Mayborne

There is no substantial conflict between the parties as to the facts of the case, but in our statement we shall resolve whatever minor differences there may be, as far as justified by the record, in favor of respondent. The appeal is from a judgment in favor of plaintiff on a claim against the estate of C. P. Dutton, rejected by his administrator, for the reasonable value of personal services rendered the decedent over a period of more than twenty years, terminating in his death in 1915. Mr. Dutton was formerly a prominent well-to-do resident of the city of Aurora, Illinois. In 1873 he married a woman fifteen years his junior and three sons were born of the marriage. In 1894, after some years of estrangement, he and his wife finally separated, and after the separation, at the invitation of Mr. Mayborne, an old friend and acquaintance, Mr. Dutton took up his residence in the Mayhorne home in Geneva, Illinois, a town some nine miles distant from Aurora. The family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Mayhorne, Miss Grace Mayhorne, an elder sister, more or less of an invalid, and Miss. Etta Mayhorne, the plaintiff. Due to the age of her parents and the sickness of her sister, plaintiff was the…