Carpenter v. Schermerhorn

2 Barb. Ch. 314, 1847 N.Y. LEXIS 292
CourtNew York Court of Chancery
DecidedAugust 2, 1847
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 2 Barb. Ch. 314 (Carpenter v. Schermerhorn) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of Chancery primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Carpenter v. Schermerhorn, 2 Barb. Ch. 314, 1847 N.Y. LEXIS 292 (N.Y. 1847).

Opinion

The Chancellor.

The master has clearly mistaken the rights of the children of Garret Schermerhorn, and of those claiming under them, in relation both to the Charlton lands and to the two lots of land in Glen’s patent. He is right in supposing that the present owners of the Charlton lands are entitled to hold, by adverse possession, the one-sixth of their several lots, which was undisposed of by the will of the testator in consequence of the death of his son John without issue. For, upon the death of John, forty years since, the remainder in fee in that one-sixth, became vested in his four surviving brothers and his sister, who had an immediate right to bring ejectments for the recovery of the same.; except so far as the persons in possession were entitled to protection under their respective covenants of warranty, which gave to them a portion of the fee by way of estoppel. Although Engletje may have been married at that time, so as to protect her interest from being barred during the coverture, she died as early as 1834, and the lands were held adversely more than ten years after the descent to her hens. And the statute requires the heirs of the person as to whom a disability has existed, to bring their suit within ten years after the death of such person. (1 R. L. of 1813, p. 185, § 3.) It is true, the complainant, and perhaps the other daughter of Engletje, may have been femes covert at the death of their [320]*320mother, in 1834.. But the law does not allow successive disa< bilities in different persons taking the same estate by devise or descent from each other. (Doe v. Jesson, 6 East, 80. 2 Preston on Abs. 341.)

The master appears to have proceeded upon the presumption that the surviving children of Garret Schermerhorn, Were heirs to those who died without issue in the lifetime of their father. The devise of the remainder in this case, however, is not to such of the testator’s grandchildren as shall survive their parents; but one-sixth of the estate in remainder is given to all the children of each child of the testator as a class. Bach grandchild, therefore, the moment it came into existence, took a vested interest in the remainder in fee; subject to open and let in after-born children. And such of them as died leaving issue, transmitted that interest by descent to his or her issue, even in the lifetime of the tenant for Hfe, as a vested remainder in fee. The parent from whose side the estate came, however, was the heir at law .of such of the grandchildren of the testator as had died without issue in the lifetime of such parent. In relation to five of the children of the testator, it does not appear that they had any children who died without issue in the lifetime of their parents. The master has therefore properly considered those who survived their parents, or who died leaving issue, as entitled to the whole estate. But in relation to Garret, who is still living, and who is probably so far advanced in life that he can have no other children, it distinctly appears that he had two children who arrived to full age, and afterwards died without issue. And as they did not convey their interest in the one-sixth of the remainder in fee to any one, during their lives, it descended to their father, as their heir at law, under our statute of descents. Garret Schermerhorn, therefore, upon the death of those two children, became seised of two-ninths of one-sixth of the remainder in fee in the whole premises, as the heir at law of those two children. And as he had conveyed lot number four which was allotted to him, and also lot number five, allotted-to his sister Engletje, with warranty, his interest in fee in two-, ninths .of one sixth of those two lots in Charlton passed, by es[321]*321toppel, to those who have derived title to the. different portions of those two lots under that conveyance. He.is also, entitled to the remainder in fee in two-ninths of one-sixth of each of the other four Charlton lots, and to the two lots in Glen’s patent, as the heir at law of those two children; and to the fee in one-fifth of one-sixth of the two last mentioned lots, as one of the heirs at law of his brother John. And he is entitled to a life estate in seven-ninths of one-sixth of the two last mentioned lots, the remainder in fee in which seven-ninths of one-sixth, subject to such life estate alone, belongs to his other children, or those who have acquired their interests therein. His life estate also continues in seven-ninths of one-sixth of the four lots in Charlton not embraced in his deed to Melville Brown. But by virtue of the parol partition, and the subsequent adverse possession of those four lots, the persons who derived title to the same under the conveyances from his brothers are entitled to the whole of his life estate in their respective lots. It must be ascertained and paid to them accordingly, in the distribution of the proceeds of those several lots. And the other seven children of Garret, or those who now represent their interests in the premises of which partition is sought, instead of being entitled to the share stated in the master’s report* are only-entitled, under the will of the testator, to seven-ninths of one-sixth of the several lots of which partition is sought, including the two lots in Glen’s patent. Those interests are also subject to the life estate which Garret Schermerhorn still has therein, under the will- of his father.

As the rights of these several parties appear upon the face of the master’s report, it is not necessary to send that report back to the master to correct the erroneous estimate which he has made of their several interests in the premises, but that part of the report may be corrected in the decree.

The counsel for Gould insists that Garret Schermerhorn’s two-ninths of one-sixth of the reversion, in the four Charlton lots which were allotted to his brothers in the parol partition, belong to those who have derived title to those lots under the conveyances in fee from those brothers. This would be so if [322]*322Garret Schermerhom had been the owner of either a vested or a contingent interest in that two-ninths of one-sixth of those lots at the time of the parol partition; or if he had conveyed the one-sixth of those lots to his brothers with warranty; or if it appeared that it was an interest which had been cast upon him by descent more than twenty years since, so that his right to the same was barred by the statute of limitations. But a mere parol partition of the interests of the children of the testator in the Charlton lands, could only, as between those children,'give to each the rights and interest which the others then had in the lands set off in severalty, either vested or contingent. And, at the time of that partition, the interest which Garret has subsequently acquired, as the heir at law of two of his children, was not a vested or contingent interest in him; but the chance of his succeeding to the same, as the heir at law of his children, was a mere possibility, unaccompanied by any interest whatever in the premises. Again; there does not appear to be any equity in favor of those who have derived title to those lots under his brothers, as against him. As he acquired no interest whatever in the remainders in fee in his own lot, by that parol partition, as against the remaindermen to whom such remainders were devised, he is bound at law, as well as in equity, to protect the grantee of his own lot, and those claiming under -that grantee, against the claim of those remaindermen.

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Bluebook (online)
2 Barb. Ch. 314, 1847 N.Y. LEXIS 292, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carpenter-v-schermerhorn-nychanct-1847.