Hurst v Evans

Questions of material fact remained as to whether the plaintiff's wife forged a quitclaim deed transferring his interest in 70-acres of land in Berrien county to herself without the plaintiff's knowledge or authority.

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Tommie E. Evans filed a complaint to invalidate an allegedly forged quitclaim deed, which transferred his interest in property to his wife, Barbara Evans. The trial court granted Evans’s motion for summary judgment and the defendant appeals, alleging seventeen enumerations of error.1 We reverse, for reasons that follow. Construing the evidence most favorably toward Hurst,2 the record shows that Tommie E. Evans owned a financial services company. Mrs. Evans was a secretary for a district director at the Department of Labor. Mr. and Mrs. Evans filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 1990. Although Mrs. Evans was not authorized to sign checks on Evans’s bank accounts, he asked her to write —and presumably sign his name to —checks from his personal account on more than one occasion to pay his bills. On May 20, 1994, Mr. Evans signed a deed transferring a 5-acre tract of land and an 18.702-acre tract of land to his wife so that she could obtain a second mortgage through her credit union; the deed listed “love and affection” as the consideration for the transfer.3 Although Mrs. Evans recalls that her husband transferred the two tracts to her, she does not recall his reason for doing so.

Evans owned approximately 70 acres of land in Berrien County that he purchased from his mother.4 On October 26, 1998, Mrs. Evans signed Evans’s name to a warranty deed transferring the property to herself. Both Mr. and Mrs. Evans contend that Mrs. Evans signed his name without his consent or knowledge. In her deposition, Mrs. Evans states that she “did not recall” why she did so; in her affidavit, she indicates that she signed her husband’s name because she believed that “she had authority to do so, as she was attempting to manage their family’s finances.” After she signed Evans’s name, Mrs. Evans had the deed notarized by a co-worker and then took it to the courthouse and had it recorded.

Hurst v Evans

Questions of material fact remained as to whether the plaintiff's wife forged a quitclaim deed transferring his interest in 70-acres of land in Berrien county to herself without the plaintiff's knowledge or authority.

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