Byrd v. . Myers

190 S.E. 471, 211 N.C. 394, 1937 N.C. LEXIS 103

• Court: Supreme Court of North Carolina
• Decided: March 17, 1937
• Status: Published

Opinion

Pee Oueiam.

The plaintiffs are the widow and heirs at law of W. D. Adams, deceased.

On 20 March, 1918, W. D. Adams and his wife executed and delivered to the defendant J. M. Myers a deed by which they conveyed to the defendant a tract of land described in said deed by metes and bounds, containing 46 acres, “less % acre that Clara Holleman holds her life time rite in.” This deed was duly recorded in the office of the register of deeds of Yadkin County.

On 20 August, 1914, W. D. Adams and his wife executed and delivered to Clara Holleman a deed by which they conveyed to her a lot or parcel of land, containing one-fourth of an acre, and described in said deed by metes and bounds. This lot or parcel of land -is included within the description of the 46-acre tract contained in the deed from W. D. Adams and wife to the defendant. Clara Holleman is dead. The deed to her was not recorded until after the execution of the deed from W. D. Adams and wife to the defendant.

The court was of opinion that the lot or parcel of land described in the deed from W. D. Adams and wife to Clara Holleman was not conveyed to the defendant by the deed to him executed by W. D. Adams and wife, but that the title to said lot or parcel of land remained in the grantor, W. D. Adams, subject to the life estate of Clara Holleman, and that at her death the said lot or parcel of land descended to the plaintiffs as his heirs at law, subject to the dower right of the plaintiff, his widow.

The judgment in accordance with this opinion is affirmed. See Fisher v. Mining Co., 97 N. C., 95. In the opinion in that ease it is said: “Where a grantor makes a valid exception in a deed, the thing excepted remains the property of the grantor or his heirs.”

Affirmed.