Zuercher v. Zuercher

65 N.W.2d 452, 245 Iowa 1105, 1954 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 472
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedJuly 26, 1954
DocketNo. 48511
StatusPublished

This text of 65 N.W.2d 452 (Zuercher v. Zuercher) 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
Zuercher v. Zuercher, 65 N.W.2d 452, 245 Iowa 1105, 1954 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 472 (iowa 1954).

Opinion

Oliver, J.

— Fred W. Zuereher died intestate, without issue, at Marshalltown, November 5, 1952. He was survived by his widow, defendant Grace E. Zuereher, and by his mother, plaintiff Emilie Zuereher. Under the statutes of descent and distribution his widow, defendant Grace, was entitled to the first $15,000 in value of his net estate and one half the remainder. His mother, plaintiff Emilie, was entitled to the other half of the remainder. Sections 636.32 and 636.41, Code of Iowa, 1954. November 10, 1952, defendant secured from plaintiff a deed and assignment which transferred to defendant all plaintiff’s right, title and interest in and to certain described real estate and in and to all personal property in decedent’s estate. Shortly thereafter plaintiff brought this suit alleging defendant had obtained the execution of the instrument by actual and construe[1107]*1107tive fraud, and praying its cancellation. Trial resulted in judgment canceling the instrument, and this appeal by defendant.

Upon the death of Fred Zuercher, defendant Grace Zuercher had consulted with her attorney about Fred’s estate and learned how the statutes would distribute it. She telephoned her brother, Lester H. Flower, a securities salesman in Des Moines, who came to Marshalltown, November 10, and took charge of the matter. He directed the attorney to apply for the appointment of defendant as administratrix of Fred’s estáte. Early that afternoon they secured her appointment and she qualified. Under Mr. Flower’s instructions the attorney prepared also Exhibit A, the deed and assignment here involved, for execution by plaintiff. The consideration stated was “one dollar and other considerations.” Fred’s estate was worth about $40,000 and the value of the plaintiff’s share from $7000 to $10,000.

At five o’clock that afternoon Mr. Flower, defendant Grace and the attorney made an unannounced call at the home of Mark and Pauline Glasgow, daughter and son-in-law of plaintiff Emilie Zuercher, with whom plaintiff lived. Their purpose was to secure plaintiff’s signature to Exhibit A. It is not contended that matter had been previously mentioned to or considered by her.

Plaintiff was eighty years old. As a young woman she had come to the United States from Switzerland and had reared a family of five children. She ‘had no business experience and after the death of her husband in 1951 her sons' had cared for such matters for her. Her property and income consisted of a railroad pension of $37.39 per month and payments to her on the family home which had been sold under contract. She was recovering from a broken hip and occupied a wheel chair. Her hearing was defective and the hearing aid used by her was then undergoing repair.

When the securities salesman, the attorney and defendant Grace descended upon the Glasgow home they found plaintiff Emilie sitting in the front room. The Glasgows were at home. Defendant Grace announced she had been appointed administratrix of her husband’s estate. One witness testified she exhibited the letters of administration. According to Mr. Flower, defendant then stood beside plaintiff, held Exhibit A out in [1108]*1108front of her and said, “ ‘Will you sign this quitclaim deed ¶ It is the same kind of a quitclaim deed that Fred and I signed for the August Zuercher property.’ ” Flower testified he then said, “I will read the quitclaim deed” and he took it from defendant and read it to plaintiff “loud enough so that she could hear it.” She asked no question about it. “After I read it to her, I asked her if she would sign the quitclaim deed, if she wanted Grace to have this property, if she understood it .and she shook her head and said she did, ‘yes’. * * * Mark Glasgow asked to see the document when we arrived there, but he couldn’t find his glasses and I told him I would read it to him. * * *

“Before I took the paper out of Grace’s hands, Mark [Glasgow] made the statement to Emilie Zuercher that she shouldn’t sign the paper until the other children were contacted about it. * * *

“No one said to Mrs. Zuercher what the property was that she might be entitled to as surviving mother of Fred Zuercher on that day.

“No one said to her what particular property we wanted her to quitclaim to her * * * aiid no one said in dollars or cents [what] her interest in the Fred Zuercher estate might be, nor how much the value was in real estate for the whole property, nor how much in stocks or bonds or bank accounts. No one said anything to her that she was giving away absolutely all her interest in Fred’s estate by signing this document, and no one said you are entitled to private, competent, legal advice before you sign the paper, nor that she was entitled to consult any lawyer of her own choice about it, and away from and not in the presence of Grace Zuercher before she signed this. * * *

“I am the one who laid it out on a magazine in her 'lap just before she signed it. * * * I had the pen in my hand. * * * I am the one who took the paper and put it in my pocket after she signed.” (It will be noted plaintiff did not have the opportunity to inspect the instrument either before or after she signed it.) After plaintiff signed, the lawyer said, “Now, Grace, give her a dollar” (which Grace proceeded to do “to make it legal”). “Up to that time, no word had been spoken to the plaintiff as to any consideration she should be entitled to if she signed the deed.”

[1109]*1109The foregoing account of the securing of plaintiff’s signature was taken from the testimony of the securities salesman Mower, the principal actor and star witness for defendant. The only word Mower testified plaintiff uttered during the time they were soliciting her signature to the conveyance was “ ‘yes’. ”

Defendant, although present in court, did not testify. We are told this was because of a mental ailment. The attorney, the only other witness for defendant, relative to the procuring of plaintiff’s signature, did not remember anything plaintiff “said about whether she wanted to sign this deed or didn’t want to sign it. # * # I don’t recall Emilie Zuercher saying anything to Lester Flower.” The attorney testified that after she signed he took her acknowledgment and explained the instrument to her. “I wanted to know if she had some idea of what she signed. It is my recollection that all she did was nod her head at that time.”

Mark Glasgow testified for plaintiff:

“Mr. Flower just had the paper in his hand and his pen in the other hand. He said, ‘Sign this paper. We want you to sign your name. We want you to sign your name Emilie Zuercher instead of Mrs. Zuercher.’ I would say I heard Lester Flower say four times, to her in substance, he wanted her to sign this paper. I told Mrs. Zuercher, ‘Don’t sign your name to that paper until I get my glasses so that I can read it.’ Grace said to me, ‘You keep out of this, it is none of your affairs whatever.’ Grace got up and walked over to Mrs. Zuercher and said, ‘You sign for me, I signed for you.’ Lester Flower had the paper that time. Lester Flower said, ‘We’re in a hurry’, said it to me and said it to Mother. * * *

“When I came back into the room and saw she had signed her name on the paper I said to Mother Zuercher, ‘What did you do?’ She said, ‘I had to sign’. She said Lester Flower told her she had to sign it. They left, in .about 30 seconds * '*

Mark testified when plaintiff said,.“ ‘I had to sign’ ” he put his hand on her shoulder and her body was trembling. “She looked and appeared to be scared.

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Bluebook (online)
65 N.W.2d 452, 245 Iowa 1105, 1954 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 472, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/zuercher-v-zuercher-iowa-1954.