Mosebach v. Jenness

Henderson, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This appeal is from a decree dismissing a bill to set aside two deeds whereby the title to the complainant’s 347-acre farm was conveyed to him and to one of the defendants, Mrs. Jenness, as joint tenants. The theory of the bill was that Mrs. Jenness and her husband had exercised undue influence or duress upon the grantor or, in the alternative, that they stood in a confidential relation to the grantor and that the transaction was unfair and unreasonable. There seems to be no dispute as to the applicable legal principles.

The tests of undue influence are clearly stated in Tracey v. Tracey, 160 Md. 306, 321 , Piraino v. Betka, 218 Md. 548, 557 , and Akin v. Evans, Exec., 221 Md. 125, 131 . The law as to confidential relations has been stated and restated. See Vocci v. Ambrosetti, 201 Md. 475, 484 , Masius v. Wilson, 213 Md. 259, 264 , and Rice v. Himmelrich, 222 Md. 234, 239. The case turns largely upon questions of fact.

The record shows that Mosebach, a former Army officer and a member of the Maryland bar, resided on the farm which he acquired from his mother in 1950. He had no other property. At that time the farm was heavily mortgaged, operated by a tenant farmer, and produced little income. Mosebach was not in good health and drank to excess.

He had no close relatives. He derived some income from practicing law in Elkton and also as a licensed real estate broker. In 1955 he developed a spinal condition that affected his power of locomotion. Upon his return from the hospital at Perry Point, he persuaded Mrs. ³⁹⁷ Babbel to come to the farm with her children and take care of him.

Mrs. Babbel had been deserted by her husband. She performed housekeeping, nursing, and secretarial services without remuneration and even obtained employment and contributed her wages to the maintenance of the household. Mosebach had met Jenness in 1955 and employed him as a real estate salesman. Jenness also assisted Mosebach in title search work and in negotiations for the exploitation of sand and gravel deposits on the farm.

In 1957 an agreement was made with the Arundel Corporation for gravel rights for a five-year term, under which Mosebach received $5,000. This sum was applied to interest on the mortgage and the purchase of equipment for and repairs to the farm and farm house. Jenness took charge of farm operations and lived with Mrs. Babbel on the premises, although they were not married until November, 1958. In 1957 Mosebach signed a rather curious agreement to “devise” the farm to Jenness, with a remainder interest to Mrs. Babbel in the “surplus” over a named amount.

In January, 1958, Mosebach returned from a third hospitalization, which left him without much use of his legs or control of his bodily functions. He was almost wholly dependent upon Mrs. Babbel for nursing care and upon Jenness for his liquor supply and other services. A few days prior to April 16, 1958, when the deeds were executed, Mosebach began to suffer from a distended abdomen. According to Mosebach, Jenness insisted that he execute a deed of a half interest in the farm to Mrs. Babbel and refused to let him retire until he did so.

Mosebach testified he was intoxicated at the time. Mosebach dictated two deeds, one to a straw man, a well-known Elkton attorney, and a reconveyance to Mosebach and Mrs. Babbel. The deeds were typed by Mrs. Babbel, signed, and recorded the following day. Jenness called a doctor who ordered Mosebach to the hospital where an operation was performed for a ruptured bladder from which peritonitis had set in.