Gaggers v. Gibson

Forsythe, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. On April 24, 1941, the appellees, Frederick Thomas Gibson, Bertha White and Estella Thomas, filed in the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County a bill in which ⁶¹¹ they asked that a deed executed on April 27, 1940, by their father, William Thomas Gibson, to one of the appellants, Will Gaggers, (1) be declared void; (2) that the deed be declared a mortgage; and (3) for partition in kind, or a sale for partition. The defendants below, and appellants here, are Emma Hunt Gaggers, another daughter of the said William Thomas Gibson, and the said Will Gaggers. The bill alleges the said deed was procured through fraud and misrepresentation, and the court, after hearing, passed a decree ordering the appellant Will Gaggers, after the payment to him of the sum of $157, to convey the property conveyed to him by the said deed of April 27, 1940, to the said appellees, and to Emma Hunt Gaggers; and in the event the said sum of $157 be not paid within thirty days, then the property should be sold and the proceeds thereof, after payment to the said Will Gaggers of the sum of $157, be divided equally among the appellees and Emma Hunt Gaggers.

This appeal is from that decree. The established facts are that William Thomas Gibson, at the date of the execution of the deed in question, was a respectable colored man, eighty-six years of age and very feeble, and had been so since about a year prior to the execution of the deed. The property conveyed according to the agreement of the parties was worth $5,500. It had been subject to a building association mortgage of $1,400, but by reason of monthly payments, $329.28 had been paid on the original mortgage.

But by reason of delinquent interest and fines of $29.68, and the 1939 taxes of $93.38, and insurance of $18.75, plus interest thereon, the indebtedness to the building association amounted, at the date of the deed, to $1,213.55. The building association had threatened to foreclose the mortgage unless Gibson could make the payment then necessary to clear the amount in arrears, and to furnish satisfactory assurance that the future monthly payments would be made. But when it appeared that the old man had no means with which to keep up the ⁶¹² future payments (the building association still threatening foreclosure), the daughter Emma, who was about to marry Gaggers, and then did so, conceived the idea of having Gaggers pay the amounts in default, and take a deed for the property. With that scheme Emma, assisted by the action of the building association in constantly threatening foreclosure, succeeded in having her father execute the deed whereby Gaggers, who was then her husband, secured a property in fee simple, worth, after deducting the then mortgage of $1,218.55, about $4,286.

In other words, Gaggers received the entire property for less than one-quarter of its value. The testimony shows clearly that Emma arranged the whole transaction and was the one who urged her father to execute the deed whereby she and her husband secured the entire property. Mr. Gott, of the building association, testified that on the day the old man went to his office with Emma, he told him he was placing himself absolutely in the hands of Gaggers, and “Mr. Gibson hesitated some time, and he did not say he would or would not (sign the deed), but Emma said to him, ‘this is your only way out. It is your only salvation, because you cannot keep up the payments unless somebody will keep them up for you’.” While it is true the deed is to Gaggers alone, it was procured by his wife, and he is bound by her actions. “It is firmly established as the law of this State that where an aged parent makes a conveyance to a child, the burden is cast upon-the grantee of establishing the fairness of the transaction.

And, if where confidence is reposed it is abused, courts of equity will grant relief.” Beinbrink v. Fox, 121 Md. 102, 104 , 88 A. 106 ; Bentley v. Bentley, 141 Md. 428, 437 , 119 A. 293 ; Chase v. Grey, 134 Md. 619, 625 , 107 A. 537 . Actual fraud, or