domination and undue influence over his feeble will-power, to the detriment of the absent heirs and to the gain of said Elmira and her mother Susan Black, and by such unfair and selfish domination and undue influence and by said solicitations, entreaties and blandishments and consulting and advising him thereto, thus procured the deed; that it was not the act and deed of Joseph Boyer, but that of Elmira and her husband, [602]*602obtained through those influences and by prejudicing him against his other relatives, the plaintiffs herein, who resided in distant States.” There were no specifications in the petition 'demonstrative of those charges, but they were denied by the answer.

The evidence showed that Joseph Boyer was an old bachelor who for the last twenty-five years or more of his life had lived in Pettis county without the society of any of his relatives, who lived in other States, Ohio, Illinois and Iowa. There was nothing very peculiar about his habits or character to distinguish him from an ordinary recluse of that kind. He was a man of usual intelligence, attended to his own business and grew old with habits formed and hardened under the somewhat arid conditions that ordinarily environ the life of an old bachelor.

One of plaintiffs witnesses, Davidson, who was a hired man on the farm, in conversation with Boyer, casually said that he had come from Tama county, Iowa, whereupon the old man said that he had relatives living in that county and named Edgar Boyer his nephew, whom he said he wanted to come and take charge of his place when Jones’s lease was out, and that after he himself was done with it, he intended to give it to Edgar. Mr. Jones, the tenant on the place with whom the old man lived and who was the plaintiff’s chief witness, testified that sometime before he was taken sick of his last illness the old man spoke to him about his relatives and his property and said that there were a good many people who wanted his property, but he was not going to give it to any one, but if He ever did deed it to anyone, his nephew Edgar, who lived in Iowa, should have the biggest part of it; that if any old person deeded away what he had he was liable to get kicked out of the back door and go to the poor house, that he was sorry he could not take his property along with him when he died, but as he could [603]*603not do that he would just leave the law to settle it, that he had not received a letter from any of his relatives for seven years except Oofield.

Mrs. Oofield and her husband lived in Ohio; the year before her uncle’s death they had come on an excursion to Kansas City and had stopped off at Sedalia and gone out to the farm and paid the old man a visit of a day or a day and night. That was a pleasant visit; he was glad to see them; they talked of old times and old acquaintances. This is the only visit that the evidence shows any of his relatives ever paid him. When he was taken sick in his last illness and grew so ill that the Jones family who were attending him became apprehensive that he was going to die, Mr. Jones suggested to him to telegraph for the Cofields, but he objected, saying that he thought he would get better and that Cofield was a busy man and it would trouble him to leave his business. But the next day he was no better and Jones again said that some of his relatives ought to be sent for, and Boyer said he did not know the address of any of them except the Cofields and finally requested that they be telegraphed to come. Jones accordingly telegraphed them on Sunday and they arrived on Monday. The meeting between the old man and his niece was affectionate, he wept and said, “Mira, I am glad to see you.”. She immediately began to minister to his comfort, and continued to do so until his death, which occurred twelve days thereafter and four days after the deed was made.

The testimony on the part of the plaintiffs was to the effect that on the day of her arrival she asked him about the condition of his property, if he owed anything on it, etc., and being assuredi that it was clear of debt, she told him that he would not get well and that he should prepare to die, or as the plaintiffs’ witnesses expressed it, “give up all thought of business and lay it all on the altar.” There was some testimony about [604]*604a note of $1,000 which he held and which, when the tax assessor some months before 'wanted to assess, he tore into pieces and threw away, but a member of the Jones family collected the pieces and put them together. This incident was mentioned in the conversation in which Mrs. Cofield asked about the condition of his business, and she advised him to give her husband a power of attorney to attend to that, and he agreed to do so.

In this same conversation he told her that he had about four hundred dollars in bank (which was the fact) and she said she thought he ought to have more money than that. In a subsequent conversation, on another day, plaintiffs’ witness Jones “heard her tell Mr. Boyer if he got well she was going to take him home with her, take him and keep him until fall, go and see all of his folks, and all of his friends back there. Talked on considerable, I can’t remember what all. Q. Anything more about property matters? A. No; I don’t believe there -was at that time.”

After plaintiffs had closed their case and the defendants were introducing their evidence, the plaintiffs by leave were allowed to recall two of their chief witnesses, Jones and his daughter, who testified that on the morning of the arrival of the Cofields the old man asked Elmira where Edgar was and that she said he was dead and that that was all that was said on that subject.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
61 S.W. 246, 159 Mo. 596, 1901 Mo. LEXIS 23, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/studybaker-v-cofield-mo-1901.