McCraw v. Webb

68 S.E. 324, 134 Ga. 579, 1910 Ga. LEXIS 274
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedJune 15, 1910
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 68 S.E. 324 (McCraw v. Webb) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McCraw v. Webb, 68 S.E. 324, 134 Ga. 579, 1910 Ga. LEXIS 274 (Ga. 1910).

Opinion

Evans, P. J.

The executors of Samuel Evans were proceeding to sell a certain tract of land as the property of their testator under an order granted by the ordinary, when W. A. Webb and his sisters interposed a claim to a one-third undivided interest in the land. The claim affidavit was returned to the superior court of Baldwin county, agreeably to the statute in suclr eases made and provided. On the trial the court allowed the claim affidavit to he amended by striking therefrom all of the claimants except W. A. Webb, and exceptions pendente lite were taken to the allowance of this amendment. It [580]*580apjoeared that the executors and the claimant traced their title from Lueco M. Moore. The executors also set up title by prescription. The deed upon which the claimant relied is as follows:

“Georgia, Baldwin County. This indenture made this the fifteenth day of August in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and .fifty-nine, between Lueco M. Moore of the State aforesaid and Baldwin' eountj', on the one part, and James M. D. Webb and his wife Elizabeth F. Webb, of the State aforesaid and Jones county, of the other part, witnesseth, that the said Lueco M. Moore, for and in consideration of the sum of three thousand and eight hundred dollars to him in hand, paid at and before the sealing of and deliveiy of these presents, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, hath granted, bargained, sold, and conveyed, and doth by these presents grant, bargain, sell, and convey to the said James M. D. Webb and Elizabeth E. Webb, their heirs and assigns, that tract and parcel of land situate, lying, and being in the county and State aforesaid [fully described]. To have and to hold the said tract or parcel of land unto the said James M. D. Webb and his wife Elizabeth F. Webb, for her, his wife Elizabeth F. Webb, her heirs and issue by the said James M. D. Webb, she, the said Elizabeth F. Webb, furnishing two thirds of the purchase-money, and the said James M. D. Webb conveying and by these presents do convey unto his wife, the said Elizabeth F. Webb, and her issue by the said James M. D. Webb, his interest in said land, together with all and singular the rights, members, and appurtenances thereof to the same in any manner to his, her, and their own proper use, benefit, and behoof forever in fee simple; and the said Lueco M. Moore for himself, his heirs,- executors, and administrators, the said bargained premises unto the said James M. D. Webb and Elizabeth F. Webb, their heirs and assigns, will warrant and forever defend the right and title thereof against themselves and against the claims of all other persons whatsoever.”

The title set up by the executors was a deed from C. W. Ennis, sheriff, to Samuel Walker, dated October 7, 1884, conveying two thirds undivided interest in the land described in the deed from Lueco M. Moore, this deed reciting that it was sold by virtue of an execution in favor of Thomas Johnson against Elizabeth Webb'; and a deed from Samuel Walker to Samuel Evans, dated November 7, [581]*5811885, conveying a two-thirds undivided interest in the same land; and a deed from C. W. Ennis, sheriff, to Samuel Evans, dated December 2, 1884, conveying one third undivided interest in the property described in the deed from Lueco M. Moore, reciting that the land was sold under an execution in favor of Samuel Evans against J. M. D. Webb. A verdict was rendered by the jury in favor of the claimant. A motion for new trial was made by the executors and refused by the court, and they excepted.

1. There is no merit in the exception to the allowance of the amendment striking three of the claimants from the case. Four claimants were asserting title to an interest in the land; three of these voluntarily dismissed themselves from the case. No reason appears why they should remain in the case for the settlement of the respective rights of the executors and the remaining claimant. It was the filing of the claim which made the issue with the executors, and the voluntary withdrawal of three of the claimants from the case was not to.the prejudice of the executors. They can not complain of the amendment. Civil Code, § 5104.

2. The deed from Lueco M. Moore to the Webbs is not drawn with technical precision. However unskillfully a deed may be prepared, it is the duty of the courts to discover and give effect, if possible, to the intent of the parties. This deed was executed in 1859, before the married woman’s act, and at a time when the husband’s marital rights attached to the wife’s property reduced to possession by him, and when a trust could be created for a married woman. The husband and wife jointly furnished the money to pay for the land, and the provision that the husband conveyed his interest to the wife and her issue by him, though he was one of the grantees, was manifestly inserted therein at his instance, and clearly shows that he did not intend to claim any beneficial interest in the land conveyed by the deed. A grantee who accepts a deed is deemed to have expressly agreed to do what it is stipulated in the deed that he shall do. Ga. So. R. Co. v. Reeves, 64 Ga. 492. For the same reason, when Webb and his wife purchased the land from Moore and took a deed from Moore, 'stipulating that by that deed Webb conveyed to his wife all his interest in the land, the acceptance of the deed by Webb would have the effect óf renouncing in favor of his wife and her issue by him all his interest in the land, and the most that he could claim would be as the holder of the naked legal [582]*582title in trust for such person or persons as took thereunder the beneficial interest.

The next question in the construction of the deed is to ascertain whether W. A. Webb, the claimant, who was the only child of J". M. D. Webb and Elizabeth Webb in life at the time of its execution, was a joint beneficiary with his mother. The words of the deed will always be construed to have their legal significance, in the absence of a contrary intent plainly manifest in the instrument. The habendum and tenendum clause in this deed is “to have and to hold the said tract or parcel of land unto the said James M. D. Webb and his wife Elizabeth F. Webb, her heirs and issue by the said James M. D. Webb.” In cases where there is a limitation over to heirs or issue, the words “heirs or issue” shall be held to mean children. Civil Code, § 3084. But grants to one and “her heirs by a particular person,” or “her issue,” convey an absolute estate, to the exclusion of any children that may be in life at the time of the conveyance. Civil Code, § 3085. Whatley v. Barker, 79 Ga. 790 (4 S. E. 387); Johnson v. Sirmans, 69 Ga. 617; Ewing v. Shropshire, 80 Ga. 374 (7 S. E. 554). If the grant had been to Elizabeth Webb and “her heirs by the said James M. D. Webb,” clearly she would have taken a fee-simple estate, under the above authorities. Likewise she would have taken a fee-simple estate had the grant been to her and “her issue.” The grant is to her, “her heirs and issue by the said James M. D. Webb,” and the combination of two sets of words of limitation can not by any sort of legal alchemy convert them into words of purchase. We therefore conclude that Elizabeth F. Webb took the full beneficial title; and even if any part of the legal title ever vested in James M. D. Webb, he held it as trustee, and the trust became executed by virtue of the married woman’s act of 1866.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
68 S.E. 324, 134 Ga. 579, 1910 Ga. LEXIS 274, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mccraw-v-webb-ga-1910.