Clark v. Hershy

52 Ark. 473
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedNovember 15, 1889
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 52 Ark. 473 (Clark v. Hershy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Clark v. Hershy, 52 Ark. 473 (Ark. 1889).

Opinion

Smoote, Sp. J.

This is the second time this case has been before this court. See, Hershey v. Clark, 35 Ark., p. 17.

Abram and Aaron Clark were brothers. They owned, as-tenants in common and in equal shares, certain real and personal property. Besides this, neither of them, during their' joint, lives, seems to have owned any other property. The real estate owned by them was, and is, situated in the Counties of Sebastian, Pope, Johnson, Perry and Yell.

The two brothers, during their lives, and on the nth day of May, 1850, mutually agreed, in writing, that the survivor should take and become the sole owner of the whole of the property, . real and personal, and hold the same as his own absolutely. Afterwards, and on the 17th day of May, 1851, Abram Clark ' died, without having made any other testamentary disposition of his property than that contained in the said written agreement between the brothers. He died unmarried and without issue of his body, leaving him surviving, his mother, Nancy Clark; his brother, Aaron Clark, and his sisters, Sarah.Clark, Susan Clark, Elizabeth Miller, and Ann E. Hershey, his only heirs-at-law and distributees.

Upon the death of Abram, Aaron took possession of all the property as his own, and Nancy, the mother, by her deed of the 8th of December, 1851, conveyed her entire interest therein to him, and he held possession of all of the property, claiming.; it as his own until his death.

Susan died duringthe lifetime of Aaron, in 1851, unmarried, without issue and intestate, leaving her surviving the said Nancy, her mother, and the said Aaron, Sarah, Elizabeth and Ann E., her brother and sisters, her only heirs-at-law and distributees.

Aaron died on the 14th day of November, 1855, unmarried and without issue, after making and publishing his last will, which was duly probated. By this will he bequeathed all of his personal property, and devised all of his lands lying in Sebastain and Pope Counties, to his mother Nancy and his .sister Sarah, to hold in common; to his sister Elizabeth he devised all his lands lying in Johnson and Perry Counties, and to his sister Ann E., he devised all his lands lying in Yell County, and any other lands undisposed of by the will. Aaron, during his lifetime, acquired lands other than those owned by himself and his brother Aaron in common.

All of the legatees and devisees under the will of Aaron (except perhaps Ann E., about whom as to this, there is a -question in the record), seem to have accepted under the will, and entered upon the enjoyment of the property therein bequeathed and devised to them, and remained in undisputed possession thereof until about the time this suit was instituted, except Elizabeth Miller, who so remained in possession until she died in 1867, leaving her surviving Abram C. Miller, her only heir-at-law and distributee, who has been in possession since her death.

The mother, Nancy, died, on the 27th of November, 1861, after making jointly with Sarah what purported to be her last will, the contents of which it is unnecessary to notice here She left surviving her, her said daughters Sarah, Elizabeth and Ann E., her only heirs and distributees.

Ann E., instituted this suit in October, 1870, the principal defendants being Sarah Clark, and Abram C. Miller, the son of said Elizabeth Miller, deceased. The only other defendants are S. F. Clark, as executor of the will of Aaron Clark, and her husband, B. F. Hershey, as administrator of the estate of Nancy Clark, who are little more than nominal defendants. The object of the suit is to have partition and an account of rents, profits and the proceeds of the sales of such of the lands as had been sold, and of certain personal property, and the like, as part of the estate and property hereinbefore mentioned, and to have her interest therein ascertained and enforced.

Sarah Clark and Abram C. Miller answered, relying principally on the written agreement made by the brothers in their lifetime, the deed of her interest by Nancy, the mother, to Aaron, his will, and the joint will of Nancy and Sarah, in support of their rights t'o the property; they also interposed the statute of limitations, and made their answer a cross-complaint.

At the hearing in the Circuit Court the Chancellor dismissed the bill for want of equity, and Ann E. Hershey appealed to this court.

Upon consideration here, this court reversed-the decree of the Chancellor below, and sent the cause back to the Circuit Court, holding that the written agreement between the brothers and the joint will of Sarah and Nancy were void, but sustaining the will of Aaron, so far as it could legally operate upon the property therein bequeathed and devised, and also the sale of her interest by Nancy to Aaron; and saying that Ann E. “is not barred by the statute of limitations. She is entitled under our statutes of descents and distribution, to a share of the real estate of which her brother Abram died possessed; also to her proper share of the real and personal property of her sister Susan and her mother. She is entitled to an account, to be taken under the direction of the court, to ascertain these interests. She must elect, however, which her bill virtually does, to disclaim all rights to the property in question acquired directly to herself through the will of her brother Aaron. The will disposes of interest which she claims adversely, and a case for election arises.”

1. Supreme Court : Opinion on question not presented. When the case under this first appeal went back to the Circuit Court, Sarah and Miller filed an amendment to their answer, alleging, among other things, that Ann E., the present appellee, had elected to take under the will of Aaron, and that she was barred by laches and acquiescence. This amendment to the answer was rejected by the court below when first presented, but afterwards permitted to be filed. The appellee now insists that the defense above referred to, as contained in the amendment, ought not to be considered, principally upon the ground that it was diposed of and decided by this court on the first appeal.

When a question of law arising in a case has once been decided by this court, it becomes a part of the law of that case, unless reconsidered and repudiated by this court, at the term during which the decision was made; and this, too, without regard as to whether such decision was right or wrong. Porter v. Doe et al., 10 Ark., 187; Baxter v. Brooks, 29 Ark., 185.

But this court cannot decide a question which is not before it for decision. Phelan v. San Francisco, 9 Cal., 16; Barne et al. v. Winona R. R. Co., 117 U. S., 228.

Mr. Justice Field, in delivering the opinion of the court in the above cited case of Barney et al. v. Winona R. R. Co., said : “We recognize the rule that what was decided in a case pending before us on appeal is not open to reconsideration in the same case, on a second appeal on similar facts. The first decision is the law of the case, and must control its disposition; but the rule does not apply to expressions of opinion bn matters the disposition of which were not required for the decision.”

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Bluebook (online)
52 Ark. 473, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clark-v-hershy-ark-1889.