Kunde v. Kunde

DORAN, J. This is an appeal from the judgment.

Plaintiff and defendant were married October 13, 1950. Each had been married before and each possessed separate property. They separated June 9, 1951.

As stated in respondent’s brief, “Plaintiff sued defendant, his estranged wife, to quiet title to certain parcels of real estate, which were plaintiff’s separate property owned prior to his marriage to defendant. Defendant’s claim rested upon the validity of five deeds, signed on or about May 31, 1951, but not recorded until February 4, 1952. The issue in the case was, were these deeds ever delivered to defendant, or to a third person for defendant, with plaintiff’s consent or at his direction? The trial court found that there was no [625]delivery. Judgment was accordingly entered for plaintiff quieting his title.” The controversy results from an arrangement between the parties to place their respective properties in joint tenancy.

It is contended on appeal that “The material findings are unsupported by the evidence” and that “the judgment is contrary to law.”

The facts are sufficiently summarized in the trial judge’s review of the evidence and comments thereon, as follows:

“ ‘The Court: I don’t think that it is controllingly important in this case as to whether Mr. Kunde signed these deeds in blank and the description was later put in or whether the description was in the deeds at the time that he signed them. The fact of the matter is that when Mr. Kunde went to Mr. McManus he went to him for the purpose of having the five deeds made out and for the purpose of signing the five deeds when made out among other things, one of the other things being the getting of inheritance tax releases. So whether the deeds were actually filled out when signed or whether they were in blank I think makes no difference because I think at that time I have no inference from the evidence except that Mr. Kunde had authorized Mr. McManus to make out such deeds. There is no doubt in my mind about that. However, I think Mr. McManus mistakes the position that he occupied in respect to these matters. He now seems to take the position that he was merely an escrow holder or a stake holder and as such was compelled after the deeds were made out to deliver them to the grantee, at least his acts and conduct show that that is what he thought his duties were, because finally in January, following the May in which the deeds were signed, seven months later, at a time when he apparently had ceased to represent Mr. Kunde as an attorney and had then taken on the unqualified employment of Mrs. Kunde as her attorney, he proceeds to go ahead and record the deeds.