Farmer v. O'Carroll

⁴³⁴ Parke, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The original bill of complaint in the cause now at bar was filed in Circuit Court ETo. 2 of Baltimore City by Mary A. Farmer against the Reverend Father Peter J. O’Carroll, individually, and as former treasurer, and now assistant treasurer, of the Associated Professors of Loyola College in the City of Baltimore, a body corporate, and the Associated Professors of Loyola College in the City of Baltimore, a body corporate. The chancellor sustained a demurrer to the bill of complaint on the grounds that the bill was multifarious and did not show an equity in the plaintiff, but granted the plaintiff leave to amend. Within the prescribed time, an amended bill of complaint was filed by the plaintiff against the same defendants, with the single exception that the Reverend Father Peter J. O’Carroll was sued as former treasurer, and now assistant treasurer, of the Associated Professors of Loyola College in the City of Baltimore, and not in his individual capacity.

A demurrer was again interposed and sustained, with leave to the plaintiff to amend within ten days, and the plaintiff did not so amend, but entered an appeal from the order sustaining the demurrer. The bill of complaint is prolix and redundant, and, when stated in terms of its substance, seeks relief in equity on the following allegations, which must be accepted as true on demurrer, to the extent that they are well pleaded: The plaintiff is a spinster and was about fifty-three years old in 1921, when the transaction of which she now complains was made. She then had an estate of about $180,000, that was almost' entirely in the form of bonds, securities, money, and other personalty, although it embraced real and leasehold property. This estate came to her in part by will and in part under the statutes of descent and distribution, and it was the “definite and settled desire, intent and expectation of the plaintiff that her estate should go to her nieces and nephews,” the four children of her dead brother, James F. Farmer, who were the only other surviving members of the family from which she had derived her property, in the period, principally, between 1917 and 1921. ⁴³⁵ The Associated Professors of Loyola College in the City of Baltimore is a body corporate of the State of Maryland, whose corporate assoeiators are priests of the Roman Catholic Church and members of the order known as the Society of Jesus.

