Statement. understanding to bear on the matters in which he was engaged and utterly and wholly incapable of executing a valid note under such circumstances. That said Harrisons, Taylor and Neff, knowing at the time and taking advantage of said mental incapacity and feebleness of will of the said M. A. Long, obtained his signature to said notes, many of which, it is alleged, were for wholly inadequate consideration. That such signatures were procured by the false and fraudulent representations to said M. A. Long by said Harrisons, Taylor and Neff (together with other fraudulent devices), that said notes were for bona fide indebtedness to them, when in truth and in fact no such indebtedness existed. That, as to those of said notes which were made payable to said. Neff and to said Taylor and also to Sellers and Taylor, they were, prior to the rendition of the judgments thereon, in pursuance of said fraudulent conspiracy and as a part thereof, assigned by said Neff and Taylor to said Harrisons, who, as it is also alleged, paid either no or a mere nominal consideration, and took the same with full knowledge of the facts invalidating them. And that the confession aforesaid of one of said judgments by said M. A. Long and his failure to defend the other actions in which the remainder of the judgments were obtained by default as aforesaid, were alike due to the fact that, because of his weakness of intellect and incapacity and undue influence aforesaid, he did not understand the nature, purpose and effect of said judgments or of the notices of motions therefor. There are other allegations in the amended bill, which need not be referred to here, of specific facts upon which the aforesaid general allegations of fraud are based. The defendants filed their separate answers in which they denied and put in issue all of the allegations of the bill above alluded to touching the incompetency of M. A. Long and imputing improper conduct to them. Statement. The depositions of a great number of witnesses were taken and filed for the complainant and defendants, including the depositions of the father of M. A. Long and of both defendants, and also of said Taylor and Neff, the printed record before us consisting of over a thousand pages, the volume of the depositions rendering it impractical to refer to the evidence in detail. There are, however, certain facts clearly established by the evidence which may be stated as follows: M. A. Long was born deficient mentally, a "moron," (a word derived from a Greek word meaning "fool"). He was an imbecile or an idiot in some degree, at birth. This defect was hereditary. He was abnormally large at birth, had to be removed from his mother's womb by the use of instruments, was delayed in walking, slow in talking, was a nervous, emotional child, was extremely backward at school and made no intellectual progress at various institutions of learning to which he was sent. However, when he arrived at the years of manhood and when he had the business dealings which are the subject of controversy in this suit, he was robust and manly in physical appearance, and as the result of home and school training and intercourse with others, he attained the faculty of a pleasant address in his contact with others, being as a rule jovial and markedly fond of laughing and joking; but he was at no time capable of serious. or concentrated thought for any length of time on any subject. He was born in 1890, became twenty-one years of age in 1911 and married in 1913, when twentythree years of age, and has two children by the marriage. But as boy and man he has exhibited certain marked characteristics; being extremely nervous and emotional, having irrational spells of violent temper; addicted to fabrications in his statements, being reckless in his disregard of truth and having an exaggerated idea of Statement. his own business capacity and ability. After reaching manhood and during the period of his business dealings aforesaid, he gave his checks promiscuously on banks with no money on deposit to meet them and notes of hand in great numbers without regard to his ability to meet them, and without any effort to create any credit balances in bank to meet them and without any concern whatever as to the results of their non-payment. On account of his mental deficiencies the father despaired of the son ever making any business success of his life, but being a large landowner and engaged in farming on an extensive scale, principally in Page county, where he then resided, the father made every effort to interest the son in farming and gave him all the training he could in that occupation during the minority of the boy. The latter developed little aptitude for that business but he was fond of out-door life and the father, after much anxious thought on the subject and being urged by the grandmother of the boy so to do, and being unable to devise any better plan to enable the son to live his life, with some misgiving, in the spring of 1912, when the boy was between twenty-one and twenty-two years of age, put him in charge of a farm in Rockingham county, about twenty miles distant from the father's home, and in the same neighborhood in which the defendants lived, with an overseer on the farm in whom the father had confidence. The farm is quite a large one, containing some 600 acres, but with most of the land unfit for use, only about 200 acres of it being suitable for farming purposes and that rather poor land for that section of the State. The place was not capable of carrying over thirty or forty head of cattle through the winter and the cattle and farming operations which could be carried on upon the farm itself were therefore limited to a comparatively small scale. Statement. The father accordingly properly stocked the farm at a cost of about $2,500.00 and the son took up his residence there in the spring of 1912 and began farming operations. Between that time and July, 1916, the father put other stock on the farm aggregating a further outlay of several thousand dollars. The farm, at the time last mentioned, in truth belonged to the son, being inherited from his mother, who was then dead, but it was subject to the life estate of the father by curtesy. The son at that time owned no other property than the estate in remainder in such farm. But in July, 1912, the father, in contemplation of a second marriage, executed and recorded a deed conveying estates in remainder to his three sons (the oldest of whom was the said M. A. Long), in certain real estate theretofore belonging to the father, reserving, however, a life estate for himself therein. Thereupon the said M. A. Long became the owner of a vested estate in remainder, after the life estate of his father, in real estate which, including the said farm inherited from his mother, it is estimated by the testimony in the cause will be worth some $30,000.00 in value upon the death of the father. It is this estate of M. A. Long in remainder which is bound by the liens of the aforesaid judgments as they appear of record and to subject which to such liens the defendants had brought suit at the time the instant cause was instituted. The transactions of the defendants with M. A. Long began in June, 1912, and they continued from that time until July 1, 1916, a period of about four years. These transactions, as testified to by the defendants and Taylor and Neff, consisted almost entirely in cattle and horse trades and purchases, only small amounts of money loaned to M. A. Long at times being claimed to have been included in the judgments; and in this short Statement. time M. A. Long became indebted to the defendants in the aggregate of $23,000.00 and paid to them in addition thereto about $2,000.00 in money, as appears from his cancelled checks to them produced in evidence, which were found when evidence was being sought by the father for use in this suit. There were also a great number of cancelled negotiable notes of M. A. Long also found at the same time, aggregating some $4,000.00, payable to the order of one or the other of the defendants, or to Neff, or Taylor, or to Sellers and Taylor, endorsed by the payees, of many of which the defendants and Neff and Taylor do not give any account in their depositions and say that they do not know whether they were covered by the notes on which the judgments aforesaid were obtained or not; and the farm, on which M. A. Long was during the aforesaid period, was, during the said four years practically stripped of all stock of any value by his dealings, the bulk of which were with the defendants and Neff and Taylor. Moreover, the testimony of the defendants themselves shows that many of the notes on which said judgments were entered were given by young Long to cover other numerous notes of his, together with balances supposed to have been due by him on various transactions, at frequent intervals, which has created a confusion of transactions with each other so abnormal as of itself to be almost sufficient to raise the presumption of fraud on the part of intelligent men, such as were the defendants, doing business in such a way. There is practically no conflict in the evidence showing the above stated facts. With respect to the facts which will now be stated there is conflict in the evidence, but we shall state them as we consider them clearly and convincingly established by the preponderance of the evidence. |