Lovell v. Conley
Lovell v. Conley
Opinion of the Court
Opinion op the Court by
Affirming.
M. F. Conley died some time before 1911, leaving surviving him his widow and four children. He owned at the time of his death some real estate in Johnson •county, Kentucky, in which his wife’ had an estate for life, with remainder to the four children. On April 11, 1911, Robert Conley, one of the children, who had gone to the state of Washington and there adopted the assumed name of Robert Miller, executed to the appellant, Lovell, the following paper: “Know all men by these presents that I do hereby assign and transfer to G-. E. Lovell all the right, title or interest I may have in the
It appears that in September, 1912, Robert Conley conveyed his interest in his father’s estate_to his brother, the appellee, Edward Conley, and shortly afterwards Edward Conley conveyed a part of this interest to his sister, Mrs. Bessie Chandler, and the other part to one, A. B. Collins.
It further appears that in October, 1912, Robert Conley died, and in 1913 Lovell brought this suit against Edward Conley, Mrs. Chandler and A. B. Collins, setting up that by virtue of the assignment to him by Robert Conley (Miller) of his interest in his father’s estate, he was the owner of his one-fourth interest therein, and that with knowledge of his claim, and in fraud of his rights, Edward Conley procured the deed from Robert Conley, and Mrs. Chandler and Collins, with knowledge of the assignment, accepted the deeds to them. The suit against A. B. Collins, however, was dismissed, and so it will not be necessary to refer again to him.
The defendants answered, and after the case had been prepared for trial, there was a judgment dismissing the petition, and Lovell appeals.
The evidence shows that Robert Conley was a wild, dissipated young man, who had subjected his ■ brother and sisters, as well as other members of the family, to a great deal of trouble and expense on account of his bad habits, and that before April, 1911, he had obtained from them at different times sums of money aggregating as much as his interest in the estate. The evidence further shows that it was to secure this indebtedness that he conveyed to his brother Edward his interest, and in order that his sister might also be protected on
It appears that on April 17, 1911, Lovell, who was an attorney in the state of Washington, wrote to Mrs. Chandler telling her about a prosecution for some criminal offense pending against her brother, who had employed him as an attorney. In this letter, which was written after the assignment of the interest to Lovell, he did not mention the assignment, but said that Robert had told him of an interest he had in the estate worth a thousand dollars or more and that Robert wanted Mrs. Chandler to take his interest in the estate and pay the thousand dollars to help get him out of trouble.
On June 5, 1911, Mrs. Chandler replied, to this letter and said that Robert did have an interest in his father’s estate, but that the property could not be divided until her mother died; that his part was worth about a thousand dollars, and that her mother said he might take a deed to Robert’s part of the property and hold the same until money matters could be arranged in some way. In answer to this letter from Mrs. Chandler, Lovell, on June 12, 1911, wrote telling her about the trial, saying that he appreciated the offer made in her letter, and that the matter might be settled on that basis, also advising her that he had an assignment of her brother’s interest in the estate. On July 19, 1911, it appears that Lovell wrote another letter to Mrs. Chandler saying that Robert had assigned to him and his partner his interest in his father’s estate. In this letter he also said that if Robert, who it seems had disappeared, could be located, they would accept from him a reasonable fee and let him have the interest back. This is all the information Mrs. Chandler had touching this assignment, and, as before stated, Edward Conley knew nothing of it until after the death of Robert.
It might here be noticed that after taking this deed, Edward and the family spent a considerable sum of money on account of the death and burial of Robert; and these burial expenses, together with what had been advanced to him before the deed to Edward was made, more than exhausted his interest in his father’s estate.
Upon the whole case, we see no reason for disturbing the judgment of the lower court and it is affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.