Gifts. Before her marriage to Herman Blettell in 1951, Mary Blettell owned a residence. Darlene Snider was Mary's daughter by a previous marriage. In 1965, Herman and Mary moved into the residence. Herman's name was never added to the title. In 1974,

Question

Mary execut-ed a deed to the property to Darlene but did not deliver or record it. In 1978, Mary informed Darlene about the deed and told her that it was located in Mary and Darlene's joint safe-deposit box. In August 1987, Mary's health was declining, and she told Darlene to get the deed from their safe-deposit box, rent a safe-deposit box in Darlene's name only, and put the deed in it so "nobody can get

Answer 1

Gifts
The trial court ruled in favor of Darlene, and the appellate court affirmed the decision. "When an executed deed is found in the possession of a grantee, a presumption arises that the deed was delivered and the burden of overcoming the presumption is on the party contending the contrary. Weighing the evidence in the light of the presumption that delivery occurred when Darlene was given exclusive possession of the deed before Mary's death," the court was "not persuaded that plaintiffs have overcome the presumption." The plaintiffs asserted, among other things, that Mary's intent was clear from her instruction to Darlene not to record the deed until after Mary's death. The court acknowledged that "recording the deed would have created a presumption of delivery," but added "failure to record it is not determinative of whether delivery occurred. At the trial, Darlene testified that she did not record the deed when it was delivered to her, because she respected the wishes of her mother, who "just didn't want to have to fight with her husband." The court noted that there was no evidence as to whether Mary understood the legal effect of recording the deed.