Warren v. Warren

58 Pa. D. & C.2d 556, 1971 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 26
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County
DecidedJune 24, 1971
Docketno. 1755
StatusPublished

This text of 58 Pa. D. & C.2d 556 (Warren v. Warren) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Warren v. Warren, 58 Pa. D. & C.2d 556, 1971 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 26 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1971).

Opinion

SAYLOR, J.,

By bill in equity, plaintiff seeks to obtain a reconveyance of premises 2237 Benson Street, Philadelphia, from her son and daughter-in-law. The son does not contest the claim. The daughter-in-law, who is estranged from her husband, does contest it. She asserts that the property was given to her and her codefendant by plaintiff upon their marriage. Plaintiff claims the property is hers, that the title thereto was transferred to her. [557]*557within a month of the original conveyance to defendants and title remained in her for nearly five years until it was transferred to defendants merely to assist them in purchasing and financing a new home.

This law suit would never have been instituted had defendants continued to live in harmony. Plaintiff denies that she gave the property or any funds with which to purchase it as a wedding gift to defendants. On the contrary, plaintiff stated under oath that she gave no wedding present, only to testify later in the trial that she gave her daughter-in-law a diamond ring.

Plaintiff has engaged from time to time in the purchase of real estate and may have been a party to the transferring back and forth of the house in order to carry out transactions in which she was interested. While her testimony was uncertain in some areas, she did produce paid checks on her bank account showing that over a period of years she paid the various carrying charges on the house. While she lived there in an apartment set apart from defendants’ quarters, she may have made such payments by way of rent. But it is significant that despite the fact that defendants were obligors on the bond and mortgage given by them at settlement when they took title, it was plaintiff and not defendants who assumed and bore the major burden of paying the carrying charges due monthly to the mortgagee.

Defendants took title to 2237 Benson Street, a duplex house, in their names as tenants by the entireties by deed on October 15, 1962. Within a month, on November 21, 1962, defendants conveyed the property to plaintiff. For nearly five years, title remained in plaintiff. Moreover on July 31, 1967, defendants gave plaintiff a second deed with a more precise and accurate description of the property. [558]*558Within a month, plaintiff reconveyed the property to defendants. Plaintiff testified that this was done on a temporary basis to assist her son- and daughter-in-law to finance their purchase of another home on Hendrix Street which, being larger than the Benson Street property, would be more appropriate for a growing family. That deed to defendants was dated August 18, 1967. Defendants separated early in 1969 and are getting a divorce. This suit was instituted on August 12, 1969.

The daughter-in-law testified that the $5,000 advanced by plaintiff when the Benson Street house was purchased was given by plaintiff as a wedding present. The consideration for the purchase was $20,500 and defendants gave their mortgage for $16,400.

Dale Warren testified that his mother wanted to buy the Benson Street house but the real estate man said it was doubtful if she could pay the mortgage. Presumably, it was for that reason that plaintiff, in advancing the $5,000, arranged that defendant take title and give a mortgage secured by the property.

Dale Warren also testified that when, after holding title for nearly five years, his mother transferred title to the Benson Street house to him and his wife, she did so only to enable them to finance the acquisition of their new home on Hendrix Street which was purchased in September 1967. He added that his mother has paid all carrying charges on the Benson Street house. His wife, however, testified that she and her husband made some mortgage payments.

Carole Warren also testified that she and her husband put up about $1,000 when the house was bought and that her mother-in-law made a gift of four to five thousand dollars at the time of the purchase. Carole Warren said that the house did not belong [559]*559to plaintiff and that she had no recollection of ever transferring title to her. This testimony was such as to cast doubt on her credibility. She testified that she was at the settlement for the Benson Street house and that the signature on the settlement sheet for October 15, 1962, was hers. But when the deed of November 21, 1962, conveying the property to plaintiff was shown to her, she said that it was not her husband’s signature that was on it and she could not say it was hers but would not deny that it was. She also said she did not remember signing the deed that conveyed title to the Benson Street house to plaintiff on July 31, 1967, and that the signature on the deed does not look like hers but she did not deny that it was hers. This witness also said she did not remember the various deeds but admitted that when her husband asked her to sign the July 31, 1967, deed (confirming title to land transferred to plaintiff on November 21, 1962) she did so.

Dale Warren identified the signatures on the 1962 deed as his and his wife’s signatures and said the signatures of the witnesses were those of the real estate agents in whose office the deed was signed.

Since Carole Warren has had a high school education and presumably can read and write, it seems clear that she executed the deeds despite her hesitation in identifying her signatures to them. Her assertion that she did not understand them means nothing, since she admitted that when they were presented to her she executed them. It is found as a fact that both defendants executed the deeds of November 21, 1962, and July 31, 1967, conveying the Benson Street property to plaintiff and that, by virtue of such title record, title to said property was held by plaintiff until August 18, 1967, when, after nearly five years, title was reconveyed to defendants.

[560]*560Catherine T. Warren, plaintiff, testified that she sold her house on Gilham Street in order to buy the Benson Street house. She said she used defendants as a “straw” because at her then age she could not get anyone to take a mortgage. The money she advanced was not a gift and so the property was deeded to her within a month. She also said that defendants agreed to return the Benson Street house to her after they acquired the Hendrix Street property. After the settlement for the Benson Street house she moved into it, painted it and repaired it. She paid rent by way of making payments on the mortgage. She leased a portion of the house to a tenant and collected the rents through her son and made payments to the mortgagee. Her records show that her payments to the mortgagee totaled $5,298.74.

Dale Warren testified that his mother usually took care of everything relating to the house and that he took credit on his income tax returns for depreciation and repairs. He said that he received no rent from his mother as a tenant but later stated that she paid $75 a month as rent. Following separation from his wife, he moved back into the Benson Street house.

Stephen A. Miller testified that he was the tenant of a portion of the Benson Street house and executed a lease with defendants to whom he paid rent while he was the occupant from October 1, 1967, until he moved out in February 1970. He said that Dale Warren told him that his mother owned the property but as far as he, as the tenant, was concerned, defendants were the owners as he gave the rent checks to Dale Warren.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
58 Pa. D. & C.2d 556, 1971 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 26, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/warren-v-warren-pactcomplphilad-1971.