Sanders v. Needy

CLAY, Commissioner.

This unfortunate family controversy became unnecessarily complicated by pleadings, procedure and proof. It is interesting to speculate what might have been accomplished in a pretrial conference.

The story has a familiar pattern. A widowed mother lives for 16 years with one of her daughters and her son-in-law, the defendants. The modest home is owned by the mother and she also owns another piece of real estate worth $4000. During the course of the years she deeds an interest in these two properties to them. When a new home is built and the mother is invited to move, this does…