Johnson v. Johnson, No. 307572, 2013 Mich. App. LEXIS 930 (Mich. Ct. App. May 28, 2013)

(plaintiff owned a 100 acre farm and mortgaged five acres for her son to build a barn on them; after the barn was complete, the plaintiff’s property taxes went up; plaintiff (mother) and defendant (son) went unannounced to an attorney’s office to draw up a deed; dispute arose regarding purpose of deed; plaintiff argued that she was transferring only five acres and defendant argued for transfer of entire farm; plaintiff was elderly and waited in car while defendant spoke to attorney alone; attorney prepared deed giving plaintiff life estate and transferring remainder to defendant; despite recommendation that deed not be filed until plaintiff’s death, deed was recorded by defendant; trial court held plaintiff did not intend to record deed and defendant removed deed from plaintiff’s safe and recorded without her permission and held deed should be set aside on basis of fraud, unconscionability, and lack of delivery; defendant appealed; appellate court held fraud was not proven because plaintiff could not have acted in reliance on misrepresentation to attorney because she was not present and removal of deed would be stealing rather than evidence of fraud; appellate court also held deed was not substantively unconscionable because transaction was a gift rather than business deal; appellate court also overturned trial court’s finding of lack of delivery because recording of a deed creates a presumption of delivery and there was lack of evidence regarding how the deed was recorded and whether defendant did steal deed from plaintiff’s safe; case remanded for reconsideration on the evidence for delivery; court also directed undue influence claim made by plaintiff be addressed on remand).