Thiede v. Startzman

.Pearce, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This appeal is from a decree of the Circuit Court of Baltimore City dismissing the bill of complaint of the appellant, Mary E. Thiede, in which she sought to have set aside, and declared null and void, a deed of trust made by her on December 31st, 1908, to the appellees Henry P. Startzman and William E. Thiede, Jr., the latter being her son and the former her son-in-law. By this deed she divested herself absolutely of the title to all her estate consisting of valuable fee simple and leasehold property in Baltimore- City having a gross rental value of about $3,200 per annum, only reserving to herself an annual income which cannot exceed, and ²⁸⁰ may be less than, $900, also the power of disposition by will of the corpus' of the estate. The most valuable parcel is a fee simple lot on North Eutaw street having on it a store building occupied by a large and successful merchant and renting for $2,500 per annum.

This property is subject to two mortgages aggregating $5,000. Another parcel is leasehold property on the same street renting for $690 per annum, and is subject to a ground rent of $240 per annum and a mortgage for $1,500. There is also a house on Carrollton avenue, accupied by her as her home which is leasehold property subject to a ground rent of $114 per annum, and which is valued at $4,000 subject to said ground rent. Two other parcels of unimproved land in Waverly are wholly unproductive and the record does not disclose their value.

Mrs. Thiede was sixty-eight years of age when this deed was executed, and had been since 1897, living apart from her husband Wm. F. Thiede, Sr., now eighty-six years of age, who had left her because of a quarrel with their youngest son, Gustav A.. Thiede, in which Mrs. Thiede sided with her son. All of Mrs. Thied'e’s property was conveyed to her by her husband in 1881, she paying him an annuity of $460, which is an additional lien upon all said property.

When this deed of trust was made there were three years’ taxes due upon this property, and some water rents in arrear, amounting to near $3,000, and some personal debts of about $1,000, the whole indebtedness being about $10,000. Mrs. Thiede has three living children, Wm. F. Thiede, a druggist; Mrs. Anna G. Startzman, wife of Henry P. Startzman, a clerk in the B. & O. R. R. office, and Dr. Gustav A. Thiede, a physician. She has also a granddaughter, Louise Ashman, an orphan without property, who was given by her mother to Mrs. Thiede, and who is supported by her, though now twenty-three years of age.

In order to understand the situation, existing at the execution of the deed of trust it will be necessary to recur at some length to the record. Mr. and Mrs. Startzman lived ²⁸¹ with Mrs. Thiede after their marriage until the quarrel with Dr. Theide, when they left the house, with Mr. Wm. F. Thiede, Sr., and Mrs. Startzman never entered the house again until Dr. Thiede left in 1908. Mr. Startzman paid hoard for himself while with Mrs. Thiede, hut she declined to receive board for Mrs. Startzman.

Dr. Thiede was not twenty-one when this quarrel occurred. His version is that his father struck his mother and blacked her eye, and that he interfered to protect his mother; that his father and Mr. Startzman had him arrested and charged with assault, but that the charge was dismissed by the grand jury. Mr. Startzman is silent as to any assault by Mr. Thiede on his wife, but states that Dr. Thiede assaulted him with a knife on a later occasion and he had him arrested but the grand jury dismissed the charge. The-record does not show who was in fault in that matter, but it does show that there was had feeling as a result and a permanent rupture of relations between Mr. and Mrs. Startzman, and Wm.

E. Thiede, Jr., and Dr. Thiede. He was Mrs. Thiede’s youngest child, and she paid for his medical education, and he continued to live with her until 1908, when he was able to maintain himself, and took a house of his own. After that, Mrs. Startzman paid weekly visits to her mother at her residence. Wm.

