Holmden v. Craig

31 Ohio C.C. Dec. 461, 16 Ohio C.C. (n.s.) 157, 1909 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 363
CourtCuyahoga Circuit Court
DecidedNovember 1, 1909
StatusPublished

This text of 31 Ohio C.C. Dec. 461 (Holmden v. Craig) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Cuyahoga Circuit Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Holmden v. Craig, 31 Ohio C.C. Dec. 461, 16 Ohio C.C. (n.s.) 157, 1909 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 363 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1909).

Opinion

MARVIN, J.

Suit was brought in the court below by Elizabeth J. Craig against the several plaintiffs in error here, alleging that the plaintiff (plaintiff below) is the owner of certain real estate described, and that defendants (plaintiffs in error) each claim to have an interest in the premises adverse to the estate of the plaintiff. The prayer of the petition is to have the title of the plaintiff quieted as against any claim of any of the defendants. The defendants by their third amended answer set out these [462]*462facts: that one Mary H. Craig was, in her lifetime, seized in fee simple of the premises described in the petition, and being so seized she died; that she was then the wife of one W. E. Craig; that she left no issue of her body; that prior to her death she executed a last will and testament, which was duly admitted to probate. Among the provisions of said will were the following:

“Item 2. I give and bequeath to my said husband W. E. Craig all my personal property of whatever description and wherever the same may be.
“Item 3. I give and bequeath to my said husband W. E. Craig, the use of and all rents collected of any and all my real property, wherever the same may be for a period of five years from the date of my death.
“Item 4. I give, devise and bequeath to my said husband W. E. Craig, all my real property wherever the same may be, however, not to become his in absolute ownership until five years from the date of my death. ’ ’

The said Mary. H. Craig died on December 2, 1903, and the said W. E. Craig died in May 12, 1908.

The defendants below, plaintiffs in error, are the brothers and sisters of the said Mary H. Craig.

The said W. E. Craig left a last will and testament which was duly admitted to probate after his death, in which he in terms devised the real estate described in the petition to the defendant in error, so that whatever title "W. E. Craig had to these, premises at the time of his death is now in the defendant in error.

It is urged on behalf of the plaintiffs in error that W. E. Craig had no estate in these premises except such as he got by virtue of the provisions of the will of the said Mary H. Craig, and that since by her will it was provided that said premises were “not to become his in absolute ownership until five years from the date of my death” and that since he died within five years from the death of his wife, the premises never were his, and that therefore any attempt on his part to dispose of the same by will must go for naught, and that since with the husband’s rights out of the way, the plaintiffs in error are, as the heirs at law of the said Mary H. Craig, the owners of the premises by inheritance from her.

The plaintiffs in error claim, as appears by brief of counsel [463]*463filed in the ease, to inherit under Sec. 4158 R. S. (See. 8573 G. C.) This section provides for the order of descent as follows:

“When a person dies intestate, having title or right to any real estate or inheritance in this state, which title came to such intestate by descent, devise, or deed of title or gift from an ancestor, ’ ’ etc.

It will be noticed that this section applies only to such real estate as came to the intestate by descent, devise or deed of gift from an ancestor. There is no allegation in this answer that the premises came to Mary H. Craig by descent, devise or deed of gift from anybody. In her, so far as appears, this estate was not ancestral, and will therefore be presumed to have come to her by purchase, in any event not by descent, devise or deed of gift from an ancestor, so that there is nothing in the facts alleged in this answer to bring the descent within the provisions of this section, for these plaintiffs in, error, if they had any title derived by inheritance from the said Mary II Craig, must stand upon their rights as heirs of one who died seized of real estate which came by purchase, that is to say, not by descent, devise or deed of gift from an ancestor. Descent of such lands is provided for in Sec. 4159 R. S. (Sec. 8574 G. C.) This section provides for the descent of lands of one dying intestate, and names as heirs:

“First. To the children of the intestate or their legal representatives.
“Second. If there are no children, or their legal representatives, the estate shall pass to and be vested in the husbands or wife, relict of such intestate.
‘ ‘ Third. If such intestate leaves no husband or wife, relict to himself or herself, the estate shall pass to the brothers and sisters of the intestate of the whole blood, and their legal representatives. ’ ’

It is then only upon the hypothesis that as to whatever estate there was in these lands, other than the right of the husband to the use and rents thereof for the period of five years after the death of Mary H. Craig, she died intestate.

It is urged on behalf of the plaintiffs in error that this section does not apply, because Mary H. Craig left a will, and therefore did not die intestate, and that being so, the husband’s rights [464]*464are not such as they would have been had she died intestate. But this reasoning applies as well to them as to the husband. It is only when the owner ol lands dies intestate that either becomes the heir under this section of the statute. The definition of the word intestate, as given in Anderson’s Law Directory, is: “Without a will; the status of a person who died without having disposed of his property by means of will, and the condition in which the property itself stands before the law; as intestate, estate. ’ ’

Under this definition it may be said that Mary H. Craig did not die intestate because she left a valid will, but by this will she made no disposition of these premises except an estate in her husband for five years, unless it be held that the husband became an absolute owner by virtue of the will. It is not necessary to determine this question as we view the case, because, if the husband did not become the owner by virtue of the will, then, as to these premises (subject to his five year’s rights)), she died intestate. And to the extent that she died intestate under the provision of this last quoted section of the statute, the premises descended to and became vester in the husband as her heir. The word heir being used in the sense that it means those entitled to the estate by inheritance, because it is the husband who comes first as inheritor, before the brothers and sisters of the intestate, so that the husband, relict, became either the absolute owner of these premises by the tei’ms of the will, or he became the absolute owner by virtue of his inheritance under Sec.' 4159 R. S.

We are cited to the case of Blackman v. Wadsworth, 65 Ia. 80 [21 N. W. 190], the second clause of the syllabus of which reads:

“A widow is not an ‘heir’ to her deceased husband, and as such entitled to a lapsed legacy under the provision of Code 2337.”

Without further going into an examination of this case attention is called to the case of Weston v. Weston, 38 Ohio St. 473, where it is said in express terms that under the circumstances of that case the widow of the testator succeeded to the property under the will as heir at law of the testator.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
31 Ohio C.C. Dec. 461, 16 Ohio C.C. (n.s.) 157, 1909 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 363, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/holmden-v-craig-ohcirctcuyahoga-1909.