Barnes v. Redmond

127 Tenn. 45
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 15, 1912
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 127 Tenn. 45 (Barnes v. Redmond) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Barnes v. Redmond, 127 Tenn. 45 (Tenn. 1912).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Buchanan

delivered the opinion of the Court.

Mattie Barnes died in October, 1907, in Williamson county, Tenn., intestate, and seized and. possessed off [47]*47two tracts of land located in that county. One tract contained about twenty acres, the other about 191 acres. This land became the property of the intestate under our statute of descent upon the death of her brother-, Joseph Barnes, who left him surviving no wife; child; or children, never having been married, the intestate bein¿ the only heir at law. Joseph Barnes acquired the land during his life by purchase.

The present suit is a partition proceeding for the purpose of selling the two tracts of land; All the parties to the cause were sw juris; all were of one accord that a sale of the land and a division of its proceeds were proper. .

The land was sold under decree of court, and the contest here is upon the correct distribution of its proceeds. No contention is here made that the land'came to the ownership of the intestate by gift, devise, or descent from a parent. From a report made under order of the court by the clerk and master, which report was not excepted to, and was confirmed by the chancellor, it appears that:

Intestate left surviving her neither brother nor. sister, mother nor father, uncle nor aunt.

The next in degree of kinship who survived intestate were her first cousins, children respectively of her uncles and aunts, and there also survived intestate divers descendants of her deceased first cousins.

Some of the first cousins and some of the descendants of deceased first cousins- who survived intestate were of kin to her through her father.. Of these there¡>jwas;.a [48]*48large number, and they were widely scattered in places of residence. These were descendants of seven uncles and aunts who'were respectively brothers and sisters of her father. Fortunately, none of these appealed from the decree of the chancellor, and they need not be fur ther considered, except to say that the decree set apart, one-half of the net fund for them, and made distribution thereof among them.

The other one-half of the net fund was decreed to the first cousins and the descendants of such as were !-of kin to the intestate through her mother. * The mother of intestate had two brothers. One of these was iLee Hamer, who predeceased intestate and left surviving him eight children, each of whom survived intestate. The other brother of intestate’s mother was Reese Ha-mer, who had four children. Two of these survived intestate and two did not; but each of the latter left a child, and one of these children, Robert Cook, is the only one of all the parties in interest who appealed from .the decree of the chancellor to the court of civil appeals and perfected his appeal. His appeal did not, of course, [disturb’the decree in so far as the interests of those persons to whom intestate was of kin through her father-were concerned. But his appeal did bring up for revieAv the whole decree in so far as,the interests of.those who’ were of kin through her mother to the intestate were,', concerned. Subsection C of subdivision 2; of section ■4163 controls in fixing the interest .to which Robert Cook was entitled, and his interest may be most clearly worked out in .this way;

[49]*49If her father and mother haft survived intestate, each' of them would have been entitled to an undivided one-half interest in the two tracts of land. Therefore, render the statute, upon their failure to survive intestate, one undivided one-half interest goes to the heirs of the father, and the other such interest to the heirs of the mother. With that half which would have gone to the mother, we are now to deal.

She did not survive intestate, and, having no other children than intestate, upon the death of the latter, that half interest in the land which would have gone to the mother had she survived intestate, passed by the statute to the heirs at law of intestate’s mother. These heirs were the children of Lee Hamer, a brother of intestate’s mother, eight in number, and the children and grandchildren of Reese Hamer, a brother of intestate’s mother, four in number, being two children and two! grandchildren; one of the latter being Robert Oook.

Now, it happens that each of these grandchildren ia¡ entitled to the same interest as each of the children because each grandchild is the sole representative of a deceased child, and from this it results that Robert! Cook, while only a second cousin of intestate, has thd same interest he would have if he were a first cousin, because he represents his mother, a deceased daughter^ of Reese Hamer, and the same is true of the other grandchild, Rome Hamei-, sole representative of another-deceased daughter of Reese Hamer. It then follows under the statute that each of the eigut children of Lee! [50]*50Hamer became entitled on intestate’s death to 1/8 of 1/4 of the land, or 1/32 thereof, because, if Lee Hamer had survived intestate and her mother, he would have been entitled to 1/4 of the land; and it follows further that each of his eight children are entitled to 1/8 of 1/4, or 1/32, of the net purchase money on distribution.

It also follows that each of the two children and each of the two grandchildren of Reese Hamer became entitled, on intestate’s death, to 1/4 of 1/4 of the dand, or 1/16 thereof, because, if Reese Hamer had survived intestate and her mother, he would have been entitled to 1/4 of the land; and of course it also follows that each of the two children and each of the two grandchildren of Reese Hamer, one of the latter being Robert Cook, is entitled to 1/4 of 1/4 of the net amount of purchase money for distribution, or tó 1/16 thereof. See Wills of John D. and Joseph Miller, 2 Lea, 62; Alexander v. Wallace, 8 Lea, 571; Selby v. Hollingsworth, 13 Lea, 147.

In the construction of the Miller will, supra, this court said:

“If either parent be dead, the surviving parent will take under the first subdivision. If both be dead, the law contemplates that the heirs of each shall take precisely as if each had taken when alive and then died.”

In Selby v. Hollingsworth, 13 Lea, 145, 147, it was said:

“The heirs of Louis Selby, Jr., on the part of his mother, who can take under the statute, are only such heirs as would have inherited from tfag motkgr if she [51]*51had survived the son and then died; for such heirs would be the only heirs who could be in equal degree, or representing those who are in equal degree to the intestate. ”

And further in that opinion:

“The statute, itself, shows what is meant by representation by section 2420, subsection 1 (Code 1858) which defines the representation of lineal descendants.”

And in Alexander v. Wallace et al., 8 Lea, 571, it was said:

“The heirs of the testator, by the laws in force at his death, to inherit the realty, were the issue of his deceased brothers and sisters; such issue in each descending line taking by way of representation of a deceased parent, and therefore per stirpes, without any limit to the representation.” See, also, Forrest v. Porch, 100 Tenn., 395-396, 45 S. W., 676.

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Bluebook (online)
127 Tenn. 45, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barnes-v-redmond-tenn-1912.