Brooks v. First Presbyterian Church

Citations

• 128 Pa. 408
• 18 A. 506
• 1889 Pa. LEXIS 801

Syllabus

<p>(a) By a codicil, executed less than 30 days before bis death, a testator bequeathed his residuary estate to a church corporation for charitable uses, and, soon after his death, the secretary of the board of trustees, who had written the will, put himself in correspondence with a daughter of the testator residing in a distant city :</p> <p>(b) The daughter, having no knowledge of the amount of the estate or of the invalidity of the codicil, was induced, by strong expressions of friendship and offers of gratuitous assistance on the part of the secretary, to execute, without consideration passing from the church, a release to the executor and an assignment to the church of all her interest in the estate.</p> <p>1. Under the evidence, the secretary by his conduct established between himself and the daughter a relation of trust and confidence which he was not at liberty to abuse to her prejudice, either by a misrepresentation of the facts or by a suppression of the truth in relation to her interest in the estate.</p> <p>2. The church being a mere volunteer, giving no consideration for the daughter’s share of the estate received by it under her release, it could not claim exemption from the legal consequences of its agent’s acts, and was liable to the daughter’s action for money had and received for her use.</p> <p>8. Wherefore, the evidence being such as to authorize the jury to find that the release of the daughter, interposed as a defence to her action against the church to recover her share of the residuary estate, was fraudulently procured and therefore void, it was error to withdraw the case from the jury by instructions to find for defendant.</p>