Greiner v. Greiner case brief

Greiner v. Greiner case brief summary
293 P. 759 (1930)

CASE SYNOPSIS

Appellant mother sought review of the decision of the Mitchell County District Court (Kansas), which granted judgment in favor of appellee son in the mother's action to recover possession of land and the son's counterclaim to have the mother convey land to him.

CASE FACTS
The mother filed an action against the son to recover possession of an eighty-acre tract of land. The son filed a counterclaim against the mother that contended that the mother had promised to convey the land to him in order to rectify the fact that the son had been disinherited by his father's will. The trial court granted judgment in favor of the son and ordered the mother to convey the property to the son.

DISCUSSION

• On appeal, the court affirmed the trial court's decision on the basis of promissory estoppel. 
• The court held that the mother had made a promise to the son that she would convey him a home and the land if the son moved to the land. 
• The mother's offer was definite by segregating the land for the son, preparing the home on the land for the son, and giving the son possession of the land. 
• Although the son paid nothing for the land, he gave up his homestead in another county, moved and established himself and his family on the tract, made some lasting and valuable improvements upon it, and made other expenditures, relying on his mother's promise; and he lived on the land for nearly a year before he was served with notice to quit.

CONCLUSION
The court affirmed the trial court's grant of judgment in favor of the son.

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