Tebbs v. Duval

17 Va. 349
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedJanuary 15, 1867
StatusPublished

This text of 17 Va. 349 (Tebbs v. Duval) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tebbs v. Duval, 17 Va. 349 (Va. 1867).

Opinion

* JOYNES,J.

I think that the court did not err in treating the whole of the fund realized under the decree of 1836 as capital. For it was expressly provided by that decree, that the appellant should invest the sums decreed to be paid to him, after deducting ‘ expenses; pay to Mrs. Tebbs for life the interest of the money so invested; and distribute the principal sum, after her death, among the parties entitled. This arrangement, though injurious to Mrs. Tebbs, may have been sanctioned by her for the benefit of her children. But whether it was or not, it was embodied in the decree to which she was a party, and which is binding upon those who claim under her.

And I think the court did not err in refusing to allow the appellant an extra commission, as compensation for his services in relation to the case of Tebbs v. Chapman. It would have been proper to assert that claim in the case of Tebbs v. Chapman, when the court was adjusting the rights of the parties in respect to the fund recovered. The facts, too, were then recent, parties now dead were then living, and the merits of the claim, depending upon the character and. value of the services, and the circumstances under which they were rendered, could have been more fully ascertained and better understood, than they can be now.

Perhaps, however, it would be going too far to hold the appellant precluded by his failure to assert this claim in that cause, because he settled no account in that cause, [378]*378and was not required by the decree to make a report as to the collection and investment of the fund. It is a circumstance, however, which deserves to be considered along with others which I will now advert to.

It appears from the deposition of Phillips, that the appellant contemplated the assertion of this claim soon after the decree of 1836, and took steps to collect the ^'opinions of gentlemen who had been counsel in Tebbs v. Chapman, as to the commission which ought to be allowed him. He obtained a letter from one gentleman, and made an effort to get one from another, the result of which does not appear ; and whilst it appears that the letter which he did get was lost, it does not appear that another was obtained to supply its place. But it does not appear that anything else was done. It does not appear that the claim was presented to the parties, and, if presented, it was certainly not allowed ; nor does it appear that the appellant entered any charge for these services in his accounts. The first time we hear of the claim again is in 1854, when it is advanced by the appellant in his answer in this cause. These circumstances, of themselves, afford strong ground for ■ the presumption, that this claim was abandoned by the appellant ; and other circumstances greatly increase the force of this presumption. The appellant was himself a party interested in the fund. to be recovered in Tebbs v. Chapman. It does not appear that his services in reference to that case were rendered-upon any promise of compensation by the other parties. It must be supposed that his actual expenses out of pocket were retained, as he had a right under the decree to retain them. The other parties were his mother, brothers and sisters, to whom he might have been willing to render a gratuitous service, or, at any rate, to surrender his claim, in consideration of the sacrifices to which they had been subjected by the compromise, and especially as his sevice's, however great and however meritorious, had proved, by the result, to be in' a great measure fruitless. But however all this may have been, which it may now be impossible to ascertain, we can see, in these various circumstances, abundant reasons why the appellant may have been willing to abandon his claim against the other ^members of his family, on account of services rendered for the common benefit.

The main ground of objection to the decree is, that it admits the representatives of the children of Mrs. Tebbs, who died in her lifetime, to a participation, along with those who survived her, in the two-thirds of the fund which accrued from the deaths of William and John Carr.

The fund in controversy arose under the residuary clause of the will of William Carr, the elder, deceased. By that clause, the property embraced in it was, upon his sons’ attaining full age, to be divided equally between the testator’s three children, Betsey Tebbs, William Carr and John Carr, “that each child may know their part.’’ But the will directed that the principal should be retained by the trustees, to whom the residuum had been given, or laid out in land and negroes, “to the use of my said children for life, and to go as the other estate devised to them.” The “other estate” here alluded to consisted of land and negroes, the latter being real estate as the law then was, and was devised by three several clauses in preceding parts of the will, which, omitting the description of the property, are respectively in the following words:

1st. “I say I give the above recited land and negroes to my said daughter Bet-sey Tebbs during her natural life, and then to her child or children, if any living at her death, to be equally divided; if none, then to my sons William and John for life, then to be equally divided between them and their children.” * * *

2d. “I say I give the aforesaid land and negroes to my dear son William Carr during his natural life, and after his decease to his child or children; if none, to my son John Carr and my daughter Betsey Tebbs for life, and then to be equally divided amongst their children.” * *

*3d. “I say I give the above related lands and negroes to my son John Carr during his natural life, and then to his child or children, if any living at his death; if none, to my daughter Betsey Tebbs and my son William Carr during life, and then to their children to be equally divided. ’ ’

The rights of the parties in this case de-^ pend therefore on the proper construction' of these clauses. And nothing turns upon the character of the residuary fund, as real or personal, if that would make any difference in the construction, because by the express terms of the residuary clause, all the property embraced by it, real and personal, is “to go as the other estate,” which was devised by the clauses just quoted.

At the date of the will Betsey Tebbs was married and had children. William Carr survived the testator, and died in 1801, never having had a child. John Carr died in 1808, never having had a child. Betsey Tebbs died in 1852, leaving the appellant S. J. Tebbs, and two other children surviving her, and having had four other children who died in her lifetime.

It was contended on behalf of the appellant S. J. Tebbs, by one of his counsel, that upon the death of John Carr the moiety of William’s original share, which, on his death, passed to John under the will, was undisposed of and passed as property of the testator, in respect to which he had died intestate, the real estate to the heirs at law of the testator, and the personal estate to his distributees, because the latter being part of the residuum, would not fall into the residuum, as decided in Rrazier v. Rrazier’s ex’or, 2 Leigh 642. Hollowing out this theory the' counsel presented a statement of the distribution of the fund in controversy, showing that after the death of John Carr, [379]*379one-tíiird of the fund was held by Mrs. Tebbs for life, remainder to *ber child or children living' at her death, and that the other two-thirds were held by her absolutely. These last were claimed as belonging to the appellant, under the deed from Mrs. Tebbs, dated February 18th, 184S.

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Bluebook (online)
17 Va. 349, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tebbs-v-duval-va-1867.