Maulsby v. Citizens Banking Co.
Maulsby v. Citizens Banking Co.
Opinion of the Court
Petition of appellee banking company, as executor of the estate of Martin V. Maulsby, to sell real estate to pay debts. Appellant, who is the widow of decedent, filed her cross-complaint, alleging an antenuptial agreement with decedent whereby she, upon the death of decedent, was to have certain described lands (eighty acres). That decedent in his lifetime had sold forty acres of said land and had mortgaged the other forty acres, and asking that her rights be protected. The court found the facts specially. Upon the facts as found, the court stated its conclusion of the law to be with the executor and that its petition to sell the real estate of the decedent should be granted and that it should be authorized to sell: (1) The real estate of which the decedent died seized, except that part involved in the antenuptial contract and the lots involved in item two of his will which he gave to the appellant for life; and if sufficient proceeds arise from the sale of said lands to pay the costs and expenses of the administration and the "debts of said decedent, no more land shall be sold. (2) If the proceeds of the sale of said lands are not sufficient to pay said costs, expenses and debts, then the executor shall sell the remaining forty acres described in ■ the antenuptial agreement, or so much thereof as may be necessary to pay said costs, expenses and debts. (3) If a sale of the land last described does not, with the proceeds of the sale of the other land and the personal property, produce
A decree was entered in accordance with these conclusions.
The court, after finding that decedent in 1906 had sold forty acres of the land described in the antenuptial agreement, that he had received in exchange therefor certain other land, and facts showing it to be necessary to sell all the land owned by him at the time of his death, found that as a settlement between decedent and appellant for the land so sold, which he had agreed in the antenuptial agreement should be the property of appellant, he executed and delivered to her a certain note for $1,500, which she accepted.
Appellant contends that this finding is not supported by the evidence. The evidence discloses that the ante-nuptial contract was entered into August 25, 1892, and was kept by the decedent’s attorney, who drafted it, and was never seen by appellant after its execution until after decedent’s death in 1916. In January, 1904, the decedent insured his life for $1,000 in favor of appellant. Before the maturity of said policy through some arrangement $855 was borrowed from the insurance company on this policy, and at its maturity in January, 1914, the further sum of $455.27 was paid on account of said policy, making a total of $1,310.27, all of which was turned over to decedent by appellant and used by him. On January 30, 1914, the decedent gave appellant the $1,500 note mentioned in the finding of facts, in which note the decedent stated that the consideration for the note was the money derived from an insurance policy upon his life which had matured and in which appellant was the beneficiary and which money had been used by him, and that the note -\yas given.as evidence of his liability to appellant on account of such money.
Appellant testified that the note for $1,500 was given her in consideration of the money received on the insurance policy in which she was the beneficiary and for a horse and cow which belonged to her; that she never saw the antenuptial agreement after it was signed in 1892 until after the death of her husband and did not know the description of the eighty acres which she was to get; that when the forty acres was conveyed she did not know that it was a part of the eighty acres mentioned in the antenuptial agreement; that she received no consideration for signing such deed or for signing the mortgage for the $9,000 to the insurance company. In answer to a question by the court she said: “When he (decedent) first suggested giving me this note was when he burned up some deeds he had made to me, the property in town. He made me a deed to procure some money on the life insurance policy he carried for ten years. He offered to give me the property for the life insurance money. After he got the money he said somebody had made a mistake in the deed. I knew enough to know that the deed ought to be recorded and I said, T would like to know about that deed,’ and he said that ‘it was no good and I burned it up,’ and I said, ‘You oughtn’t to do a thing like that for that deed was mine,’ and he said, ‘John Kendall had made a
Hanson Thompson, a son-in-law of the decedent, testified that a few days after the decedent was buried the will was produced and read. In relating what took place at that time he said: “Mrs. Maulsby brought out some boxes and papers and was looking through, them and found the will and I opened it and read it. She says to me after it was read, ‘It looks in that that I am not very well provided for,’ and I said, ‘No,’and then there was quietness for a little bit and she says, ‘A few years ago Pa made me a deed to this Clear property and it ran on for some time and she discovered that it had never been recorded and she asked him about it and he said it didn’t suit him and he destroyed it,’ and she says, T made him give me a $1,500 note.’ ”
Judgment reversed, with directions to sustain appellant’s motion for a new trial and for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.