Strang's Estate

Citations

• 68 Pa. Super. 224
• 1917 Pa. Super. LEXIS 100

Syllabus

<p>Gift — Parent and child — Fraud—Burden of proof.</p> <p>Where a mother gives to her epileptic son, with whom she lived and who had supported her, a check, one-half of which was to be his own property, and the other half was to pay the mother’s debts and funeral expenses, and any balance to be divided among the mother’s heirs, and the amount of the check is transferred to the son’s account in tbe mother’s lifetime, the gift will be held a valid one, in the absence of fraud or undue influence on the part of the son or incompetence on the part of the mother. The burden is on the contestants of the gift to show fraud or incompetence.</p> <p>In such a case the fact that the son included in the inventory of his mother’s estate, which he filed as executor, the whole amount of the check, will not preclude him from claiming half of it, if it appears that he acted under a mistake of fact..</p> <p>Gifts are prima facie good and it requires something more than a mere relation of parent and child to nullify them, or to impose on the donee, the burden of showing that they are free from any taint of fraud or undue influence.</p>