Bradshaw v. Estill

121 S.E. 385, 157 Ga. 171, 1924 Ga. LEXIS 10
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedJanuary 15, 1924
DocketNo. 3660
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 121 S.E. 385 (Bradshaw v. Estill) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bradshaw v. Estill, 121 S.E. 385, 157 Ga. 171, 1924 Ga. LEXIS 10 (Ga. 1924).

Opinion

Russell, C. J.

(After stating the foregoing facts.)

Upon a review of the record as summarized in the foregoing [179]*179statement of facts, we find no error in the rulings of the lower court or in the final judgment to which exception is taken. The contentions of learned counsel for the plaintiff in error are supported by a large array of authorities, and the brief evidences a masterful presentation of the law of the case as the facts appear to the plaintiff in error. However, I am of the opinion that under the plain and proper construction of the contract or deed of assignment made to the plaintiff by her then husband, Holbrook T. Estill, the plaintiff, now Mrs. Bradshaw, took no interest whatever in the funds which were before the court for distribution at the time the judgment complained of was rendered. The exception is to the dismissal of Mrs. Bradshaw’s intervention, filed at a time when there was nothing before the court except the matter of a proper distribution of the share of Holbrook T. Estill in the estate of Marion W. Estill. If Mrs. Bradshaw did not buy the contingent interest of Holbrook T. Estill in the devise to Marion W. Estill as set forth in the eighth item of the will of John H. Estill, then there could neither be a judgment in her favor as to any portion of the funds accruing to Holbrook T. Estill from that source, nor was she entitled to an accounting as to this. The plaintiff in error strongly insists that she bought one half of whatever interest Holbrook T. Estill had or might ever acquire arising from the will of John H. Estill, deceased. The effect of the decision of the lower court was to hold that Mrs. Bradshaw did not buy any part of the contingent interest of Holbrook T. Estill in the legacy allotted to Marion W. Estill. The only real question in this case, therefore, is, what did Holbrook T. Estill convey to his wife, Lulu Lindsley Estill (now Bradshaw) ?

It may be that the contingent remainder in the legacy of Marion W. Estill, vesting upon his death without children in Holbrook T. Estill, could have been conveyed by deed. Civil Code, §§ 3676, 3677; Morse v. Proper, 82 Ga. 13 (8 S. E. 625); Collins v. Smith, 105 Ga. 525 (31 S. E. 449); Sumpter v. Carter, 115 Ga. 893 (42 S. E. 324, 60 L. R. A. 274); Isler v. Griffin, 134 Ga. 192 (67 S. E. 854). See also Parker v. Jones, 57 Ga. 204 (3); Nathans v. Arkwright, 66 Ga. 179; Lathrop v. White, 81 Ga. 29 (6 S. E. 834). It is also true, as insisted, that Holbrook T. Estill would be es-topped to deny the deed or any term of the contract adverse to his [180]*180interest. Civil Code 1910, § 4189; Isler v. Griffin, supra; Nathans v. Arkwright, supra; Allen v. Allen, 146 Ga. 205 (91 S. E. 22); Harris v. McDonald, 152 Ga. 18, 28 (108 S. E. 448). The contract itself, construing the words in their ordinary significance, must determine what Holbrook T. Estill sold and what the plaintiff in error bought. The deed says that this was “an undivided half of all the undivided interest and share of Holbrook T. Estill in and to the estate of his father, John H. Estill, deceased, late of the City of Savannah, County of Chatham, State of Georgia, as mentioned and described in the codicil dated October 1, 1907, to the will of the said John H. Estill dated August 28, 1906.” It is perfectly plain from this writing that no part of any interest Holbrook T. Estill had at that time in the estate of his father was conveyed except such “as mentioned and described in the codicil.” We necessarily look then to the codicil to ascertain the definitely described subject of the conveyance. The property sold cannot include anything in excess of the description. A landowner, though possessed of many tracts of land, cannot be held, even by a very loose and general description, to have conveyed all of his land merely because he has not fully described a particular tract intended to be conveyed. What Holbrook T. Estill sold his wife is that mentioned in the codicil, and no more. In the first item of the codicil the testator revoked the portion of the eighth item of the will, by which he devised to Holbrook ,T. Estill the sum of $1,000. In the second item he changed that portion of the eighth item of the will Avhieh gave to the Citizens and Southern Bank as trustee for the children of Holbrook T. Estill one sjxth of the residue of his estate, “in such manner that one half of said one-sixth -p'art only shall be held by said bank in trust for said children.” Item three of the codicil alone mentions and describes the interest or share of Holbroo'k T. Estill, and there is no other mention or description of this interest in the codicil, except “I do hereby give to my son Holbrook T. Estill the remaining one half of said une sixth directed'to be held by said bank in trust for his children.” 'Certainly as Holbrook T. Estill conveyed to his wife only what is mentioned and described in the codicil, he could not possibly have intended to convey any interest that might have resulted as a matter of law from the provisions of the will as to the one-sixth part devised to Marion W. Estill. If this had been the intention [181]*181of the parties, it could easily have been embraced by apt words of description in the conveyance or deed of assignment. It must be presumed that the words used express the intention of the parties. If it had been their intention, as now insisted by the plaintiff in error, to include in the conveyance all of the right to a one-half interest in whatever rights Holbrook T. Estill might have in the estate of his father or whatever rights that might accrue under the will by reason of the codicil, as now insisted, there might be room for argument, or it might be perfectly plain, that the construction placed upon the description that' the estate actually conveyed in the assignment included all interest of any kind that Holbrook T. Estill had in the estate is correct. As is frequently the case in writings of all kinds, the contract between Holbrook T. Estill and his wife refers to the codicil for an accurate description of what is intended to be sold, and the conveyance must be by the precise terms of the description to which reference is made. The reliance upon the description referred to by consent makes it by reference a part of the contract. Similar instances can be found daily in deeds where there is in the instrument itself a rather meager description of the land sought to be conveyed, otherwise than by reference to a particular preceding conveyance already of record, to which particular and especial reference is made; and yet we apprehend that such a deed could not be held void for want of proper description, and that it would be held that the conveyance included exactly, neither more nor less than, the property described-in the writing to which reference was made. The plaintiff bought nothing more nor less than the one-half interest of Holbrook T. Estill in the one-sixth distributive share which had by the will of his father originally been devised to the three children of Holbrook T. Estill; and even if Estill could lawfully have sold his wife more than he did, to wit, the contingent remainder which might accrue or inure to him should his brother Marion die childless, it plainly appears that he did not do so.

It is insisted in the intervention that the trustee, the Citizens and Southern Bank, had made certain payments to Holbrook T.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
121 S.E. 385, 157 Ga. 171, 1924 Ga. LEXIS 10, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bradshaw-v-estill-ga-1924.