Sargent v. Corey

LENNON, P. J.

The plaintiffs in this action sought to secure a decree that the defendants hold in trust for them

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certain real property which, by a deed of gift dated October 24, 1908, was conveyed by Hiram Corey to the defendants Elfridá Bade-Johnson Corey, his second wife, and Augusta Eleanor Corey, his daughter, who was the issue of his second marriage.

The gist of the plaintiffs’ ease is found in the contention that the conveyance attacked was executed in violation of the rights of the plaintiffs arising out of an oral contract pleaded and proven to have been entered into by and between Hiram Corey and Rose Corey, his first wife, and Charles Littlefield, the father of plaintiffs, wherein the latter agreed to surrender unto Hiram and Rose Corey, his then infant children (the plaintiffs herein), and forever relinquish all of his rights as a parent of said children in consideration of the promise of Hiram and Rose Corey that upon the death of the survivor of them, the plaintiffs herein “should and would succeed” to the property then owned or thereafter acquired by said Hiram and Rose Corey.

The circumstances attending and surrounding the alleged agreement as revealed by the record substantially stated are these: Hiram and Rose Corey were married in the year 1856, Hiram Corey and Sarah Littlefield, the mother of the plaintiffs, were brother and sister. Sarah Littlefield died on June 1, 1871, and left surviving her a husband, Charles Littlefield, and three children—the plaintiffs herein—who at that time were all of tender age. After the death of Sarah Littlefield the Coreys took the three children to their home and reared them as their own. The Coreys had then been married some fifteen years, were without children of their own, and no issue was thereafter born to them. Rose Corey died in March, 1900, leaving no property. Thereafter, on the twenty-second day of May, 1901, Hiram Corey married the defendant, Elfrida Corey, and in the following year as the result of this marriage- the defendant Augusta Eleanor Corey was born. She was the sole issue.of that marriage. On October 24, 1908, Hiram Corey executed to his wife and child a deed of conveyance of certain real and personal property worth approximately two hundred thousand dollars, and deposited this deed with the Bank of Salinas, Monterey County, with directions to hold the same until his death and then to deliver it to the defendants. Hiram Corey died in September, 1913, when the