Berkovitz v. Klemar

Berkovitz (the mother) (plaintiff) was very close with her adult daughter and often spent the night at the daughter’s apartment and helped with the housework. The daughter and the daughter’s husband, Klemar (the son-in-law) (defendant), wanted to purchase a larger apartment, but they did not have the funds. The mother offered to help her daughter and son-in-law by selling her own apartment and contributing the proceeds to the purchase of a new apartment for her daughter and son-in-law, as long as the mother could live in the new apartment for the rest of her life. The daughter and son-in-law accepted her offer and used the mother’s funds to purchase a larger apartment. The mother had her own room in the new residence. A few years later, the daughter died of cancer, and the relationship between the mother and the son-in-law deteriorated. The son-in-law undertook acts that made it uncomfortable for the mother to continue living in the apartment, such as locking the bathroom door and blocking off the kitchen. The mother felt forced to leave. After the mother moved out, she sued the son-in-law and her daughter’s estate for the amount of money she had provided for the purchase of the new apartment. The district court ruled in favor of the mother and ordered the son-in-law to return her investment in the new apartment, minus the value of rent for the time she lived there. Both parties appealed. The son-in-law argued that the money provided by the mother was a nonrevocable gift, and the mother argued that her award should not have been reduced by the value of the rent for the time she lived there.