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The English Case Decided

The English Case Decided image
Parent Issue
Day
13
Month
March
Year
1903
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

THE ENGLISH CASE DECIDED

Judge Kinne Finds Mrs. Bowen Is Not the Heir

WELL PROVIDED FOR

By Gifts from John B. English- The Contract of Adoption Until 21 Construed

Judge Kinne has rendered his decision in the interesting case of Mrs. Stella May Bowers vs. Margaret B. English et al. This is the Manchester case where adoption was claimed. The decision is as follows:

"In this cvase I am not disposed to go beyond the point where in my opinion the authorities necessarily lead me. 

"The bill in this cause is filed to enforce the specific performance of a contract, whereby and wherein, it is claimed that one John B. English agreed to make the complainant Stella May Bowin his own child and heir.

"This controversy originates in a community of prosperous, intelligent and high-minded people. The testimony in this case comes from credible and trustworthy witnesses of excellent social standing on both sides. Some of them may be mistaken in their recollection, or in their ability to reproduce thought and language, but so far as most of the testimony is concerned, the criticism can go no further. 

"On the part of the complainant there is testimony tending to prove that Mr. English repeatedly spoke of the complainant as his own child and legal heir, and that she would inherit his property when he died. 

"On the part of defendants there is equally reliable testimony tending to prove that Mr. English often declared that in his opinion he had done well by the complainant; that he had given her all that he intended she should receive, and that he thought she ought to be well satisfied. There is also evidence tending to prove that he never regarded the complainant as having been legally adopted; that he refused to adopt the complainant formally for the reason that his wife was unwilling to adopt the apprenticed son Jerry Holmes.

"The marriage of the complainant in 1892 naturally worked some changes in conditions and thought, and the later marriage of Mr. English in 1897 accentuated these conditions and changes.

"He died in 1902, evidently devoted to the widow and her son who survived him.

"The evidence fails to satisfy me that he died believing that the complainant would as his heir inherit his property. 

"I think it is to the contract of September, 1864, made between Thomas Bunker and Mr. English that we must mainly turn to determine the present rights of the parties to this controversy.

"In most of the cases relied upon by counsel for complainant there was a specific agreement that the adopted child should inherit the entire estate of the adopting parent, or a certain share thereof. I think the language of the contract in this case is open to serious doubt, whether Mr. English at that time intended to irrevocably agree that this young child should be his legal heir. It seeme to me that this very serious fact rested rather in contemplation than in actual execution.

"It is undeniable that the contract does by its express terms provide that Mr. English and his wife shall take and adopt the complainant as their own child under the name of Stella May English; clothe, educate and care for her as their own child, and entitled to her services until she becomes of the age of twenty-one years. Then follows a clause whereby Mr. Bunker relinquishes the control of said child until said child arrives at the age of twenty-one years. In this contract there is no express agreement that this child at the death of Mr. English shall either take his property or even share in it. If this agreement exists it must be implied from the entire contract. It is not expressed. 

"There is a clause authorizing Mr. English to procure an act of the legislature authorizing them to adopt said child so as to constitute her as their heir if deemed necessary, but there is no agreement or obligation on the part of Mr. English so to do. 

"It seems to me that the primal object of this contract was to place this child in good family where she would be properly cared for and educated, where she would be treated kindly, and where the opportunities that naturally surround a young woman in such a family would exist in her behalf. I do not think it can be presumed that at that time, when the child was a mere babe these people agreed or intended to agree that she should be the sole heir of all the property they might leave at their death. Naturally that would be a matter which would arise for determination at a later period of the moral, mental and physical development of the child. 

"Even if a different view is taken of this contract there are some principles of law which may not be irrelevent to this issue. 

"A decree for the specific performance of a contract is somewhat a matter of sound judicial discretion. It is said that relief should be granted or withheld according to the circumstances of each particular case; and that it should not be granted unless its enforcement would be equitable, or where the non-enforcement of an agreement would work a fraud. 

"In this case Mr. and Mrs. English treated the complainant as their own child, they gave her their name, introduced her as their child, clothed and educated her with marked liberality, and gave her a happy and prosperous home. 

"When Mrs. English knew that she was fatally ill she gave all of her property, both personal and real, to the complainant, subject to certain rights of her husband. When the complainant was married Mr. English treated as kindly as if she had been his own child; he gave her a considerable sum of money, or mortgage; took her and her husband into his own homestead, and was as considerate of her happiness as if she had been his own child. When in 1897 he was about to marry again he deeded to the complainant his handsome homestead of seventy acres and built himself a new house upon another location. Few daughters receive more ample and generous provisions than have been made for the complainant by Mr. and Mrs. English. The evidence in the case leads me to the opinion that Mr. English thought that he had fully discharged his duty to the complainant, and if he left to herself, I am inclined to think that the complainant would have shared the same opinion. 

"The case of Wright vs. Wright in the 99th of Michigan Reports, page 170, may be regarded as deciseve of the present controversy. In that case the court found as a matter of fact that Mr. Wright lived and died in the belief that the adopted child was their property, and that such was the intention of Mr. Wright while he lived and at his death. It further appeared that the adopted child entertained the same belief, and never knew until after the death of Mr. Wright that he was not the actual son of the parties so adopting him. The court further found as a matter of fact that a denial of relief would operate as an outrage and a fraud upon the son.

These essential qualities. In the opinion of Justice Grant, in the former case, it is declared that "each case of this character stands upon its own peculiar circumstances and facts, upon which relief is granted or denied." It seeme to me that such is the correct solution of these cases.

"It seeme to me that neither justice nor equity demands any relief in this case beyond the assurances of the property already given to the complainant.

"I think the prayer for relief as to the thirty-six acres should be granted with full costs to the complainant, and that otherwise relief should be denied."

E. D. KINNE,

Circuit Judge.

The democratic electors of the township of Ann Arbor will meet in caucus at the Court House at 3 o'clock Saturday, March 21, 1903, to nominate township officers. 

By order of committee.

C. G. ORCUTT, Chmn.

 

 

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Golden Age 36020

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OWNER.