Benedict v. Benedict

Headnote

Real property — title — action to impress trust on real property transferred by third party to defendant — payment by plaintiff of cash part of consideration — execution by defendant of bond and mortgage for remainder — defense that equity was a gift.

Benedict v. Benedict, 215 App. Div. 723 , affirmed.

Appeal from a judgment of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the second judicial department,

entered December 1, 1925, affirming a judgment in favor of plaintiff entered upon a decision of the court on trial at Special Term: The action was to establish a trust in real property. The complaint alleged that, when the property in question was conveyed to defendant on January 1, 1919, by a stranger hereto, for $7,250, the cash part of the consideration, to wit, $2,250, was paid by plaintiff but the title taken and recorded in defendant’s name, on the strength of an express promise by defendant that if plaintiff would do this defendant would hold the title in trust for plaintiff and convey according to his demand, and that thereafter plaintiff made large expenditures on the farm. The defendant admitted that plaintiff paid the cash part of the consideration, but alleged that she secured the rest by her own purchase-money bond and mortgage, denied that she made any promise to stand seized, and claimed that the equity in the farm was a gift to her for a real consideration.