Sines v. Shipes

Markell, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Richard Wiegand, a widower, died intestate on May 9, 1947, leaving five daughters, all married or divorced, and two sons, William and Charles. At the beginning of 1942 (1) he owned (since 1898) a dwelling in Cumberland, No. 18 Orchard Street, and (2) he and William owned (since 1920) a building across the street, at the corner of Orchard and William Streets, where they carried on business under the name “Cumberland Mattress Factory.” Charles was employed in the business. The mattress factory property was subject to a purchase money mortgage for $10,000 to Mrs. Thomason (later Kuehn), aunt of Richard’s children.

Mrs. Kuehn had died in 1941, leaving legacies of $1000 to Richard and ¹⁴³ $500 to each of his children. In 1935 Richard and William were indebted to the Liberty Trust Company of Cumberland on a loan, and gave it a confessed judgment for $19,800. Early in 1942 the amount owing on this judgment was between $12,000 and $13,000. Mrs. Kuehn’s executors demanded payment of the mortgage debt and interest.

In December, 1941 one of the executors wrote Richard and William that the Liberty Trust Company had laid an attachment on its judgment in his hands against any money due them from the estate [e. g., their legacies]. The dwelling, the mattress factory property and the machinery, equipment and merchandise in the factory were worth less than the amount due on the mortgage and the judgment. Richard and William were insolvent. On receipt of the letter in December 1941 from Mrs. Kuehn’s executor, Richard consulted a lawyer, Mr. Clarence Lippel.

Later all the children consulted Mr. Lippel, with a view to saving their father from loss of his business and home. Mr. Lippel says he saw all of them many times over a period of five or six months, and saw the father a number of times; he was employed by all the children and the father; his sole employment was to save everything for the family and he was particularly anxious to have the property bought in so that the family would have it; from time to time various members of the family brought in money to him to be put into a common fund for this purpose; he tried to negotiate a loan to pay off everybody and found that was impossible; he held off foreclosure of the mortgage for a time; the Liberty Trust Company issued execution on the home property (No. 18) and the factory machinery, equipment, and merchandise, [not the factory real estate, as the equity subject to the mortgage was of no value]; the sale was held on June 1, 1942; acting as attorney for the family, he was the successful bidder at $1500, which he paid out of the fund in his hands; on July 17, 1942 the home property and the machinery, equipment and merchandise used in the business were conveyed by a sheriff’s ¹⁴⁴ deed to Theresa Shipes, defendant-appellee; according to the agreement between the father and all the children that Mrs. Shipes was acting as agent for all of them, and to their instructions, he had the purchase made in her name; the family had not then agreed as to the final form in which they would hold this property; meanwhile he had tried to get Mrs. Kuehn’s executors to accept less than $10,000; the family told him they could raise some additional money, they didn’t know how much, they finally raised about $2000 or $2500, and he tried to use that as a basis to work something out with the executors, but was unable to do so; the executors foreclosed and offered the property at public sale, but did not make the sale because they did not get an adequate bid, and then tried to make a private sale on more advantageous terms; he had attended the public sale, and afterwards talked to a real estate dealer, James A. Perrin, about trying to buy the property and discussed the advantages of Perrin’s buying it and selling it for a certain amount of money and taking a mortgage for the balance above what the family could raise; Perrin did buy the property for $7000 cash and sold it to the Wiegands for $7500, $2500 in cash and a mortgage for $5000; he (Lippel) did not take any part in Perrin’s negotiations with the executors, did not handle the money in the sale by Perrin, and was not present when the money was paid over to Perrin, but he -instructed Perrin to make the conveyance to Mrs. Shipes in accordance with the wishes Of her father and all the children, and he explained to Mr. and Mrs. Shipes that they would have to execute a mortgage and they knew just what would have to be done. Perrin gave (1) a-receipt to Mrs. Shipes dated July 6, 1942 for $250 on account, balance to be paid, $2000 cash within thirty days and a mortgage for $5250 “covering Mattress Factory and machinery and equipment therein, also covering dwelling at 18 Orchard Street”, and (2) one to Mr. and Mrs. Shipes, dated July 20, 1942, for $2250, a total of $2500 “deposited * * * pending legal procedure to obtain a good and sufficient title to the prop ¹⁴⁵ erty”, purchase price to be $7500 and a mortgage for $5000 “to be arranged as soon as title is satisfactory”. The deed from Perrin to Mrs. Shipes and the mortgage from Mrs. Shipes and husband to Perrin were each dated August 21, 1942.

