Otis v. Spencer

Citations

• 102 Ill. 622

Syllabus

<p>1. Delivery oe deed—necessary, to pass title. To render a deed of conveyance operative to pass the title there must be an unconditional delivery, or a delivery in escrow.</p> <p>2. Same—what will constitute a delivery. To constitute the act of a grantor a delivery of a deed, it must be such as to manifest an intention on his part to make a delivery, and to part with the possession and control of the instrument. This intention may be gathered from acts or words, or from both, and it is not essential that the deed be delivered to the grantee, but it may be to an agent or another person for the grantee.</p> <p>3. Where a man, a few days before his marriage, handed a deed of property to his intended wife, saying there was the deed for the house which he had conveyed to her in accordance with his promise and the conditions they had talked of before, and the wife testified that before the marriage the grantor handed her the deed, and after some conversation respecting it she returned it to him for the purpose of having it recorded, and to take care of for her: Held, that in the absence of any evidence contradicting this testimony, or impeaching it, or any circumstance throwing suspicion on their evidence, this very clearly showed a valid delivery of the deed.</p> <p>4. Witness—competency—husband and wife. On a creditor’s bill to set aside a deed made by a debtor in contemplation of marriage to one whom he afterwards married, the grantor in the deed is a competent witness in behalf of his wife to testify to transactions and conversations relating to the property, which occurred before the marriage.</p> <p>5. Same—of matters affecting credibility of witness. The fact that husband and wife, in their depositions in a suit to set aside a conveyance of the former to the latter in contemplation of marriage, on the ground of fraud as to creditors, failed to testify as to the delivery of the deed, while in their subsequent deposition they do so testify after an amendment of the