E. Thiede, Jr., does not appear to have visited his mother at her residence after the quarrel referred to except at Christmas seasons, but their relations were not ruptured, she visiting him at his residence. Her grandchild, Miss Ashman, has always lived with her. and it appears has been educated' by her and treated with the utmost affection and liberality. In 1897, upon leaving Mrs. Thiede, her husband filed a bill in equity against her, charging that his absolute conveyance of the property heretofore mentioned, to her, was in fact made in trust for the benefit of their family. This was denied by Mrs. Thiede, but pending this litigation receivers were appointed by consent, who for two years had charge of ²⁸² the Eutaw street property upon which taxes and other charges to a considerable amount were in arrear.

In 1899, the receivers were discharged, Mr. and Mrs. Thiede joining in the mortgage of $1,000 before mentioned, to pay these taxes and charges, and Mr. Thiede abandoned his bill, Mrs. Thiede agreeing to pay him $5.00 a week which was secured by a lien on the property. In 1901, in order to procure Mr. Thiede’s joinder in a lease of the larger Eutaw street property for a longer period at an increased rent, Mrs. Thiede increased Mr. Thiede’s annual payment by the addition of $200 out of that rent, bringing his annuity up to its present rate of $160. Subsequent to this, the other Eutaw street property was vacant from time to time, and on that account, and because of considerable necessary repairs to all the property, Mrs. Thiede got behind again in taxes until in the fall of 1908 it became necessary to borrow more money for the payment of these taxes, for which she applied to Mr. J. Leland Hanna, an attorney, who had previously aided with temporary loans for that purpose. She then needed $1,500, and to procure this it was necessary to give a mortgage, in which Mr. Thiede should join, which he refused to do, and Mr. Hanna then suggested to Mrs. Thiede that “the property should be put in the hands of some one—himself, or some one else—with power to collect the rents, pay the expenses, and pay the balance over to Mrs. Thiede.” He told her of the possibility of another receivership, which he said she seemed to dread greatly, and she objected to paying commissions for the collection of Bragerts rent which was always promptly paid.

In November, 1908, Mr. Thiede told his daughter, Mrs. Startzman, that unless something was done he was going to have a receiver appointed and Mrs. Startzman told her mother shortly after what he had said. A little later Mrs. Startzman told Mrs. Thiede that Mr. Hanna had told her there were three ways in which the affairs could be straightened out: first, by an amicable arrangement between Mr. and ²⁸³ Mrs. Thiede, which Mrs. Startzman said would be hopeless, as what would be agreeable to one would not be to the other; second, by the appointment of a receiver; and third, by someone taking it in hand in the manner previously suggested by Mr. Hanna to Mrs. Thiede. Mrs. Startzman said she hated to see her mother pay commission as she had little enough to live on as it was, and she urged her husband Mr. Startzman “to take it over and manage it for her mother so she would save the commissions ” and he finally reluctantly consented provided Wm. E. Thiede, Jr., would act with him in the matter.

When Mrs. Startzman told her about the receivership Mrs. Thiede burst into tears and said “if a receiver was appointed Mrs. Startzman would never see her again, and that she did not want to turn over the management of the property to anyone, but that before the interview was over she consented to turn over the collection of the rents and their application to the expenses to Mr. Startzman and Wm. E. Thiede, Jr., without commissions. Both Mr. Startzman and Wm. E. Thiede, Jr., testify that they told Mrs. Thiede they would only do this provided the arrangement was to be for her life, and not a temporary one, and that she understood and agreed thereto, and that they told her she could not depend under that arrangement upon receiving over $900 for the support of herself and Miss Ashman, and that while she was reluctant to accept that condition she finally did so.

Mrs. Startzman said that she never mentioned anything to her mother about a deed of trust and it does not clearly appear that she knew such a deed was in contemplation until after it was executed, and Mr. Startzman said that at his second interview with Mrs. Thiede late in December when she agreed to the proposition that he and Wm. E. Thiede should take the management of the property “that he had not the slightest idea in the world about the deed of trust, and had no idea what the legal paper would be,” and that Mr. Brent who drew the deed did not suggest that form of ²⁸⁴ transaction until after several days consideration of the matter, hut that when it was suggested he told Mrs. Thiede Mr. Brent had advised them not to go into the matter unless she would execute deed of trust which would “convey all her property to them absolutely; in other words that it would he theirs to sell without.any further signature of hers or her husband’s,” to which she objected that then she could not will it, and he then told her he would.have a clause put in the deed giving her the power to will the property, with which she declared herself satisfied. There was no third person at this interview. Mrs. Thiede denied that either Mr. Startzman or Wm.

