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Daily Development for Thursday, February 7, 2002

 

By: Patrick A. Randolph, Jr.
Elmer F. Pierson Professor of Law
UMKC School of Law
Of Counsel: Blackwell Sanders Peper Martin
Kansas City, Missouri
prandolph@cctr.umkc.edu

 

DEEDS; ESCROW: Landowners' gratuituous deposit of deed into escrow with instructions to deliver deed to grantee upon death of the survivor of grantors was not the creation of a binding trust or an actual delivery, and escrow could be revoked by such informal act as landowner executing a will transferring the property to another, even without notice to escrow company.

 

Albrecht v. Brais, 754 Ill. N.E.2d (Ill.App. 3 Dist. 2001).

 

Brais, executor of the estate of Harry Emhouser, moved for probate of Emhouser's will, but excluded from the probate certain property that Brais claimed Emhouser had deeded to her.  The deed had been delivered to Brais by Courthouse Title Company after Emhouser's death.   Brais had no knowledge of it prior to that time, and there was no consideration given for the deed.

 

Emhouser's will devised the property covered by the deed to certain churches.  The Churches challenged the exclusion of the property from probate.

 

Brais received the deed because in 1982, Harry and his wife,  joint owners, had executed an escrow agreement and a quit claim deed which they delivered to Courthouse Title Service.  The escrow agreement provided that the deed would be held by Courthouse in favor of Brais, upon certain conditions, including:  (1) The deed would not be recorded by Courthouse; (2) Emhousers reserved right to revoke the escrow agreement prior to death of survivor of parties; and (3) Courthouse could not deliver deed to Brais until both Emhousers had died.

 

After his wife died, however, Harry executed the will bequeathing the farmland to the Churches.  When Harry died, Courthouse, apparently unaware of the will, delivered the  deed to Brais.

 

The trial court ruled that the farmland was part of the estate, apparently ruling that the agreement had created a trust, but that Harry's will had revoked the trust.  Brais argued on appeal that since the trust stated specifically it was revocable only during the Emhouser's lives, it could not be revoked  by will.

 

On appeal: Held: Affirmed.  The appeals court held that the agreement in this case was an escrow agreement and not a trust.   The escrow was not a trust, but a simple escrow.  A trustee holds legal title to property for the welfare of the beneficiary, but an escrow agent is not vested with title to the property even when entrusted with possession.  Here, since the escrow company did not have legal title to the property it was not a trustee. Title remained in the Emhousers, and they retained the right to revoke the deed at any time.

 

The court concluded that it was not necessary for the agreement to provide that a will would revoke the agreement.  In cases of delivery of a deed in escrow to a third person, the controlling question is whether the grantor reserved the right to recall or revoke his action.  Here, the Emhousers provided in the escrow agreement that the agreement could be revoked prior to their death.  Therefore, the deed was not properly delivered and could not effectively convey the property to Brais.  The farmland became party of Harry's estate to be disposed of by his will.

 

Comment: What the editor finds of interest here is the fact that the revocation of the escrow was so informal and vague.  Did Harry realize what he was doing?  Wouldn't the normal procedure have been to notify the escrow company?

 

Despite these problems, the will sets forth unequivocally that it was Harry's intent that the property pass to the churches at his death, and this was Harry's last statement on the matter.  Consequently, although bizarre, the case is correct.

 

Readers are urged to respond, comment, and argue with the daily development or the editor's comments about it.

Items in the Daily Development section generally are extracted from the Quarterly Report on Developments in Real Estate Law, published by the ABA Section on Real Property, Probate & Trust Law. Subscriptions to the Quarterly Report are available to Section members only. The cost is nominal. For the last six years, these Reports have been collated, updated, indexed and bound into an Annual Survey of Developments in Real Estate Law, volumes 1‑6, published by the ABA Press. The Annual Survey volumes are available for sale to the public. For the Report or the Survey, contact Maria Tabor at the ABA. (312) 988 5590 or mtabor@staff.abanet.org

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