Easley v. James

10 Tenn. App. 372, 1929 Tenn. App. LEXIS 45
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedJune 1, 1929
StatusPublished

This text of 10 Tenn. App. 372 (Easley v. James) 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
Easley v. James, 10 Tenn. App. 372, 1929 Tenn. App. LEXIS 45 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1929).

Opinion

DeWITT, J.

The true location of the boundary lino between two tracts of land devised by J. W'. McDonough to his daughters Mrs. Sarah Easley and Mrs. Nellie James, is the sole subject of controversy in this cause. The will of Mr. McDonough (who di-ed in 1920) was executed in June, 1915. He owned a tract of about 345 acres, which he devised in separate parcels to his son, John Y. McDonough, his said two daughters and the twto children of *373 a deceased son. These parcels are described by m'etes and bounds in the will.

The devise to Mrs. Nellie James is as follows:

“I will and bequeath to my daughter Nellie the following parcel of land to-wit: Beginning on a red oak near the head of a spring, said red oak being the second turn of my east boundary line, from my beginning corner, runs south 41 degrees east 17 chains to a stake or stone; thence south 80 degrees west to my west boundary line; thence north to my original corner; thence with my north boundary line back to the beginning corner, containing (55) fifty-five acres more or less.”

This is the northernmost portion of the larger tract.

The devise to Mrs. Sarah Easley is as follows:

“I also will and bequeath to my daughter Sarah the following parcel of land to-wit: Beginning in my east boundary line at (57-24) fifty-seven poles and 24 links from my original beginning corner; thence north 41 degrees W. (35-11) thirty-five .poles and eleven links to the Southeast corner of the parcel willed to my daughter. Nellie; thence south 80 degrees west to my west boundary line; thence south to the Northwest corner of the parcel willed to two of the heirs of my son Thomas; thence north 85 degrees east to the beginning, by estimation (28A.) twenty-eight acres.”

This land devised to Mrs. Easley lies immediately south of and adjoining the land devfeed to Mrs. James. The call, “thence south 80 degrees west to my west boundary line,” is the subject of dispute. It is insisted by complainants Mrs. Sarah Easley and J. Y. McDonough that the intention of the testator was that this line should run in the.direction south 82% degrees west by reason of the variation of the magnetic needle., since the land was originally surveyed nearly one hundred years ago; and that tips is ascertainable as his intention from the will construed as a whole in the light of the surrounding facts and circumstances.

The testator devised to his two grandchildren a parcel of the land lying immediately south of that devised to Mrs. Easley, describing it by metes and bounds and as containing 33 acres.

He devised to J. Y. McDonough the parcel of land lying south of and adjoining that devised to his said grandchildren, describing it by metes and bounds and as containing 28 acres.

In his will the testator set a value of $1100 on each of the tracts devised to Mrs. Easley, his two grandchildren and J. Y. McDon-ough, but did not designate any value as to the tract of 55 acres devised to Mrs. James.

*374 The defendants Mrs. James and her husband pleaded an estoppel upon complainants by reason of the following facts which are undisputed.

(1) The complainants, at the December term 1922 of the circuit court after a jury had sustained the will upon an issue of devisavit vel non, agreed to the entry of an order by consent dismissing their contest and sustaining the verdict of the jury. The effect of the order, was that the devises shall stand, “and the lands given to Nellie McDonough James in said will shall under no circumstances be sold for the payment of any of the debts owing by said estate, any of the costs of this cause, or equalization of the various devisees under said will.”

(2) By a deed dated January 8, 1923 Mrs. Easley sold to J. V. McDonough, with covenants of warranty, the said tract of 29 acres devised to her, the line here in dispute being described, “runs thence south 80 degrees, west 218 poles, running with said Nellie McDonough James tract, to the west boundary line of the original tract.” On January 14, 1924, J. Y. McDonough executed a mortgage to J. S. Beasley of this, among other tracts, describing the line in dispute in the aforesaid language contained in the deed of Mrs. Easley to him. On March 21, 1924, he executed a deed of trust to William McDonough, trustee to this and other tracts, describing this disputed line in the same identical language.

The defendants denied the averments in the bill that it was the intention of the testator that said line should run according to the variations of the north boundary line, which was originally described as “south, 70 degrees west.” Their insistence is that there is no ambiguity in the will; that consideration of parol evidence that the intention was that the line should run other than “south, 80- degrees west” would violate the rule that parol evidence may not be heard to supply, but only to apply, a description.

The Chancellor dismissed the bill, holding “that said disputed line begins in the east boundary line of the original tract at the southeast comer of the 55 acre tract devised to defendant Nellie James by the will of her father, J. W. McDonough, and runs south, 80 degrees west to the west boundary line of said original tract. ’ ’

The necessary elements of estoppel do not exist in the facts' relied on as aforesaid, by the defendants.

The consent that the devises in the will should stand did not foreclose any inquiry into the intentions of the testator if from the contents of the will a question arises which necessitates a consideration of the surrounding facts and circumstances. The rule is abundantly settled, as stated in 21 C. J., 1135, and approved *375 in Rogers v. Colville, 145 Tenn., 650, 238 S. W., 80, as follows: “In order to create an estoppel tbe party pleading it must have been misled to bis injury; that is, be must have suffered a loss of a substantial character, or have been induced to alter his position for the worse in some m'aterial respect. As othenvise expressed, where no available right is parted with and no injury suffered, there can be no estoppel in pais. ... In the absence of injury, it is, of - course, immaterial that the other elements of estoppel are present.” This rule is directly applicable to the question of establishment of a boundary by estoppel. 9 C. J., 239.

There is no evidence that the instruments executed by Mrs. Eas-ley and J. V. McDonough have misled the defendants t,o their injury, or induced them, to alter their position for the worse in any respect; nor that they understood, when they executed the instruments, that “south, 80 degrees west” might not be the true course of the line in dispute. Now we come without hindrance to the real question of the intention of the testator as to the boundary between the two parcels of his land. The cardinal purpose is to ascertain this intention, and it is to be gathered from the scope and tenor of the whole of the will, and not from detached or isolated parts of it. Adkisson v. Adkisson, 4 Hig. (Tenn. C. C. A.), 453; Hoggatt v. Clopton, 142 Tenn,, 184, 217 S. W., 657; Mears v. Wharton, 5 Hig., 329; 12 Tenn. Encycl. Dig. 649 and cases cited.

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Bluebook (online)
10 Tenn. App. 372, 1929 Tenn. App. LEXIS 45, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/easley-v-james-tennctapp-1929.