The mortgage did cover not only the mattress factory but also the machinery and equipment and the dwelling No. 18 Orchard Street. Monthly payments on principal and interest of at least $75 each month were to be due and payable on the 15th day of each month. Eighteen payments of $100 each and two of $200 each-were made by checks, bearing various dates from August 24, 1944 to October 3, 1946, of' “Cumberland Mattress Company” signed by “Richard Wiegand”. Perrin says his attention was first directed to this property by Mr. Daughton, one of the sons-in-law, husband of one of the plaintiffs-appellants; he also discussed the matter with Mr. Lippel on several occasions over a period of time, he knew Mr. Lippel was attorney for the Wiegand family; he put up his own money for the property; his purpose in buying it was that he “hoped to be able to resell it to Mr. Wiegand or the Company, whoever wanted to buy it, and to make a commission”; he thinks he went to see Mr. Wiegand immediately, as soon as he had a deposit made on it, because he anticipated reselling it to Wiegand, if Wiegand could arrange it; Wiegand made arrangements to buy it from him; he talked to Mr. Daughton, Mr. Wiegand and, he believes, once to William, he doesn’t recall discussing it with Mrs. Shipes at that time; Mr. Wiegand instructed him to make the conveyance to Mrs. Shipes.

The monies received by Mr. Lippel, from or on account of members of the family for the common fund, included $1000, the legacies of two of the daughters, plaintiffs-appellants, received from them on June 1, 1942; $1500, received from the executors on July 6, 1942, the legacies of the other three daughters, two plaintiffs-appellants and Mrs. Shipes; $290 received in May from the sale of two Pennsylvania properties owned by the father; and $800, received May 15, 1942 from the sale of an Allegany County property (where Charles had lived), owned by ¹⁴⁶ the father sold for $800 cash and a purchase money mortgage to Mrs. Shipes for $1000. The $1000 mortgage was assigned to the Liberty Trust Company to secure an advance of $750 made to Mrs. Shipes on or before June 15, 1942. Mr. Lippel’s understanding was that this $750 was to be held by Mrs. Shipes and was to be applied as part of the purchase price if arrangements could be made later on to purchase the factory building. Mr. Lippel collected Charles’ legacy, kept part of it as a retainer from the family and turned the balance over to Charles.

The evidence does not show the amount of the retainer; the bill alleges that Charles contributed $250. After payment of the purchase price of $1500 for the property bought at the sheriff’s sale ($1250 paid to the judgment creditor, the balance applied to taxes, costs and expenses of sale), other taxes and expenses, including his own fee, Mr. Lippel in a letter to Mrs. Shipes, dated August 19, 1942, reported a balance of $822.35, “Theresa Shipes, Check enclosed herewith”, but instead he sent three checks, dated August 21, 1942, each for $274.12 to the order, respectively, of Mrs. Shipes and the other two daughters whose legacies had been collected in July. He says he was “instructed to do it that way”. Why the balance should be returned to only three, and not to all five daughters, whose legacies had been put in the fund, is not explained.

There is no evidence that William contributed anything. The legacies of $1000 to the father and $500 to William were appropriated by the executors and applied to the mortgage indebtedness. In addition to the $750 received by Mrs. Shipes on the security of the $1000 purchase money mortgage, she eventually got the remaining $250 and, she says, gave it to her brother Charles. The only money Mr. Lippel knows of that was in anybody’s hands to make the $2500 payments to Perrin is the $750 that went to Mrs. Shipes on the security of the $1000 mortgage.

Mr. Daughton says he saw the father assemble the money to make the $2250 payment and that the father and Mrs. Shipes both said it was money from ¹⁴⁷ the mattress factory. Mr. and Mrs. Shipes say that of the $250 the father had $170 and got the remaining $80 from Shipes, and that all of the $2250 was Shipes’ money, which he had saved and kept in the cellar. Mrs. Shipes lived with her father all her life until his death and took care of him for many years after her mother died and her sisters married. After her marriage her husband, and then their daughter, lived with her in her father’s house.

Shipes says he paid practically all the household expenses, with an occasional small contribution from Mr. Wiegand. Mr. Lippel advised the family to form a corporation (or two corporations) to take title to all three of the assets bought in, the stock to be held one-eighth by each, the father and the children. In a letter to Mrs. Shipes, dated June 1, 1942, accounting for receipts and disbursements by him and showing a balance of $1419.41, he said, “I will prepare the papers for incorporation of the business to conduct the Mattress Factory, and as soon as they are ready, I will call you in so they may be properly executed”. The family decided they would not have a corporation.

