Nott v. Fitzgibbon

64 S.W. 26, 107 Tenn. 54
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedMay 5, 1901
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 64 S.W. 26 (Nott v. Fitzgibbon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nott v. Fitzgibbon, 64 S.W. 26, 107 Tenn. 54 (Tenn. 1901).

Opinion

Beard, J.

The bill in this cause was filed for a construction of the second paragraph of the will of the late Edward Fitzgibbon, which is in the words following, to wit:

“2. I hereby will my home place of seventy (70) acres, and seventy acres on the west and adjoining, and seventy acres still west, to my wife, Honora Fitzgibbon, and my son, James Fitzgibbon, jointly for life.
‘ ‘ In case my son, James Fitzgibbon, died without issue, or my wife should die, I hereby will and bequeath the homestead and the next seventy acres [56]*56to Mrs. Margaret Nott and her four daughters for life, and with remainder to their heirs.
“I hereby will and bequeath the seventy (70) acres, more or less, lying west of the home place, and the seventy acres before mentioned, to Thomas Clifton and his children for their lives, with remainder to their heirs, after the death of my wife and son, James Fitzgibbon.”

The property which was thus devised was a tract of land lying near the city of Memphis, which consisted, in the aggregate, of two hundred and ten acres, but which, by a survey made at the instance of the testator, had been subdivided into three tracts, in the form of parallelograms, of seventy acres each. The tract on the east was called by him indiscriminately the “homestead” or ‘ ‘ home place, ” as on it was located his residence and appurtenances. On the west of that lay one of the tracts in question, and still farther west, but adjoining, however, the last, was the other seventy-acre lot.

The Chancellor, having found as a fact that Honora Fitzgibbon was dead, construed tne paragraph set out as follows:

“(1) That it was the intention of the testator, Edward Fitzgibbon, to give his son, James Fitzgib-bon, in case he survived his mother, Honora Fitz-gibbon, a life estate in the 210 acres composed of the three seventy-acre tracts.
“(2) That the testator intended that if James [57]*57Fitzgibbon died leaving issue surviving him, such issue should take the fee in said 210 acres.
‘ ‘ (3) That the testator also intended that ■ in case the said James Fitzgibbon should die without issue surviving him, that Mrs. Margaret Nott and her four daughters should take a ■ life estate in the seventy acres known as the homestead, and the next seventy acres west of said homestead,. with remainder to their heirs in fee.
“(4) That the testator intended that Thomas W. Clifton and his children' should take- a life estate in the seventy acres west of the' . two >seventy-acre tracts mentioned in th'ree (being the westernmost seventy acres of the 1210-acre tract), with remainder to their heirs in fee, provided ijthat Janies Fitzgibbon should die without issue surviving him.”

In part we agree and in part disagree with this construction. We agree with the Chancellor in holding that the testator devised to his wife, Honora, and to his son, an estate for their joint lives, and during the life of the survivor, the three tracts above described, but we do not concur with him in his conclusion ‘ ‘ that the testator intended that if James Fitzgibbon died leaving issue surviving him, such issue would take the fee in said two hundred and ten acres.”

This conclusion can be based alone on the ground that an estate by implication is created in the issue of James; for it is apparent that [58]*58there are no express words in the will creating an estate in any portion of the tract in such issue. In the case of Machell v. Weiding, 8 Sim., 4, “the testator gave real and personal estate to his wife for life, and after her death to her son James for life, but if his son should die without issue, not having any children, then his estate to be sold and the money to be divided among his other children.”

In construing this clause, with the view of determining the character of the estate which the son of the testator took, Sir L. Shadwill, V. C., observed “that it was perfectly manifest that the testator did not intend the estate to go over so long as any issue of the first taker were in existence ; and I consider it,’’ he said, “to be a settled point that, whether an ■ estate be given in fee or for life, or generally, without any particular limit as to duration, if it be followed by a devise over in case of the devisee dying without issue, the devisee will take an estate tail.” In discussing this and other cases, Mr. Jarman, in his very learned and exhaustive work on Wills, in his second volume, star page 139 (page 556), says: “It is to be observed that where the person on whose general failure of issue a devise is expressly made expectant, is the heir at law of the testator, he becomes by the application of the rule under consideration tenant in tail by implication in precisely the same manner as if there [59]*59had been a prior devise to him and his heirs in the will.”

Tn the case just referred to and in the rule thus announced by the author/ if they are controlling, we have the hey to . the construction of the clause now being considered. Eor in this we have the testator devising to “his heirs at law” for the term of his life (he háving survived his mother, who is now dead), with' a limitation over if “he die without issue” — which under section 3675 of the Shannon’s Code, means issue “living at the time of his death or born to him' within ten months thereafter.” As no intention other-wise is “expressly and plainly declared in the will creating it,” this estate tail, under section 3673 of the (Shannon’s) Code, would be converted into an estate in fee in the son, .James, and his issue would take, not under the will, but as his heirs.

This estate in fee, however, would be determinable or conditional upon his dying without issue, in which event,, and only in such event, will the limitation over, in favor of Mrs. Nott and her four daughters for life, with remainder to their heirs take effect.

But we have a line of cases in this State settling this question wdtkout resorting to the rule laid down by Mr. Jarman, and yet which bring about the same result. In Petty v. Moore, 5 Sneed, 126, the testator devised ' and bequeathed his [60]*60real and personal estate to his "wife for life with remainder over to his eleven children.

By a codicil to his will, among other provisions, was the following: “I do will and declare, if any of my eleven children shall die without an heir of their body, that all of the property that shall ever descend to them from me shall return and be equally divided among the remainder of my heirs that shall be living.” One of these children died after the decease of the tes* tator, but before the life estate ended, leaving children, and the question was, Did his share of the testator’s estate vest in his children, under the clause of the codicil, or “did it pass in the ordinary course of descent to his representatives, real and personal.”

The insistence for the children was that they took under the codicil “by implication of law,” but it was held otherwise.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
64 S.W. 26, 107 Tenn. 54, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nott-v-fitzgibbon-tenn-1901.