Hollohan v. Rempe

On May 25, 1900, Frank B. Smith executed and acknowledged a deed of land, and Mary B. Smith, his wife, apparently signed the same, and acknowledged it before G. Winslow Powell, a notary public, No. 100, Kings county, New York. Smith’s name was Frank Buchnowski, and his wife’s name was Mary. This action is brought by her daughter, Hollohan, as her committee, to set aside the deed so far as it affects her, upon the ground that she did not sign it.

In. May, 1900, Smith did not live with his wife, but did live in Brooklyn with a woman named Mary Enut, who passed as his wife. The deed was not produced. Its production would have availed little, as the wife was an incompetent, and the husband and Enut were not present, and, had they been, would not have admitted forgery of the name. The fact that at the time of the execution of the deed the wife was not, and Enut, as wife, was, living with Smith, strongly indicates that the latter executed the deed personating the wife. Where was the wife? Since May, 1903, she has been living with the plaintiff. May 21, Í900, the .daughter, Hollohan, was 19 or 20 years old. When she was 5 years old, or some 14 years before (that is, in 1886), she visited-her mother in an insane asylum in Middletown. She saw her in an asylum in December, 1902, and prior to bringing her home in May, 1903, she testified that her mother “was buffeted about in different asylums” (folio 125). Mary Kulaszewicz saw the wife in an asylum at Middletown “24 years ago” from 1909,. or in 1885.

Powell, the notary public,' could' not recall- any of the “circum