Deavers v. Deavers

457 S.W.2d 618, 61 Tenn. App. 704, 1970 Tenn. App. LEXIS 307
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedFebruary 27, 1970
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 457 S.W.2d 618 (Deavers v. Deavers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Deavers v. Deavers, 457 S.W.2d 618, 61 Tenn. App. 704, 1970 Tenn. App. LEXIS 307 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1970).

Opinion

TODD, J.

This is a partition suit wherein the Chancellor, sitting without a jury, found that complainant had no interest in the property described in the bill and dismissed the suit; and Complainant has appealed.

Complainant is the grandson of B. 0. Deavers and wife, Kate Jane Deavers, who had seven children of whom six survive but the seventh, the father of complainant, is deceased. As the sole child of one of the seven children, complainant claims a one-seventh interest in the lands owned by Kate Jane Deavers at her death.

[707]*707It is insisted by defendants that complainant inherited no property from Kate Jane Deavers because of her last will and testament which read as follows:

“At my Death
“I want Orion to have everything Ive got quilts Beds and Pillows he has stayed home gave all his work and time to help keep Home he been good to me through all my work taking me to Church seeing to taking me everywhere I ask him most God bless Orion
“My Clothes Dean can make in to quilts are for the children but everything els I have is Orions Please dont let no one bother him about anything Please all you children go to Church get ready to meet me in heaven I have done all I Can do I have longed to get to be with you all in Church But dont forget me for where I failed dont loose your Soul. I love everbody Meet me there where we Never Part again
Mama
“Pearl has one hundred dollars in the Church fund Pleas dont forget to Pay her back do always keep the Church open to Pentecostal Ministers would love for the Bro R. C. and Lloyd Mays to take charge also Bro Ivey Still come ever month.
Mrs. B. 0. Deavers”

At the time of her death on March 5, 1962, Kate Jane Deavers was the owner of the real estate involved in this controversy. The above quoted will was found among her effects, shown to her surviving children, and preserved in the “funeral book,’’ but it was not probated at that time. Instead, the six surviving children joined in a deed con[708]*708veying to their father, B. 0. Deavers, “all the right, title, claim and interest we have” in the property in controversy. The seventh child, Curtis Edison Deavers, father of complainant, had predeceased his mother, hence he did not join in said deed. Complainant, who was a minor at the time, did not join in said deed.

During the remainder of his life, B. 0. Deavers conveyed various parcels of said real estate until, at the time of his death on May 22, 1966, he owned no real estate whatsoever.

The original hill was filed in this cause on May 2,1967. On November 25,1967, the above quoted will was offered for probate. Upon contest, the circuit court adjudged and certified that said will was the last will and testament of Kate Jane Deavers.

Thereafter complainant filed a supplemental bill reciting various theories upon which complainant based his claim to one-seventh of the real estate of Kate Jane Deavers notwithstanding her said will.

Upon issue duly joined, the cause was heard orally without a jury. The Chancellor rejected all of complainant’s contentions and dismissed the bill.

Complainant’s first assignment of error is:

I.
“The Honorable Chancellor erred in construing the holographic Will in this cause and finding that Kate Jane Deavers conveyed all of her property thereby, both real and personal, against the weight and preponderance of the evidence presented and contrary to established principles of law.”
[709]*709Complainant insists that the will is not intended to devise real estate. It is insisted that the expression “everything Ive got” is limited by the following words, “quilts, Beds, and Pillows,” and that the expression, ‘ ‘ everything els I have is Orions,'’ ’ is limited by the preceding words, “My Clothes Dean can make into quilts are for the children. ’ ’ That is, complainant insists that the word “everything” referred only to household effects such as quilts, beds, pillows, and clothes.

Complainant cites 57 Am.Jur., Wills, sec. 1362, which reads as follows:

“Sec. 1362. ‘Things/ ‘Other Things/ ‘Everything/ etc. — Although doubt has, on occasion, been expressed as to the propriety of applying the rule of ejusdem generis to a testamentary gift listing designated items and concluding with the word ‘things,’ in view of the exceptional generality of that word, in many instances the ejusdem generis doctrine has been invoked to restrict the meaning of such expressions as ‘things,’ ‘other things,’ and ‘everything,’ as used in a devise or bequest. The ultimate factor in the interpretation of testamentary gifts in which the expressions ‘things,’ ‘ other things, ’ etc., are used is,-however, the testatorial intention, and divergent results have been reached in particular cases with respect to the question of what the testator intended by the use of terms of the kind-under consideration. Under some circumstances, such terms have been held, for example, to pass ships, real estate, or the testator’s residuary estate generally.
“It has been stated broadly that the word ‘things,’ as used in a will, may, where the testator so intends, be given as extensive a meaning as the words ‘effects,’ ‘goods,’ ‘assets,’ or ‘property.’ ”

[710]*71041 A.L.R.2d 947 annotates a number of cases interpreting testamentary disposition of “things,” “personal things, ’ ’ and ‘ ‘ all my worldy things, ’ ’ but no case therein interprets the word, “everything.” Said article cites a number of English cases wherein “things, ” “all things, ’ ’ or “other things” were given restrictive interpretations, however in the case of In re Arnold’s Estate, 240 Pa. 261, 87 A. 590 (1913), it was held that a bequest by an unlearned testatrix of “any jewelry and other personal things” would pass stocks, bonds, and cash. In said case, it was held that if so intended the word “things” may be given as extensive a meaning as the words “effects,” “goods,” “assets,” or “property.”

Complainant cites Ford v. Cottrell, 141 Tenn. 169, 207 S.W. 734 (1918), wherein a devise of realty was ineffective because of an ademption by sale during the lifetime of testatrix. There was no devise of “everything else” as in the present case.

In 96 C.J.S. Wills sec. 748, pp. 144, 145, 146 is found the following text.

“Where an expression of more general description precedes or follows the enumeration of certain things, the general description is commonly understood to cover only things of a like kind with, or the same general nature as, those enumerated, since it is presumed that the testator had in mind only things of that class. Thus, where the term ‘personal belongings’ has been employed as a general description-appended to an enumeration of particular personalty, the phrase has usually been held to include only things ejusdem generis with the items particularly mentioned; and this is also true of similar expressions.
[711]

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Bluebook (online)
457 S.W.2d 618, 61 Tenn. App. 704, 1970 Tenn. App. LEXIS 307, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/deavers-v-deavers-tennctapp-1970.