William Mohorn asks the court to invalidate a deed of gift that he executed to his daughter, Pamelia. Mohorn informs the court that he "had been intoxicated, say some two or three months incessantly" before he moved from Virginia to Tennessee in 1845; when in a drunken state, he admits that he is "almost totally bereft of reason and a maniac." Fearful that William would squander his property, his family persuaded him to convey the "family slaves," whom he had inherited from his late father, in trust to Pamelia. William drunkenly believed that the conveyance reserved a life estate in the slaves for himself. Shortly thereafter, however, John Mohorn took the slaves from the petitioner's residence in Tennessee, leaving William's second wife, who was in "very delicate health," without servants. She later left him for her family in Texas. After Pamelia married, her husband, John Daly, hired out the slaves claiming them through his marital rights. In his "destitute condition," William now lives with his daughter and son-in-law, where he is forced to submit to Daly's "most distant and unwarrantable treatment." He fears that his filing of this suit will cause Daly to "run said slaves beyond the jurisdiction" of the court. He asks the court to attach the slaves, whose aggregate value is about $3000, and to restore them to his possession.
Result: Partially granted.
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Repository: Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, Tennessee
