Lynch v. Rooney (1896) · DecisionDepot

Lynch v. Rooney

Name: California Superior Court Tentative Rulings
Creator: DecisionDepot
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

California Supreme Court Apr 3, 1896 No. S. F. No. 228Published

Before: Garoutte

Synopsis

Appeal from a judgment of the Superior Court of Humboldt County and from an order denying a new trial. G-. W. Hunter, Judge.

The facts are stated in the opinion of the court.

Garoutte, J. This is an action to establish a trust in certain land. A decree to that effect was rendered by the trial court, and an appeal has been taken to this court from that decree, and from the order denying the motion for a new trial. The facts may be briefly stated as follows:

One Bryan Lynch, residing in Humboldt county, was the owner of certain land situated therein. He died intestate, leaving no wife or children, but leaving a sister, Catherine Clark, living in this state. At her request, the court appointed the son of Mary Looney, her daughter, administrator of the estate. During the ad. ministration Catherine Clark conveyed the realty to Mary Looney in consideration of love and affection, and upon final distribution, the court having found as a fact that Catherine Clark was the only heir, the property was distributed to Mary Looney by virtue of the aforesaid deed. It may be conceded that the distributee, Mary Looney, occupies no more advantageous position as to this litigation than would her grantor, her mother. Some time after the decree of distribution was had, and the estate settled, this action was brought by the children of one Patrick Lynch, a brother of Bryan Lynch, [283]who was living in Ireland at the date of the distribution of the estate, but since deceased. The children of Nancy Plunkett, a deceased sister, who were living in Brooklyn, New York, at the date of distribution, intervened and asked that one-third of the land be adjudged to be theirs, and that Mary Rooney be declared a trustee to that extent. The relief prayed for by the complaint, and also by the complaint in intervention, was granted, and Mary Rooney was adjudged to hold an undivided one-third of this land, each respectively, as the trustee of the heirs of Patrick Lynch and Nancy Plunkett.

Two grounds are put forth on the part of respondents to support the soundness of this decree of the trial court: 1. It is claimed that an express trust was declared and created in writing by Mary Rooney; and 2. That Mary Rooney was an involuntary trustee to the extent of an undivided two-thirds of the land, by reason of a mistake of fact and law committed by her, the administrator of the estate, and the sister of Bryan Lynch, Catherine Clark, whereby the court was misled into finding as a fact, upon the hearing fog distribution, that said Catherine Clark was the only heir of Bryan Lynch, deceased, and entitled to the whole of the estate.

It is not contended by the intervenors that any express trust stands in their favor, and, if there is any express trust existing in favor of plaintiffs, it was declared and created by a certain letter written by Mary Rooney to Margaret Lynch of Ireland, widow of Patrick Lynch, deceased, after the distribution of the estate; and, if there is any express trust created or declared by this letter, it must be found in the following statements taken therefrom:

Related research

There is no question but that Mary Rooney is an honest woman. This is evidenced by every line of her letter, for from that letter it is apparent that she desired and intended to do what was fair and just toward her absent relatives. Those intentions are disclosed by the entire history of this litigation, and we think the differences arising between these parties could well have been amicably settled, without invoking the aid of courts, by the exercise of a little diplomacy upon the part of the attorneys retained by the respective parties. As will be seen hereafter, mistakes of fact and law occurring at the time of the distribution of this estate were the first and primary cause of the present litigation; and, at the date of this letter, Mary Rooney still labored under the mistaken idea that Patrick Lynch and her mother were the sole heirs of Bryan Lynch at the time of his death, when, in fact, the intervenors- in this case were also heirs, being children of a deceased sister. When Mary Rooney wrote this letter she recognized the fact that a moral obligation rested upon her to give the heirs of Patrick Lynch that portion of the estate which would have gone to him by the decree of distribution, if Mary had known that he was then in life; and it was to satisfy this moral obligation resting upon her, that, as an honest woman, [286]she desired Patrick’s heirs to have his interest in the estate. She declared this trust for that reason, and with that end in view, but when she made the writing she thought Patrick’s interest was one-half of the estate, when in truth and in fact it was but one-third. Hence, the moral' duty which she desired and intended to perform was performed, and the moral obligation which she desired and intended by the letter to pay was paid when these heirs were given a one-third interest in the property. Incidentally, by the letter she described the interest as a one-half interest; but, as we have seen, this was occasioned by a mistake of fact upon her part, and those words are controlled and overthrown by her actual intention, which is clearly manifest from every other line of the letter. That intention was to give Patrick’s heirs what the law should have given Patrick in the first instance, to wit, an undivided one-third interest in the realty. We therefore hold that the letter declares and creates a trust in the land in favor of the plaintiffs to that extent.

Synopsis

More from California Supreme Court

Related research