Quiet title action; Fraud

Holding that the trial court did not “clearly err by finding that plaintiff failed to establish fraud[,]” the court affirmed the dismissal of her quiet title action. “Plaintiff is defendant’s aunt. Mary Mathews, who died in 1984, was plaintiff’s mother and defendant’s grandmother. Doris Oldham, who died in 2022, was defendant’s mother and plaintiff’s sister. In 1983, plaintiff and Mary purchased a home. In 1984, Mary purportedly conveyed her interest in the home to Doris by quitclaim deed.” In the trial court, plaintiff claimed that she “lived in the home until 1989, at which point she went to a treatment center and then returned to live with Doris through the 1990s and into the 2000s. Defendant claimed to have lived with Doris in the house since 1989, when plaintiff deeded her interest in the home to Doris, and Doris evicted plaintiff. A 1989 quitclaim deed shows that plaintiff conveyed her interest in the house to Doris. Finally, by a quitclaim deed executed in [3/22], a few months before Doris died, Doris conveyed her interest in the house to herself and defendant as joint tenants with full rights of survivorship.” In 2023, plaintiff filed this action. She argued that the trial court erred in “dismissing her claims when defendant and Doris conspired to steal the property from” her. She contended “she did not sign the 1989 quitclaim deed that transferred her interest in the property to Doris, and there was evidence that Doris suffered from dementia around the time of the 2022 quitclaim deed.” But the court concluded that “the quitclaim deeds evidenced the transfer of property ownership” and that the trial court did not clearly err in finding that plaintiff failed to establish that they were fraudulent.