Freeman v. Funk

Citations

• 85 Kan. 473
• 117 P. 1024
• 1911 Kan. LEXIS 100

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT,</p> <p>1. Quieting Title — Adverse Possession — Trusts—Agreement to Reconvey. In 1888 the plaintiff’s ward, in order to avoid the payment of a note for one hundred and seventy-five dollars given for a patent fence machine and to prevent his liability thereon from becoming a lien on his homestead, conveyed the latter to his wife. In a short time she reconveyed, and soon thereafter departed this life. In the same year he deeded his homestead to a daughter with- the understanding that she should deed it back to him when the note should be out of the way. He continued for more than fifteen years to occupy the land, asserting and exercising dominion over it. When requested to reconvey, the daughter, fearing that he contemplated remarriage, delivered to him a life lease made out on a warranty deed blank, which he supposed for some time to be a good deed of conveyance. In 1895 he was adjudged insane and placed in an asylum, symptoms of mental unsoundness having been manifested as far back as 1888. The daughter was shown to have made numerous statements that she did not pretend to own the land but intended to deed it back. During the father’s occupancy he placed valuable improvements upon the land, rented portions of it at times and collected the rent, and repeatedly offered it for sale. Held, that the facts warranted a finding of adverse possession.</p> <p>2. - Homestead — Fraudulent Conveyance. The land being the homestead of the grantor, his creditors could not have been defrauded by his conveyance thereof.</p> <p>3. - When Occupation Not Subservient. Under the conditions and circumstances indicated such occupancy was not in subservience to the title of the grantee.</p> <p>4. --- Adverse Possession — Good Title. The title fully vested by such adverse possession for the statutory period can be quieted as against the daughter in a suit by the father’s guardian.</p> <p>5. -Adverse Possession — Affirmative Rights. Such adverse possession and the ope