The corporate purpose is to conduct an educational institution, although its members are engaged in various religious, spiritual, and eleemosynary enterprises and charities, and have the management and control of the property known as St. Ignatius Church, at the corner of Madison and Calvert- Streets in Baltimore City. From 1908 to 1924 the Reverend Father Peter J. O’Carroll had been the treasurer of the corporation, and then became its assistant treasurer, a post which he has continuously held to the present; and throughout this period he has been one of the officiating priests of St. Ignatius Church. The bill of complaint further alleged that the plaintiff is a devout Catholic, and has been a member of the congregation worshipping at St. Ignatius Church for thirty-three years before the institution of this suit in the fall of 1931; and that Father O’Carroll has been her confessor and spiritual adviser for the last twelve of these years, and the plaintiff’s surviving sister, Margaret Farmer, died in the latter part of September, 1920, and after her death Father O’Carroll gained her confidence and became her business, as well as her spiritual adviser, and “acquired a controlling influence and dominion over her mind.” The gravamen of the bill of complaint is contained in the following lengthy excerpt: “The plaintiff, being then well past middle age, and living entirely alone, and having been greatly shocked and overcome, weakened and debilitated in mind and body and in an extremely depressed and nervous condition, as the result of the death of her sister Margaret, became easily subject to the undue and dominating influence, and ascendancy of the said Reverend Father O’Carroll, who, being Treasurer and member of the said Associated Professors of Loyola College in the City of Baltimore, in his priestly office and as her ⁴³⁶ father confessor and spiritual adviser, represented himself as acting solely for the benefit and in the interest of the plaintiff. By the exercise of his said controlling and dominant influence over the plaintiff, whereby he prevailed upon her all the more easily and effectively because of her then distracted, depressed, nervous and weakened condition aforesaid, and also as the result of the said representations and importunities of the said Reverend Father O’Carroll, to the effect that his interposition and advice were solely for the benefit and in the interest of the plaintiff and for the , preservation and betterment of her property and estate, as well as for her spiritual benefit and welfare, and were without any selfish or ulterior motive upon his part, the said Reverend Father Peter J. O’Carroll, being then as aforesaid,' an officiating priest of the said St. Ignatius Church, of which the plaintiff was then a member and communicant, and the father confessor and spiritual adviser of the plaintiff and being at the same time the Treasurer and Executive Officer, and acting as the representative and agent, and in the interest of the defendant, The Associated Professors of Loyola College in the City of Baltimore, in possession, charge, control and direction of said Saint Ignatius Churph at said Calvert and Madison Streets.in Baltimore City as aforesaid, on April 20, 1921, influenced and prevailed upon the plaintiff to deliver to him for the said defendant, The Associated Professors of Loyola College in the City of Baltimore, one hundred and thirty-five thousand, three hundred and fifty ($135,350.00) dollars in United States of America Liberty Loan bonds, 4%%; and at or about the same time also to deliver to him for the said defendant, The Associated Professors of Loyola College in the City of Baltimore, the further sum of twenty thousand ($20,-000.00) dollars in United States of America Liberty Loan bonds, 4%%; which said transactions and deliveries the said Reverend Father O’Carroll, acting in the capacities and in the manner and for the purposes and to the ends aforesaid, wrongfully and falsely in ⁴³⁷ formed and led the plaintiff to believe were merely a loan and that said bonds were returnable and would be returned to her upon her request, the interest maturing upon said bonds to be paid to her as long as the plaintiff should allow said alleged loan to continue, and the said bonds to remain the property of and belong to the plaintiff; the said Reverend Father O’Carroll, then and there acting in the capacities, in the manner and for the purposes and to the ends aforesaid, wrongfully and fraudulently induced, procured, directed and prevailed on the plaintiff to sign a paper writing, dated April 20, 1921, by taking unfair, improper and wrongful advantage of the plaintiff and of her trust, faith and confidence in him, as aforesaid, as her spiritual adviser and father confessor, and as her business adviser, as aforesaid; and also by undue influence exercised by the said Father O’Oarroll, acting in the capacities and in the manner and for the purposes and ends aforesaid, upon and over the plaintiff; and also, by actual deception and fraud, consisting of the false and fraudulent misrepresentation, made by the said Father O’Carroll, acting in the capacities aforesaid, and in the manner, and for the purposes and to the ends aforesaid, to the plaintiff, that the purport, meaning and effect of said paper writing, dated April 20, 1921, were that the delivery of the bonds, referred to in said paper writing, was and constituted merely a loan of said bonds, and that said bonds were returnable and would be returned to her upon her request, the interest maturing upon said bonds to be paid to her as long as she should allow said alleged loan to. continue, and the bonds to remain the property of and belong to the plaintiff, which said paper writing the plaintiff signed at and upon the said advice, direction and behest, and • upon and relying upon the said representations aforesaid, of said Reverend Father O’Carroll, acting in, all and singular, the capacities and respects aforesaid, and implicitly relying upon and trusting him as her spiritual adviser and confessor, and having absolute faith and confidence in and implicitly relying in his priestly ⁴³⁸ office and the disinterested and devoted motives professed by him, in her behalf, and without deeming it proper of appropriate to read, and, so as aforesaid, relying and trusting, without reading, the said paper writing in order to verify said representations and professions of her said spiritual adviser and religious confessor, and without any other or independent advice or information whatsoever.” A purported copy of the above-mentioned instrument of writing is filed as an exhibit to the bill of complaint and is as follows: “In consideration of the agreement by The Associated Professors of Loyola College in the City of Baltimore, a body corporate of the State of Maryland, to pay to the undersigned Mary A. Farmer, the sum of money hereafter set forth, the said Mary A. Farmer doth hereby assign and transfer to The Associated Professors of Loyola College in the City of Baltimore, its successors and assigns, absolutely, one hundred and thirty-five thousand and three hundred and fifty dollars of United States of America Liberty Loans Four and One-quarter per cent, bonds with interest coupons hereafter maturing thereto attached, and in consideration of the assignment and transfer of the above-mentioned bonds with said coupons to The Associated Professors of Loyola College in the City of Baltimore by the said Mary A. Farmer, The Associated Professors of Loyola College in the City of Baltimore hereby agrees to pay to the said Mary A. Farmer interest in said principal sum of one hundred and thirty-five thousand three hundred and fifty dollars at the rate of four and one-quarter per cent.' per annum during the lifetime of said Mary A. Farmer, said interest accounting from the date when the interest coupon on said bonds was last payable by the United States of America to the holder of said bonds, and said interest being payable in semi-annual installments accounting from said last-mentioned date, and upon the death of the said Mary A. Farmer, said interest payments shall abso ⁴³⁹ lutely cease, and no sum of money shall thereafter he due to the said Mary A. Farmer or to the estate of the said Mary A. Farmer hereunder. “Witness the hand and seal of the said Mary A. Farmer and the seal of The Associated Professors of Loyola College in the City of Baltimore, and the signature of its President, this twentieth day of April, A. D. nineteen hundred and twenty-one. “Mary A. Farmer.