F. Thiede, Jr., ever spoke to her of a deed of trust, or ever told her if they took charge of the matter it must he for the rest of her life, and Wm. F. Thiede admitted that on the only occasion when he talked with her about the affairs on December 21st, 1908, that he did not tell her she was to make a deed of trust “because he thought she knew it already.” When she went to Mr. Brent’s office on December 31st, 1908, to execute the paper it was not completed, and Mr. Startzman took her to a moving picture show until it was completed. When they returned Mrs. Thiede said, Mr. Startzman was walking about, and W®- D. Thiede, Jr., came in and was introduced to Mr. Brent and Mr., Startzman told her the paper was ready for her to sign, and showed her where to sign, saying “Put your name there, you do not have to turn it over,” and she signed and acknowledged the paper and Mr. Startzman then conducted her to the elevator; that he told' her to see that $900 was mentioned in the deed, but that this was all that was said about the paper; that she did not read it, nor was it read to her, nor. was any statement made as to the character or contents of the paper; that she didn’t know it was a deed of trust or that it was a paper which could not he revoked and that if she had known its true character that she would not have signed it; that she supposed it was a power to collect the rents—pay her $900 a ²⁸⁵ year, and apply the residue of the income to the expenses on the property, and that she did not discover it was a deed' of trust until eight days after its execution when her son Gustav informed her that he had learned the paper was a deed of trust; that on the following day, January 9th, 1909, she went to the office of Gans and ITaman who had been her attorneys for over twenty years, and asked Mr. Cook to examine and ascertain what the paper was, and that a day or two later she saw Mr. Cook again, who told her the nature of the paper, and she directed him to take steps to have it set aside. Mr. Cook said Mrs. Thiede seemed incredulous when he informed her what she had signed, and burst into tears saying she could not have believed Mr. Startzman would deceive her in that way, and that as directed by her he wrote Mr. Wm.

E. Thiede, asking an interview, and a few days later wrote both defendants informing them that he was instructed to bring suit to set aside the deed, and that Mr. Startzman called on him in response, and they had a long talk about the matter in which Mr. Startzman said he thought the deed was a wise thing for Mrs.. Thiede and that he thought the property ought to be saved for her children and she ought not to be allowed to squander it, and the result was that he refused to have the deed set aside, and said if she attempted it he would expose the difficulties between herself and her husband and would disgrace her. Mr. Startzman said that the sheets of the deed were not all ready when they returned to Mr. Brent’s office, but as they came in from the stenographer, Mrs. Thiede held the original and he held the carbon copy, and told her to read all except the description of the property, and that he told her particularly that everything after the words “In trust and confidence” must be read, and told her 'if there were any questions she wished to ask, to ask them before the deed was signed, but he admitted that neither Mr. Brent, nor himself, nor Wm. E. Thiede, Jr., offered any explanation of the ²⁸⁶ character or effect of the deed.

The latter testified that he read it, hut that he did not read it to her because he understood she had read it before he came in, and that he did not see or hear any one read it to her or explain it to her. Mr. Brent testified that Mr. Startzman introduced Mrs. Thiede to him on the day the deed was executed at his office and that as the sheets were completed by the stenographer he gave a carbon and an original to each and then went out, and that each time both were apparently reading something on these sheets; but he could not say what or how much Mrs. Thiede was reading; that his “whole idea was that he was employed to draw a deed apparently just on its face, and the relations seemed so friendly and amicable that "he saw no reason why he should inquire whether Mrs. Thiede understood its provisions and his one -idea was to keep in the back gTound and let them do what they chose.” He said he thought it was absolutely an amicable family arrangement understood by all concerned, and that the idea of anything being done that somebody did not want to do, or that the