Jeffords v. Jeffords, D-372

• Decision Date: 20 December 1962
• Docket Number: No. D-372,D-372
• Citation: 148 So.2d 43
• Parties: Earl Raymond JEFFORDS et al., Appellants, v. Lillie Bell JEFFORDS, as Administratrix of the Estate of Roy Harold Jeffords, deceased, et al., Appellees.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 43

148 So.2d 43

Earl Raymond JEFFORDS et al., Appellants, v. Lillie Bell JEFFORDS, as Administratrix of the Estate of Roy Harold Jeffords, deceased, et al., Appellees.

No. D-372.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

Dec. 20, 1962.

William B. Watson, Jr., and William N. Long, Gainesville, for appellants.

J. Emory Cross, Gainesville, H. Jack Miller, Miami, for appellees.

WIGGINTON, Judge.

This appeal is from a summary final decree rendered by the trial court. It is contended that from the proofs, depositions and other evidence in the file there exists a genuine issue of material facts with respect to the issues of law made by the pleadings, and that the chancellor erred in holding that appellees were entitled to a decree as a matter of law.

The suit in question is one in chancery brought for the purpose of attacking the validity of a deed to real estate. In substance the complaint alleges that the property described in the questioned deed was the homestead of one S. M. Jeffords, who prior to his death was the husband of the appellant Louise Jeffords, and the father of the remaining appellants. The defendants in the suit, who are appellees here, are the widow and children of Roy Harold Jeffords, a deceased son of S. M. Jeffords.

The complaint alleges that the deed given by S. M. Jeffords and his appellant wife, Louise Jeffords, purporting to convey the homestead property to their son, Roy Harold Jeffords, now deceased, was void and should be cancelled for several reasons among which is that the deed was never validly delivered to the grantee during the lifetime of the grantor. By his summary final decree which forms the subject of this appeal, the chancellor found from the pleadings, depositions and other evidence in the file that the deed in question was duly executed by the grantors and delivered to the grantee who caused it to be placed of record during the lifetime of the grantor S. M. Jeffords. The court found that there exists no genuine issue of any material fact with regard to the issue of delivery, which finding formed one of the bases for the summary decree here assaulted.

It has long been the law of Florida that it is essential to the validity of a deed of land that there be a vountary delivery of it by the grantor to the grantee or to someone on his behalf, and an acceptance thereof by him with the mutual intention of the parties to pass title to the land. A deed takes effect upon delivery and nothing passes until delivery is effectuated. ¹

After the pleadings in the case were closed, the deposition of appellant Louise Jeffords, widow of S. M. Jeffords, was taken and filed in the cause. Mrs. Jeffords testified that during the lifetime of her husband they executed the deed here attacked; that after it was prepared, executed and acknowledged, it was delivered to her and her husband, and kept in her personal possession until several months after her husband's death; that thereafter she delivered the deed to her son's wife, the appellee Lillie Bell Jeffords, with instructions that it be placed in the bank for safekeeping, but not be recorded; that several months thereafter the deed was filed for record without the knowledge or consent of appellant Louise Jeffords.

The deposition of H. N. LeRoy was also taken. He testified that at the request of S. M. Jeffords he prepared the deed in question, attended to its execution by the grantors, signed it as an attesting witness and took the grantor's acknowledgment as Notary Public. He stated that he did not have his Notary seal with him at the time the deed was executed at the Jeffords...