Fine v. McGowan

57 S.W.2d 565, 186 Ark. 1035, 1933 Ark. LEXIS 283
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 27, 1933
Docket4-2891
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 57 S.W.2d 565 (Fine v. McGowan) 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
Fine v. McGowan, 57 S.W.2d 565, 186 Ark. 1035, 1933 Ark. LEXIS 283 (Ark. 1933).

Opinion

Butler, J.

This case involves the construction of the will of Nannie C. Carter, who was the owner of a farm containing 82 acres of land, an additional 80-acre tract, and certain personal property and life insurance. Mrs. Carter died, leaving surviving her husband, John Carter, and four daughters, Mrs. Daisy M. Fine (then Malone), the appellant, Dora E. Patton, Leila Fine and Mary J. McG-owan, the appellee. After providing for the payment of her debts and funeral expenses and directing that her executor convert into money all her personal property and collect the amount of her insurance, and devising to her granddaughter eighty acres of land not included in her farm, and certain other specific bequests, she devised to her husband, for his life or until his remarriage, the use, rents and profits of her farm, provided that on his death or remarriage the 82-acre farm be divided into four portions of 20% acres each in a certain specific manner. Three of these parcels she devised in fee simple on the termination of the particular estate devised to her husband unto Mary McGowan, Leila Fine and Dora E. Patton. The particular estate of the husband was devised by item 5 of the will, which is as follows:

“I give and bequeath unto my beloved husband, John Carter, one bed, ten quilts, two pillows, 1 dresser, 1 commode, 2 rocking chairs, and such kitchen and dining furniture and ware as he may choose out of such articles as I may leave at my death. I also give and devise unto my said husband, until his death or remarriage, the use, rents and profits of my farm in sections seven and eight in township nine of range twenty-nine west, in Crawford County, Arkansas, containing eighty-two acres, more or less.”

The remaining 20% acres was disposed of by item 8 of the will, which is as follows:

“I give, devise and bequeath unto my said daughter, Daisy M. Malone, the use, rents and profits of the residue and remainder in same after the death or remarriage of my said husband, John Carter, of the following described land in Crawford County, Arkansas, to-wit: The west twenty and one-half acres of the east forty-one acres of my farm in sections seven and eight, in township nine of range twenty-nine west, and I give and devise to my said executor, in trust for use of said Daisy M. Malone, and direct and empower him, my said executor, to invest one-fourth of all the rest, residue and remainder of my estate, after the specific legacies hereinbefore provided for, including therein the money arising from my insurance policies, in river-bottom land in this county as near as may be to said land above set apart for her use, and take title thereto of a life estate in said Daisy M. Malone, remainder over to the heirs of her body, if any there be, and, if not, then remainder over to her three sisters, Mary J. McG-owan, Leila V. Fine and Dora E. Patton, in equal shares.”

It was this item of the will that the trial court was called upon by the appellant to construe, it being appellant’s contention there, and she here insists that item 5 of the will created a life estate in John Carter and at his death the fee would vest in the appellant who was at the time of the execution of the will, Daisy M. Malone. Before the beginning of this litigation, John Carter, the husband of the testatrix, had died.

In support of the contention of appellant, counsel cite and rely upon a great number of our cases and particularly stress the cases of Hardage v. Stroope, 58 Ark. 302, 24 S. W. 490; Bell v. Gentry, 141 Ark. 484, 218 S. W. 194; and Pletner v. Southern Lbr. Co., 173 Ark. 277, 292 S. W. 370. We are of the opinion that the appellant mis.-coneeives the import of items 5 and 8 of the will and the effect of onr decisions which correctly apply well-known principles of law to the construction of the particular language of the instruments under consideration. In Har-dage v. Stroope, supra, which is a leading ease, the instrument was a deed, and the particular part construed was the habendum clause, which is as follows: “To have and to hold the said lands unto the said Tennessee M. Carroll for and during her natural life, then to the heirs of her body in fee simple; and if, at her death there are no heirs of her body to take the said land, then in that case to be divided and distributed according to the laws for descent and distribution in this State.”

In Bell v. Gentry, supra, there was the following devise: “I devise to my said executrix all the residue of my real estate as long as she shall remain unmarried and my widow, with remainder thereof on her decease or marriage to my said children and their bodily heirs in the following manner: (naming the children.)”

In Pletner v. Southern Lbr. Co., supra, the devise construed is as follows: “I wish my wife, Artemus P. Gillis, to have the benefit of the homestead, * * * with the remainder of my estate to the said Mary Elmira Godfrey and her bodily heirs, and should the said Mary Elmira Godfrey die leaving no bodily heirs, I wish that portion of my estate to be turned over to my nephew, John M. Gillis, and his children, of Perry County, Alabama, Marion, P. 0.”

In the first-named case the language of the habendum clause was held to convey to Mrs. Carroll an estate in fee by reason of the application of the rule in Shelley’s case. The court. there said: ‘ ‘ The intention of the deed in question was to convey the land in controversy to Mrs. Carroll for life, then to her lineal heirs, and, in default thereof, to her collateral heirs; in other words, to Mrs. Carroll for life, and, after her decease, to her heirs. The intention, that the heirs were to take only in the capacity of heirs is manifest. The deed comes within the rnle in Shelley’s case. The estate of inheritance vested in Mrs. Carroll, and she became seized of the land in fee simple.”

As a reason for this holding, the conrt said: “It is obvions that the deed to Mrs. Carroll created in her no estate in tail. Her grantor reserved no estate or interest, nor granted any remainder, after a certain line of heirs shall become extinct, but conveyed the land to her to hold during her life, and then to the heirs of her body in fee simple. No remainder vested in her children. ’ ’

In Bell v. Gentry, supra, it was contended that the children of the testator at the termination of the widow’s life estate took only a life estate with the remainder in fee to their children. In overruling this contention, the court properly held that the fee vested in the children, and said: “The will created a remainder and provided when it should vest, and that was on the decease or remarriage of the widow.”

In Pletner v. Southern Lbr. Co., supra, the court, in disposing of the contention that Mrs. Godfrey held a life estate only under the devise, said: “This court has often ruled that, where land is conveyed or devised to a person and the heirs of the body, children, or issue of such person, such conveyance or devise creates an estate tail in the grantee or devisee, which, under our statute (§ 1499, Crawford & Moses’ Digest) becomes an estate for life only in the grantee or devisee and a fee simple absolute in the person to whom the estate tail would first pass, according to the course of the common law, by virtue of such devise, grant or conveyance. But this familiar doctrine cannot have application here, for the reason that the estate is not devised to Mrs.

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Related

Housley v. Housley
379 S.W.2d 272 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1964)
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132 F.2d 252 (Eighth Circuit, 1942)
Driver v. Driver
63 S.W.2d 274 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1933)

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Bluebook (online)
57 S.W.2d 565, 186 Ark. 1035, 1933 Ark. LEXIS 283, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fine-v-mcgowan-ark-1933.