Coons v. Henry

California Court of Appeal Nov 21, 1960 No. Civ. 18975Published

Before: Kaufman

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Holding. The court affirmed the cancellation of a property settlement agreement between spouses, holding that the agreement was void for lack of consideration and undue influence because the husband obtained an unfair advantage and failed to rebut the presumption of undue influence.

Issues

Whether a property settlement agreement between spouses was supported by consideration and free from undue influence.
Whether multiple legal instruments executed at different times should be construed as a single contract.
Whether the trial court erred in finding that commingled assets constituted community property.
Whether the trial court exceeded its jurisdiction by granting relief beyond the specific prayer of the complaint.

Disposition. affirmed

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“Contract transactions between husband and wife, by which one obtains any advantage over the other, are presumed to be entered into by the latter without consideration and under undue influence.”

“When a husband secures a property advantage from his wife, the burden is cast upon him to show that there has been no undue influence”

KAUFMAN, P. J.

This is an appeal from a judgment in favor of the respondent, Mathilda M. Henry, cancelling and

[515]

setting aside a purported property settlement agreement. Mathilda M. Henry filed this action to cancel and set aside a purported property settlement agreement between herself and her deceased husband, Ziba L. Henry. Mathilda survived her husband, but died pending this appeal, and the matter is continued in the names of the executrices of the will of Mathilda M. Henry. The appellants are the executors of the estate of Ziba L. Henry and the other heirs at law of Ziba L. Henry.

The basic facts are not in dispute. Ziba L. Henry and Mathilda M. Henry were married on December 4, 1929, and lived as husband and wife until October 16, 1955, when Ziba L. Henry died. By his will, dated April 11, 1955, Ziba L. Henry bequeathed his estate, valued at $43,177.83 in five equal parts to his widow and his four adult children by a prior marriage.

On April 13, 1955, Ziba L. Henry and the respondent executed a written agreement to the effect that in consideration of two annuity contracts which he obtained for her, she waived her community property rights to all property considered community property of the parties. The two annuity contracts referred to in the agreement were: (1) a Manhattan Life Insurance Company of New York contract, dated June 25, 1953, purchased for $19,395.60, made payable to Mathilda M. Henry, at the rate of $99.60 per month during her life, and (2) a New England Mutual Life Insurance Company contract dated July 29, 1953, purchased for $7,259.58, made payable to Mathilda M. Henry, at the rate of $61.13 per month during her life. Both of these contracts were contracts between the insurance companies and the wife, and beyond any power of change or revocation by the husband.

The trial court found the facts as stated above and found that the annuity contracts were already the separate property of the wife at the time of the agreement of April 13, 1955, so that they could not constitute consideration for that agreement; that, therefore, the agreement of April 13, 1955, was obtained by undue influence and that the husband gained an advantage.

The court further found that whatever separate property Ziba L. Henry may have owned at the time of his marriage became so commingled with community earnings and other community property that it was impossible to trace the original separate property or to identify any of the property of the estate as the separate property of the decedent; that all of

Coons v. Henry

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KAUFMAN, P. J.

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