The suggestion was made that for a time it just be left in Mrs. Shipes’ name and she would hold it for all. Mr. Lippel felt that was a very bad thing to do, and says they finally agreed on a partnership and deeds. In his letter of August 19, 1942 to Mrs. Shipes he said, “I want to add only this: That the arrangement you have decided on to continue the business is not the best, but as all of you want it that way, as I told you yesterday, I will prepare an agreement covering your situation within the next couple weeks and as soon as I have it ready for you, I will call you so that we can go over it in order that there may be no question in the future concerning the matters to be covered therein.” In September, 1942 Mr. Lippel prepared a partnership agreement. He says it was gone over and agreed to by everybody in the family; he is sure they knew what was in it; some things had been changed in accordance with their wishes against his better judgment.

He also pre ¹⁴⁸ pared four deeds. Each of the five papers expressly covered (1) the No. 18 Orchard Street property conveyed by the sheriff’s deed of July 17, 1942, (2) the mattress factory property, conveyed by the Perrin deed of August 21, 1942, and (3) “all the machinery, equipment and merchandise”, described in the sheriff’s deed, “used in the business known as the Cumberland Mattress Factory”. The eight parties to the partnership agreement were the five daughters and Mrs. Shipes, as trustee, respectively, for (a) the father, (b) William and (c) Charles. The agreement provided, among other things, that: each of the parties is the owner of an undivided one-eighth interest in the properties mentioned; the business shall be conducted in the name of Mrs. Shipes, but each of the parties is the owner of an undivided one-eighth interest in the business; Mrs. Shipes, in operating the business, shall employ the father and William to carry on and operate it, at salaries to be agreed upon by all parties from time to time; husbands and wives are to sign the agreement to release dower and disclaim any interest in any of the property.

By one of the deeds Mrs. Shipes was to convey a one-eighth interest in all the properties to each of her four sisters, and by each of the three other deeds a like interest to herself, as trustee of a spendthrift trust, respectively (a) for the father for life, at his death his interest to go to the other seven interests, (b) for William and (c) for Charles. The partnership agreement was signed, but not acknowledged, by Mrs. Shipes and Mr. and Mrs. Daughton, the four deeds by Mrs. Shipes. Mr. Lippel’s best recollection is that when these papers were all prepared he called the family and told them they were ready, to come in and sign them. Mr. and Mrs. Daughton had signed, Mrs. Shipes’ husband came into the office and said the family had all decided that it would be easier if everybody went home and they could sign these papers down there and save them all another trip to the office, and asked if he could get these papers and take them down to the home and sign them down there.

Mr. Lippel told Shipes he had no objection where they were ¹⁴⁹ signed, provided they were properly witnessed and acknowledged. Shipes said they could easily get a notary. So Shipes took the papers, and Lippel assumed Shipes would have them executed and assumed from then on that they have been signed. He never heard any more about it until shortly after Mr. Wiegand’s death.

Mrs. Shipes says Mr. Lippel told her to sign. “I didn’t know what it was all about at first; he just told me some things that was in it and asked me to sign. I didn’t realize what I was doing and I signed it; and then when I went home and told my Daddy, he said—[Objection]. Then I just signed them and didn’t know what I was signing them for.” Her husband told her he was going to get the papers. She said, “Maybe Mr. Lippel won’t give them to you”; he said, “I will get them”; and when she came home he had the papers—and has had them ever since.

Shipes says he went up there and told Mr. Lippel there wouldn’t be any partnership, and asked Lippel to give him those deeds, which Lippel did. He had been told by his wife to come up there, that Mr. Lippel said he had to sign them. Another son-in-law, Mr. Sines, says he and his wife were to go to execute the papers, but his wife told him he wouldn’t have to go to Mr. Lippel’s office to sign any papers because Shipes had gone up and got the papers; he went to Shipes’ house and asked Shipes about the paper Shipes got at Mr. Lippel’s office, and Shipes said that the old man didn’t want those papers signed, that they were incorporation papers; Sines never saw the papers. Shipes says partnership and corporation mean the same to him.

