In re Estate of Ray

The opinion of the court was delivered by This was an action initiated on April 5, 1955, by the filing of
a verified petition for allowance of demand in the probate court
of Neosho County, Kansas, in the estate of Jennie E. Ray,
deceased, wherein the claimant alleged in substance: That the
decedent was a resident of Chanute and the owner of the property
[180 Kan. 635]
in question — her home in which she had lived for several years;
that the claimant, Ethel May Parker, was an heir at law of the
decedent (although the record does not disclose the
relationship); that in the early part of 1949 claimant and the
decedent entered into an oral contract whereby the decedent
agreed that if the claimant and her family would move into the
premises and home belonging to the decedent and make their home
with her, the decedent would leave the property to claimant at
her death and that it would become the claimant's sole property;
that in April, 1949, claimant moved herself, her family and their
household goods into decedent's home and lived with her until she
died intestate in April, 1954; that on October 26, 1949, the
appellees, Roy Ray and Nettie Ray Bailey, a son and daughter of
the decedent, obtained the decedent's signature on a warranty
deed which conveyed the property in question to them in fee
simple, reserving unto the decedent a life estate; that said
warranty deed was void because it was made without consideration,
was obtained by appellees by undue influence practiced by them
upon the decedent and was executed at a time when the decedent
was incapacitated from transacting business because of illness.
The prayer was that her claim be allowed; that the administrator
be directed to take whatever action may be necessary to bring the
real estate into the administration of the estate as an asset and
that it be awarded to her pursuant to the terms of the oral
contract.