Opinion
November 11, 1942.
Appeal from Supreme Court, Warren County.
Present — Hill, P.J., Crapser, Bliss, Heffernan and Schenck, JJ.
The deed bore the date of December 3, 1932, and purported to have been executed by the grantor in the presence of a subscribing witness who, on August 11, 1937, appeared before a notary public and gave her deposition to that effect. The deed was then recorded by the grantee. The grantor was confined in the Utica State Hospital from September 8, 1907 to September 27, 1908, in Pavilion F of the Albany Hospital from January 1, 1933 to February 7, 1933, on which latter date she was committed to the Utica State Hospital where she remained until her death on March 29, 1941, except for one week in 1934 when she visited her home at Warrensburg. The subscribing witness testified that the grantor never signed any papers in her presence, that in February, 1937, she went to the Utica Hospital in company with the grantee, that no papers were then executed in her presence by the grantor but on the way home the grantee asked the witness to sign some papers which she did without seeing or knowing the contents. There is also evidence to show that in December, 1932, the grantor was insane. The jury found that the grantor never signed or acknowledged the deed in the presence of the subscribing witness, that the deed had been actually signed by the grantor and that when it was thus signed she was insane and incompetent to execute a valid deed. Judgment unanimously affirmed, with costs.