Bayless v. Alexander

245 So. 2d 17
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 15, 1971
Docket45976
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 245 So. 2d 17 (Bayless v. Alexander) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bayless v. Alexander, 245 So. 2d 17 (Mich. 1971).

Opinion

245 So.2d 17 (1971)

Mrs. Pattie BAYLESS, et al., Defendants/Appellants,
v.
Mrs. Lillous B. ALEXANDER, Complainant/Appellee.

No. 45976.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

February 15, 1971.
Rehearing Denied March 15, 1971.

O.B. Triplett, Jr., Forest, for defendants-appellants.

*18 Robert H. McFarland, Bay Springs, for complainant-appellee.

PATTERSON, Justice.

This is an appeal from the Chancery Court of the Second Judicial District of Jasper County which decreed Mrs. Lillous B. Alexander to be the sole owner of the land in said county described as the Southwest Quarter of the Southeast Quarter, Section 6; the West half of the Northeast Quarter, Section 7; all in Township 1 North, Range 11 East, and commonly called the "Mill Field." The heirs of Mrs. Dorr B. Denson, with the exception of Mrs. Noby Ruth Houston, who took no part in this suit, being aggrieved by the decree, prosecute this appeal.

The appellee, Mrs. Alexander, initiated this proceeding by filing a bill to confirm title. She alleges that title is vested in her by inheritance from her husband, Clyde or C. Blankinship, one and the same person who died January 15, 1949, without children. She alleges that he acquired title through Roberta Blankinship, a non compos mentis, his sister, who acquired title to the lands by a partition deed in 1903. Thereafter, the sisters of Roberta Blankinship, n.c.m., by deed of August 14, 1930, conveyed to C. Blankinship the interest they expected to inherit from Roberta. She alleges that upon the delivery of the deed to C. Blankinship he went into the immediate possession of the land and that at all times since he kept the land under fence, farming and cutting timber from it, receiving all rents and profits therefrom, and exerting all acts of possession commensurate with ownership over it until his death in 1949. She alleges that although the deed was not efficacious to convey title at the time it was delivered (one of the grantors, Mrs. Dorr B. Denson, having died on October 3, 1931, prior to the death of Roberta, n.c.m., in 1937), nevertheless upon the death of Roberta it became an effective assertion of title when combined with an assumption of dominion over the property by the grantee, to constitute an immediate repudiation of the fiduciary cotenancy relationship which came into being upon the death of Roberta. This was sufficient, it is alleged, to be an ouster of the fiduciary relationship existing between these cotenants and to set in motion the statute of limitations. It is then alleged that the ouster, being followed by ten years adverse possession, effectively vested full title to the property in her husband and that upon his death she became vested therewith by inheritance.

She additionally alleges that since the death of her husband she has had continuous, uninterrupted, and adverse use and occupancy of the land to the present. She therefore prays that title be confirmed in her as the result of descent by operation of law, ouster, and adverse possession since January 15, 1949.

All of the heirs of Roberta Blankinship were made defendants by the bill of complaint. However, none has answered other than the heirs of Dorr B. Denson with the exception noted. Therefore, confessed and final decrees were taken against the remaining heirs.

The issues to be resolved are between the responding heirs of Dorr B. Denson and the widow of C. Blankinship. By their answer and cross bill the heirs of Dorr assert that their undivided interest in the land springs directly by inheritance from their aunt, Roberta Blankinship; that is, they inherited what their mother would have inherited had she not predeceased Roberta. They assert that the deed of Dorr conveying her expectancy of title by inheritance to C. Blankinship was ineffective to convey this interest because her demise prior to Roberta made vesting of title in her impossible of fulfillment. They therefore assert that they became cotenants contemporaneously with C. Blankinship upon the death of Roberta in 1937 and that his possession as a cotenant was not adverse to them since they did not have actual notice, or the equivalent thereof, that he claimed adversely to them in violation of the confidential and fiduciary relationship existing between them as cotenants.

*19 The main questions presented on appeal are whether the appellants as cotenants were ousted by C. Blankinship during his lifetime or by his widow subsequent to his death in 1949.

It is apparent from the record that the brother and sisters of Roberta, a non compos mentis, were concerned with her maintenance and welfare. To this end they executed the following instrument:

* * * * * *
And for and in consideration of Ten Dollars, cash in hand paid, the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, and the further consideration of Grantee, herein, taking care of and supporting our Sister, Berta Blankinship, a non compos mentis, We, Emma J. Denson, Dor B. Denson, Eula F. Denson and Zenobia Burnham do hereby convey and quit claim to C. BLANKINSHIP grantee herein, any and all our undivided right, title claim and interest that we might possess as an heir of said Berta Blankinship, at her death in and to the property described as:
DESCRIPTION
Also all money and personal property.
Witness our signatures this the 14th day of August, A.D. 1930.
* * * * * *

The contingency mentioned in the deed, the death of Roberta, necessary to give it effect having become impossible of fulfillment due to Dorr's prior death, did not have the legal effect of conveying her expected interest to C. Blankinship. In Johnson v. Breeding, 136 Tenn. 528, 190 S.W. 545 (1916), the general rule is concisely set forth in a headnote as follows:

As the "expectancy" of an heir apparent is the bare, inchoate hope of succession, and has no attribute of property, where deceased by warranty deed conveyed his expectancy as heir of his mother, but predeceased her, his children, although taking by right of representation through him, took by inheritance immediately from the grandmother. * *

See also 3 American Law of Property, section 14.12 at 601 (1952), wherein the following rule is announced:

While the assignee's right to the expectancy is generally recognized, there are two possibilities which may operate to defeat his ultimate right to take the inheritance under the assignment. First, if the assignor predeceased the ancestor, the assignor's expectancy fails to become a realization and the assignee obtains no rights in the ancestor's estate. Here the children of the assignor are not bound by this assignment, as they are sometimes bound by their parent's release of the ancestor. Second, the ancestor has power to defeat the assignment entirely by devise of the property to some other person. * * *

The deed being ineffective to convey the expectancy of Dorr leaves the remaining question of whether it was sufficient, upon being recorded in 1938 subsequent to the death of Roberta, to constitute notice to the cotenants of the grantee that he claimed the property in its entirety rather than proportionately as a cotenant.

Upon Roberta's death C. Blankinship, her brother, inherited a part of the land from her. Concurrently therewith he acquired by deed the remaining interest of his sisters with the exception of Dorr. Simultaneously with his acquisition of interest in the land, the heirs of Dorr, appellants here, inherited from Roberta the remaining interest and became in law and in fact his cotenants.

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Bluebook (online)
245 So. 2d 17, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bayless-v-alexander-miss-1971.