In none of the variant versions of conversations about the papers is there any testimony that Mrs. Shipes or her husband asserted to Mr. Lippel or any of her sisters and brothers that Mrs. Shipes owned any of the properties absolutely or that the rest of the family had no interest. Apparently nobody did anything more about having any papers executed in 1942 or before Mr. Wiegand’s death. Shipes says the monthly payments of $100 on the Perrin mortgage were regarded as rent in his (joint ¹⁵⁰ husband-and-wif e?) income tax returns; “Mr. Wiegand, he was supposed to pay that as rent for the place, that was the agreement that was made.” Elizabeth Jane Fisher, formerly Betty Shipes, is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Shipes. Before she was married the factory bank account was run in her name.

She says her grandfather wanted it put in her name because “the boys [William and Charles] were cashing checks and paying for drinks. In 1944 the property No. 20 Orchard Street was purchased in her name. Mr. Wiegand, Mr. and Mrs. Shipes and their daughter moved in from next door (No. 18) and continued to live there till Mr. Wiegand’s death. Soon after Mr. Wiegand’s death the sisters and brothers learned that Mrs. Shipes claimed absolute ownership of the properties conveyed to her in 1942 by the sheriff’s deed and the Perrin deed.

The six other children employed counsel and were about to file a bill against Mrs. Shipes. On June 18,1947, in the evening or late afternoon, Mrs. Shipes and her husband conveyed to Abe Feldstein, for $8000, the mattress factory property. Feldstein says he knew that the Wiegand family, not Mrs. Shipes, were in possession of the property. Early in the afternoon of June 18th Mr. Gorman E. Getty, who was examining the title for Mr. Whiting, Feldstein’s counsel, by accident met Mr. Lippel at the Court House.

Mr. Getty says he noticed Mr. Lippel’s name in the proceedings and asked him whether he had ever “waded through” the title to this property, and he said he had and asked why Getty was examining the title and for whom and whether it was a purchase or a refinancing of a loan from Perrin to Shipes. Getty told him he was examining the title for Mr. Whiting and did not know the purpose of the examination; Lippel said there had been some dispute and disagreement among the members of the family regarding the mattress factory and that if it was not straightened out, there would be a suit. Getty reported to Mr. Whiting the substance of this conversation with Lippel. Mr. Lippel says he told Mr. Getty that the title ¹⁵¹ was in the name of Mrs. Shipes, but actually she did not own it, except an interest in it, that she held it as trustee under what he thought was probably a resulting trust or a constructive trust, and he represented the other heirs and there was a bill of complaint being prepared at that time to file against Mrs. Shipes on the theory that she claimed ownership, whereas, as a matter of fact, she did not own any more than a certain interest in it.

The bill of complaint, containing (among others) allegations regarding the Feldstein sale, was filed on June 19th by the six sisters and brothers, appellants, against Mrs. Shipes, her husband, her daughter and Feldstein. The bill alleges, with considerable detail, that “after many family conferences” between the father and his children and their counsel, “it was decided for the convenience of all persons to have” all the properties “purchased by, and title taken in the name of, Theresa Shipes, who was to hold” it for the benefit of the father and his seven children, each of the eight persons “to hold a Vsth. interest” in the property. The bill prayed (a) a decree declaring that Mrs. Shipes holds the properties, both real and personal, as trustee for herself and plaintiffs, each in equal amounts, as the result of either a resulting or constructive trust arising out of the acquisition of the property and the contribution of all the parties thereto, (b) execution by Mrs. Shipes and her husband of such papers as may be proper, evidencing the ownership rights of plaintiffs in the properties and business, (c) an accounting by Mrs. Shipes for all monies received and expended by her which belonged to the business, (d) an accounting by Betty Shipes Fisher for all monies received by her which belonged to the business, and (e) an injunction against disposition by defendants and each of them of any real estate, or proceeds, and any cash or other assets belonging to or derived from the business. Mrs. Shipes and her husband, in their sworn answer, “neither admit nor deny that there were many family conferences, but deny that Theresa Shipes was to hold this property for the benefit of Richard Wiegand and his ¹⁵² seven children”; and allege that “she bought No. 18 Orchard Street and paid for it herself”, “without any assistance of any of her sisters or brothers”; and that when the mattress factory was bought from Perrin her father contributed $170 and her husband $80 to the $250 payment and she and her husband paid the remaining $2250, and when she and her husband executed the $5000 mortgage to Perrin, “they included, as additional security for the money, No. 18 Orchard Street, which they had bought and which was their own property, as was the mattress factory”; they deny that she “was taking title for the benefit of her brothers and sisters” but alleged that “she became interested because of her father’s insistence that she become owner of the property because of her greater interest in him and his sense of obligation to her because when single, and after she was married, she was the one that stuck to