Gerace v. Gerace Et Al‪.‬

COX, Justice. This is an appeal from a final decree in a bill in equity brought by the plaintiff to require the defendants to convey certain real estate to him, which he alleges was purchased with his own funds and the title to which stands in the name of the male defendant. The defendants' answer sets up a counterclaim, alleging that the male defendant has contributed money and labor to the improvement of the property, 'as well as services rendered toward such improvement by his wife, Mariangela Gerace, and minor children,' and contains prayers that the plaintiff's debt to the defendants be established and that an accounting be had. No reply to the counterclaim was filed. See Rule 26 of the Superior Court (1932). The case was referred to a master, whose report was confirmed by an interlocutory decree. The evidence not being reported, the master's findings of fact are conclusive unless it appears from the report itself that they are plainly wrong. MacLeod v. Davis, 290 Mass. 335, 195 N.E. 315. The plaintiff, who is the son of the defendants, purchased a farm for $4,300, of which $800 was to be paid in cash and the balance, $3,500, by a note secured by a mortgage of the premises. The plaintiff borrowed $342 of his father in order to make up the cash payment. It was agreed between the plaintiff and his father that although the property belonged to the plaintiff, yet the title should be placed in the father's name and that the latter would convey the same to the plaintiff upon demand, upon repayment to him of the loan of $342. The reasons for this were that the plaintiff, who was in bankruptcy, had not received his discharge and feared that, if title were taken in his own name, his creditors might be able to reach the property by some process of law, and also that placing the title in the father's name would facilitate the bringing of the latter's family to this country. In carrying out this arrangement, which was oral, and at the plaintiff's suggestion, the property was first conveyed to one Di Casa, the plaintiff's father-in-law, for the reason that the plaintiff's mother was not in America and could not sign the purchase price mortgage. Di Casa executed the mortgage and note, and at the same time conveyed the real estate to the father, subject to the mortgage. A tea room was erected on the premises, and the plaintiff and his father contributed from their separate earnings to its erection and also to carry on the farm and the tea room. Differences arose between the plaintiff and his father, with the result that this bill was brought.