Dillman v. Fulwider

105 N.E. 124, 57 Ind. App. 632, 1914 Ind. App. LEXIS 160
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 30, 1914
DocketNo. 8,323
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 105 N.E. 124 (Dillman v. Fulwider) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dillman v. Fulwider, 105 N.E. 124, 57 Ind. App. 632, 1914 Ind. App. LEXIS 160 (Ind. Ct. App. 1914).

Opinion

Caldwell, J.

The following is the substance of appellants’ complaint: That on March 29, 1881, David C. Dill-man died testate in Monroe County, Indiana, the owner in fee of thirty-one acres of land in said county, specifically described in the complaint; that he left surviving him, as his only heirs at law, his widow, Nancy A. Dillman, a second, childless wife, and the appellants, who are his children by a former marriage, except appellant, Lora Bell Turner, who is a child of a deceased child of such former marriage; that “said decedent, by his will, executed on the 15th day of November, 1880, devised to the said Nancy A. Dillman, [634]*634iia lieu of her interest in his lands and personal property, one-third of all his estate real and personal of which he might be seized or possessed, which included the real estate hereinbefore described”; that by this will, he bequeathed to certain of said children $20 each, and the residue of his estate he bequeathed and devised to the appellants James L. Dillman and Lora Bell Turner; that the will was duly probated on April 2, 1881, and letters were regularly issued to Jonathan M. May, named in the will as one of the executors thereof; that on January 22,1883, said widow, by proper steps, elected to take under the will; that “the aforesaid will empowered and authorized the executors named therein, to wit, James L. Dillman and Jonathan M. May, to sell by private sale in such manner and upon such terms or credit or otherwise as they might deem or think proper, the property real and personal of said decedent.” Pacts are averred to the effect that Jonathan M. May, as such executor, regularly sold to Henry P. Dillman all the lands of which the testator died the owner, consisting of 167 acres, and that the executor reported the sale to the court at the February term, 1883, which report was approved and confirmed, and a deed ordered; that on February 24, 1883, the executor, pursuant to the order, executed and delivered to the purchaser a deed of conveyance for all said lands, including the 31-acre tract; that “on the same date, the aforesaid Nancy A. Dillman, widow of David C. Dillman, by warranty deed, conveyed to the said Henry P. Dillman the undivided one-third” of all the said real estate; that afterwards, the purchaser having paid the executor the purchase price of the land, the executor paid the widow the one-third thereof, and applied the balance in payment of the costs and expenses of administration and the debts of the decedent; that no notice of any kind was given appellants of the proceedings to sell lands, and they received no part of the purchase price; that said 31-aere tract has been conveyed from Henry P. Dillman to appellee Fulwider, and that Pulwider [635]*635has possession of the land, and is the owner of the same, except the undivided one-third thereof, which is owned hy appellants; that Nancy A. Dillman died intestate on April 3,1911; that appellants at no time conveyed the lands or any part thereof; that at the death of Nancy A. Dillman, appellants became seized in fee simple of the undivided one-third of the 31-acre tract, and that they are tenants in common therein with said Pulwider, who owns the two-thirds. Appellee, Monroe County Bank, is made a defendant by reason of certain mortgages on the tract held hy it, and alleged to have been executed by Pulwider. Prayer for partition, the sale of the tract as undivisible, and distribution of proceeds.

Appellees’ demurrer to the complaint was sustained, and judgment entered against appellants for failure and refusal to plead further. The sole question presented is respecting the ruling of the court on the demurrer.

1. It is at least impliedly conceded hy appellants that the ruling of the trial court was correct, and that they have no interest in said 31-aere tract of land, if Nancy A. Dillman’s estate therein vested in her as devisee under the will, rather than as widow under the statutes of descent. Appellants argue, however, that by the terms of the will, the widow is given the same interest and estate in the personal and real property of her deceased husband as she would have taken under'the statutes of descent if no provision had been made for her by the will, and hence, it is contended that the will was ineffective as to her. If appellants’ premise is sound, their conclusion is warranted. “The rule is that if without the devise or bequest the heir would taire exactly the same estate or interest which the will purports to give him, he is to be considered as having taken by descent, and not by purchase or under the will.” Robertson v. Robertson (1889), 120 Ind. 333, 22 N. E. 310. See, also, McClanahan v. Williams (1893), 136 Ind. 30, 35 N. E. 897; Stilwell v. Knapper (1880), 69 Ind. 558, 35 Am. Rep. 240. Such rule is applicable to the widow. Thompson v. Turner [636]*636(1910), 173 Ind. 593, 597, 89 N. E. 314, Ann. Cas. 1912 A 740; Denny v. Denny (1890), 123 Ind. 240, 23 N. E. 519.

2. We proceed to determine whether the will purports to give Nancy A. Dillman the same quantity and quality of estate as she was entitled to take under the law, as such widow, in the absence of any provision for her in such will, and first as to the real estate. The complaint alleges that by the will there was devised to her “in lieu of her interest in his lands and personal property, one-third of all his estate real and personal”, etc. It is conceded by both appellants and appellees that the will, under the averment, created in the widow an estate in fee simple absolute in one-third of all the lands of which testator died seized, if it be determined that the widow took under and by virtue of the will. We, therefore, proceed to ascertain the nature, quantity and quality of the estate in the lands that would have descended to the widow as such in the absence of any provision for her by will. The statutes that bear on this question are §2483 R. S. 1881, §3014 Burns 1914, and the proviso to §2487 R. S. 1881. The former provides that “If a husband die testate or intestate, leaving a widow, one-third of his real estate shall descend to her in fee-simple free from all demands of creditors”, etc., and the latter that “if a man marry a second or other subsequent wife, and has by her no children, but has children alive by a previous wife, the land which, at his death, descends to such wife, shall at her death descend to his children.” Commencing with Martindale v. Martindale (1858), 10 Ind. 566, decided in 1858 and continuing down to Utterback v. Terhune (1881), 75 Ind. 363, decided at the May term, 1881, it was uniformly held by the Supreme Court that the estate in fee in the land of the deceased husband which such a surviving second or subsequent childless wife would otherwise have taken in said lands was, as against such children, by the terms of said proviso, under the circumstances therein set out, reduced to a life estate. By the [637]*637latter decision, it was held that such a widow took her share in fee simple, and that the child or children of the former marriage or their descendants had no interest whatever in such share during her lifetime, hut only an expectancy to take the same as her forced heirs at her death. This is now the settled construction of said proviso. Johnson v. Johnson (1899), 153 Ind. 60, 54 N. E. 124; Bateman v. Bennett (1903), 31 Ind. App. 277, 67 N. E. 713. The law in this respect, however, has since been changed by statute. See §3019 Burns 1914, Acts 1901 p. 554.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
105 N.E. 124, 57 Ind. App. 632, 1914 Ind. App. LEXIS 160, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dillman-v-fulwider-indctapp-1914.