(Seal) Joseph A. McKehenay, S. J., “President Loyola College. (Seal) “Witness: Peter J. O’Carroll, S. J.” The remaining averments which require statement may well be thus summarized: The bonds, constituting much more than the major portion of her estate, were delivered, through Father O’Carroll, to the corporation, and thereafter the corporation has paid to the plaintiff the interest on the principal amount of the bonds at the annual rate of four and one-quarter per cent., and the plaintiff has deducted from her income the interest so received as being a proper allowance in the computation of the yearly federal income tax payable by her. This situation continued until shortly after June oth, 1930, when the plaintiff, who lived alone in her home, met with a severe accident and lay unconscious and without assistance until she was discovered by a servant, who notified a woman friend of the plaintiff. This, friend summoned the plaintiff’s physician, who removed the plaintiff to the hospital, and notified Father O’Carroll.

The priest and the friend took possession and charge of the house and effects of the plaintiff, but the nephews and nieces, although known, were not notified by the priest, who is alleged to have had the plaintiff entered at the hospital as having no living relatives, and to have given the name of the friend as the person to be notified in the event of the death of the plaintiff, whose doctor was, at first, of the opinion she could not live more than two days. The bill of complaint further alleged that, while the plaintiff was unconscious at the hospital, the friend and the priest went to the residence of the plaintiff and took ⁴⁴⁰ into custody all her personal property, including “bank books, check books, memorandum papers, and records, and tore and cut from the plaintiff’s memorandum books and books of account all pages containing any writing or memorandum, and destroyed all the plaintiff’s books of account and entry wherein she kept any records or entries referring to her property and possessions, and particularly to the said bonds.” About $7,000 in money was. found in the house, and Father O’Carroll gave $1,000 to the friend for the expenses of the plaintiff at the hospital, and the residue he deposited in a banking institution in his name as agent for the plaintiff. The nephews and nieces of the plaintiff were informed, on June 10th, 1930, by third parties, that the plaintiff was ill in the hospital, and they went to see her and took charge of her affairs. They inquired by what authority the friend had assumed possession of certain personal property, and she stated that she was the agent of Father O’Carroll, and he declared that he had acted as agent of the plaintiff.

After the plaintiff had recovered sufficiently, she directed her nephew James Q. Farmer, an attorney at law, to take full charge of her affairs and gave him a general power of attorney. The friend and the priest, on demand, accounted for and delivered to the nephew the personal property and money of which they had assumed the custody on the happening of the accident to Miss Farmer. The bill of complaint further charges that on May 26th, 1931, Father O’Oarroll called upon the plaintiff, when the nephew, who had been given the general power of attorney, was present, and the plaintiff demanded of the priest the return of the money represented by the par value of the bonds, and he declared that she had given it, and had executed a paper writing, and referred him to an attorney, who, after demand and delay, gave him a copy, which was filed with the bill of complaint and which has been inserted in this opinion. The instrument mentioned referred to bonds in the amount of $135,350, but there remained bonds, which were not embraced in this contract, in the sum of $20,000, ⁴⁴¹ as was indicated by the interest paid by the corporation to the plaintiff.

Demand was made of the defendants for the return of the aforesaid Liberty bonds, or the amount or. value thereof, or to account for the same to' the plaintiff. On these allegations, the plaintiff has prayed: (1) That the transfer and delivery on April 20th, 1921, by the plaintiff to the defendants, or either of them, of United States Liberty bonds to the amount of $135,350; and the paper writing of that date