Phillips v. Grayson

23 Ark. 769
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedDecember 15, 1861
StatusPublished

This text of 23 Ark. 769 (Phillips v. Grayson) 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
Phillips v. Grayson, 23 Ark. 769 (Ark. 1861).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Fairchild

delivered the opinion.of the Court.

Amy Calloway, in consideration of the love and affection that she had for her daughter, Charity C. Johnson, wife of Philip P Johnson, conveyed to Jonathan O. Calloway, Rebecca, a negro girl, “ in trust for the use and and benefit of the said Charity C., “ and the heirs of her body.....To have and to hold said “ slave and all her increase, unto the said Jonathan O., for the “ use and benefit aforesaid, but to remain the said Charity C.’s “ during her life, and at her death to go to the heirs of her body; ■£ and it is now expressly understood, and here stipulated, that, C£ from this day forward, the said negress is to be and remain in the “ possession of my beloved daughter, Charity C., but to be in no ,£ wise subject to the debts or disposition of the said Philip P., l£ the husband of my said daughter, Charity C.” This deed was made the 30th of July, 1845, and was recorded, at the proper office, in Clark county, upon the next day. In course oí time, Johnson, the husband, died, and Mrs. Johnson married Phillips. Judgments had been rendered against Phillips, and, at the instance of the plaintiffs, executions isued upon them were levied upon Eebecca and her children. Mrs. Phillips, claiming the negroes as her own separate property, exempt from liability to the debts of Phillips, her second husband, filed the bill in this case to enjoin the judgment creditors from attempting to subject Eebecca and her children, to the satisfaction of their judgments; and that a trustee in the place of Jonathan O. Calloway, then dead, should be appointed to preserve and perform the trust. A preliminary injunction was granted,- but, upon demurrer, the Circuit Court of Clark county, sitting in chancery, dismissed the bill; from which decree Mrs. Phillips has appealed to this court. She insists here that, under the general doctrine recognized in chancery, and under our married woman’s law, the negroes are her own separate property, and that the decree appealed from is erroneous, in not affirming her claim: while, on the other hand, the judgment creditors, the appellees, sustain the decree, and maintain the negative of the two propositions of Mrs. Phillips, the appellant.

The married woman’s law, if applicable to the claim of the appellant, gives her go better position in this case than she would have by the doctrine of courts of equity upon separate property: hence the decision of this case need not involve a consideration of our statute, but will be made to depend upon the negroes mentioned in the bill, being vested in the appellant to her sole and separate use, free from the liabilities of her second husband.

It seems to be admitted by the appellees, for the purposes of this case, that the deed of Amy Calloway conveyed an interest to her daughter, that was separate in her favor as against Johnson, the existing husband: but as this point may have an important bearing upon the rights, and consequently upon the liabilities of the second husband, without placing our decision upon an admission made, with the view that its principle would not extend to the second husband, we will give an opinion upon the deed itself: which is, that Mrs. Johnson took an interest in Rebecca, that was free from liability or interference of Johnson, the first husband. But whether this results from that part of the deed which expressly refuses-to Johnson any right over the slave, is a question made by the opposing counsel, and one upon which they suppose the case will turn.

The appellant contends that, without the clause in the deed which mentions Johnson, the other words exclude his interest, as well as that of any other husband, and that this effect of the words is strengthened by the interest of Mrs. Johnson and her children being preserved for them by a trustee, and by the limited interest provided for Mrs. Johnson. The appellees insist that the interest conveyed to Mrs. Johnson is not affected by the intervention of a trustee ; that the deed confers upon her the absolute ownership of Rebecca and her increase; that the gift to her use and benefit is only an unconditional gift; that upon the death of Johnson the property belonged to his widow, without any separate character; that her marriage to Phillips transferred the property to him, and that, consequently, his creditors, the appellees, had a right to make their judgments out of the slaves, from which they are hindered by the injunction granted in this case, and by the prosecution of this appeal.

In ascertaining the effect of the gift, from a fair construction of the .instrument, the evident intention of the donor was, that Rebecca, and her increase, should belong to the daughter for her life, and after her death should go to her children, and that the possession and enjoyment of Mrs. Johnson, should be as of her own separate property, as long as she should live. Prom the bare words of the deed, it is plain that a separate interest was confbrred upon Mrs. Johnson, as her husband was excluded from all interest in, or control over, the property, which was also exempted from liability for his debts. Firemen's Ins. Co. vs. Bay, 4 Barb. 414. Yet, without the express, exclusive words against "Johnson, the terms of the gift alone, if an absolute interest had been conferred upon Mrs. Johnson, might not have been sufficient to have created a separate estate under the modern English rule of decisions, which has been followed by this court. Roane vs. Rives, 15 Ark. 330; Kensington vs. Dolland, 2 M. & K. 184; Tyler vs. Lake, 2 R. & M. 183. This rule seems, at times, to have been applied when the principle for the construction of all writings, that of effectuating the intention of the instrument, if not inconsistent with the rules of law, did not require its application. For the spirit of the law, as well as the letter of the authorities, would teach that no particular form of words is necessary to vest property in a married woman for her separate use. Stanton vs. Hall, 2 R. & M. 175; Clark vs. Maguire, 16 Misso. R. 311; Taylor vs. Stone, 13 S. & M. 655. And those cases that hold there must be negative words to destroy the marital rights of the husband, or that a different and stronger rule of construction may be adopted to preserve such right, are subject to the pertinent observations of Yice Chancellor Wigram, made in Blacklow vs. Laws, 2 Hare, 49, 54, in which, in obedience to authority, since overruled, he construed a will in a way he deemed to be against the real intention of the testator.

The strict English rule does not seem- to have been followed in some of the American courts, which follow the intent, irrespective of any particular words to establish the character of the estate. Such are the Missouri and Mississippi cases, above cited, and to the same effect are Hamilton vs. Bishop, 8 Yerg. 40, and Beaufort vs. Collier, 6 Humph. 490.

But, in this case, only a life estate was given' by the deed to Mrs. Johnson, the residuary interest being vested in the heirs of her body. Cox vs. Britt, 22 Ark. 557. The decision in Lindsay vs. Harrison, 3 Eng. 311, is not applicable to the present case, as the estate in that case was held to be an absolute estate of a single woman, witli no attempt to' exclude the marital right of a future husband; while this case is the conveyance of a life estate to a married woman, with a remainder to her children: thus restricting the right of alienation of the property itself, as fully as any prohibitory clause of anticipation can possibly do.

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Related

Firemen's Insurance v. Bay
4 Barb. 407 (New York Supreme Court, 1848)
State v. Johnston
1 Thompson 19 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1847)

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23 Ark. 769, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/phillips-v-grayson-ark-1861.