Holman v. Wesner

• Decision Date: 04 August 1903
• Citation: 45 S.E. 206,67 S.C. 307
• Parties: HOLMAN et al. v. WESNER.
• Court: South Carolina Supreme Court

45 S.E. 206

67 S.C. 307

HOLMAN et al. v. WESNER.

Supreme Court of South Carolina

August 4, 1903

Appeal from Common Pleas Circuit Court of Orangeburg County; Purdy Judge.

Action by Alice M. Holman, Agnes Haigler, and Rufus Haigler against J. O. Wesner. From circuit decree, defendant appeals. Affirmed.

J. W Bowman, for appellant. Wm. W. Wannamaker, for respondents.

JONES J.

The object of this action was to compel specific performance of a contract for the sale and purchase of real estate. The issue raised was whether plaintiffs could convey a good title, and involved the construction of a deed executed by Adam Haigler to John Lewis Haigler on February 11, 1832, conveying the land in question, and constituting one of the links in plaintiffs' title. The circuit court (Judge Purdy) construed the deed as conveying to John Lewis Haigler a fee conditional, under the authority of Mattison v Mattison, 65 S.C. 345, 43 S.E. 874, and held that plaintiffs, having acquired all the interests of the issue of the body of John Lewis Haigler after his death could convey a good title, and so decreed for specific performance on the part of the defendant. The deed in this case conveyed the land in question "to John Lewis Haigler during his life, and after his death to the lawful begotten issues of his body, and should the said John Lewis Haigler die without leaving such issues, as above, or should his issues, as above, die without leaving lawful issues, then the said lands to return to my children or their lawful issues." Then follows a clause providing that the wife of John Lewis Haigler shall have privilege to live on the said land during her widowhood, and in the habendum are these words: "To have and to hold, all and singular, the said premises from henceforth as his and their property, upon the above condition absolutely." It is clear that the grant "to John Lewis Haigler during his life, and after his death to the lawful issues of his body, and should the said John Lewis Haigler die without leaving such issues, as above," then over, would be a fee conditional, under the principle stated in Whitworth v. Stuckey, 1 Rich Eq. 411, a case which has been very often recognized and followed in the state; for in that case the testator devised lands to his son "for and during his natural life, and at his death to the lawful issues of his body, and, if he should die without lawful issue living at the time of his...