Hood v. Webster

2 N.E.2d 43 (1936)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Florence owned a parcel of farmland that had been devised to her by her husband, whose will said that should she predecease him, he wanted his estate to go to his brother, P. Florence was left with the farm and no money with the exception of a mortgage of $1,200 upon property in Nebraska. P proposed a deal to give her money during her natural life in exchange for the farm. Florence executed a deed of the farm to P and also an agreement, which was part and parcel of one transaction, wherein P agreed to pay her $200 a year as long as she lived. The deed was not given to P; it was given to the lawyer to hold in escrow for no other purpose that can be imagined except to ensure P's paying the $200 a year and keeping his agreement. The payment of the money by P was clearly a condition precedent to be fulfilled before he was entitled to the deed. Florence lived for twenty years thereafter and died on the 29th day of January 1933. P never paid her a dollar, so far as this record shows. He owed her at the time of her death $ 4,000, not counting simple interest. Florence’s nephew, D, moved to the farm to help Florence. In 1928, Florence executed and recorded a deed that granted the farm to Ds. The deed provided that consideration was “one dollar and other good and valuable consideration.” Florence died in 1933 and P recorded the 1913 deed and brought an action to annul the 1928 deed. The court ruled for P. Ds appealed, and again the court ruled for P. Ds appealed again. The parties concede that §291 of the Real Property Law governs the case: It is thereby provided that every conveyance of real property not recorded 'is void as against any subsequent purchaser in good faith and for a valuable consideration, from the same vendor, his heirs or devisees, of the same real property or any portion thereof, whose conveyance is first duly recorded.'