Dillard v. Dillard

34 S.E. 60, 97 Va. 434, 1899 Va. LEXIS 57
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedSeptember 21, 1899
StatusPublished
Cited by37 cases

This text of 34 S.E. 60 (Dillard v. Dillard) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dillard v. Dillard, 34 S.E. 60, 97 Va. 434, 1899 Va. LEXIS 57 (Va. 1899).

Opinion

Riely, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

There was a demurrer to the bill for multifariousness. It was overruled by the court, and this is assigned as error.

[436]*436It is a general rule of chancery pleading that a party will not he permitted to embrace in the same bill distinct and separate causes of action, but, to come within the rule, the causes must be wholly distinct, and each cause, as stated, must be sufficient to sustain a bill. The courts, however, have found it impracticable to lay down any fixed rule applicable to all cases, but where the matters in controversy are not absolutely independent of each other, they consider what is just and convenient in the particular case; and if it will be more convenient to litigate and dispose of the matter in controversy in one suit, and this can be done without injustice to any party, the objection of multifariousness will not prevail. Story’s Eq. PL, sec. 530; Segar v. Parrish, 20 Gratt. 672; Hill’s Adm’r v. Hill, 79 Va. 592; School Board v. Farish, 92 Va. 156; Spooner v. Hilbish, 92 Va. 333; and Staude v. Keck, 92 Va. 544.

In the case at bar, the true construction of the will of Earcissa E. Dillard, deceased, is the primary matter in controversy. It is the pivot, as it were, around which all the matters in issue revolve, and upon which all the relief sought depends. All the complainants are immediately interested in the various clauses of the will to be construed, and in each and all of the questions involved, and the appellant is likewise concerned in them all, and will be affected by their decision. It is, therefore, manifestly both proper and convenient to litigate in the same suit the several matters in controversy. It cannot be perceived how the appellant could be prejudiced by this mode of proceeding.

The defence of res judicata is likewise untenable. It is a just maxim of the law that no person shall be twice vexed for one and the same cause of action, but the justice of the maxim requires that the judgment or decree in a former suit, which is relied on as a bar to the subsequent suit, must have been rendered upon the merits of the controversy. The adjudication, when so made, it may be added, constitutes a bar not only to the points actually decided, but to every point which properly belonged to [437]*437the particular matter in litigation, and which the parties might have brought forward at the time, for a party is required to present the whole of his case and not omit a part, which, by the exercise of reasonable diligence, he might have brought forward at the time. All those matters which were offered and received, or which might have been offered to sustain the particular claim or demand litigated in the prior suit, and all those matters of defence, which were presented or might have been introduced under the issue to defeat the claim or demand, are concluded by the judgment or decree in the former suit. It must, -however, have been rendered in a proceeding between the same parties or their privies, and the matter in controversy must have been the same in the former suit as in the latter, and been determined on the merits. Chrisman v. Harman, 29 Gratt. 494; Diamond State Iron Co. v. Barig, 93 Va. 595; and Miller v. Wills, 95 Va. 354.

The decree relied upon as a bar to the present suit was not rendered upon the merits of the matters now in controversy. The former suit was brought by John T. Dillard mainly for the construction of the will of his mother, the settlement of the accounts of her executor, and the recovery of the interest he claimed under her will. He was sole plaintiff and made, among other persons, the complainants and the executor defendants. The court decided that the plaintiff took nothing under the will of the decedent, and upon that ground alone dismissed his bill. Dillard v. Dillard’s Ex'or or et als., 21 S. E. 669. This was clearly not a decision on the merits of the matters now in issue. The complainants in the present suit do- not claim in the same right as the plaintiff in the former suit. All claim under the same will, but the rights asserted by them are separate, distinct, and antagonistic to those asserted by him. In no sense were they in privity with him. A decision that he was without any right to maintain the suit did not determine their right to sue, and was not an adjudication in any manner of the matters now [438]*438put in issue. And no such, case was made by the pleadings or proof as warranted a decree between them and the appellant as co-defendants.

This brings us to the merits of this controversy. The testatrix, in the latter part of the first clause of her will, devises and bequeaths as follows: “And from and immediately after the death of my said husband, I hereby give and devise the tract of land ***** and a]Q the money and other personal property in this clause given to my said trustees for the sole use and benefit of my said husband, that may be on hand and unexpended and unappropriated, to my son, 'William S. Dillard, and his heirs and assigns forever.”

The particular matter to be decided is what "William S. Dillard took under the phrase “ all the money ” in the above bequest. In what sense did the testatrix use the word “ money,” and what is embraced by it? Did she mean money, in its natural and ordinary sense, or did she intend to include also debts and securities?

It seems to' be well settled that a gift in a will of “ money,” with nothing in the context to explain or define the sense in which it is used, includes cash, bank notes, and money in bank, but does not include choses in action or securities. The word, however, is often popularly used as synonymous with personal estate, and has been construed to include, besides money literally so called, not only debts and securities, but the whole personal estate, and even the proceeds of realty. 1 Jarman on Wills, 724-32; Dabney v. Cottrell’s Adm’x, 9 Gratt. 572: and In re Miller, 17 Amer- Rep. 422. What is meant by the word “ money ” must in each case depend upon the will and its context.

In order to ascertain what money the testatrix referred to, and what she meant by the use of the word, it is necessary to look to the prior part of the clause making the gift to trustees for the benefit of her husband. After giving to them the tract [439]*439of land on which she resided, and certain personal property, she then also gives to them “ all the money that may be in the hands of my said husband as my trastee at the time of my decease,” and directs that they permit him to make such use and disposition of the rents and profits of the land, and “ of the money and other personal property, as to him may seem right and proper, without stint or accountability.”

It appears from the record that her husband held certain estate and funds in trust for her, and had lent a part thereof in the year 1858 to Thomas J. Massie, for which he took the bond of Massie, with personal security, payable to himself as trustee for his wife, and subsequently reduced the same to judgment.

In construing a will of personal property, the terms used are to be construed according to the ordinary acceptation of language in the transactions of mankind.

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Bluebook (online)
34 S.E. 60, 97 Va. 434, 1899 Va. LEXIS 57, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dillard-v-dillard-va-1899.