Batesburg-Leesville School Dist. No. 3 v. Tarrant, BATESBURG-LEESVILLE
| Decision Date | 15 September 1987 |
| Docket Number | No. 1024,BATESBURG-LEESVILLE,1024 |
| Citation | 293 S.C. 442,361 S.E.2d 343 |
| Court | South Carolina Court of Appeals |
| Parties | , 42 Ed. Law Rep. 994 SCHOOL DISTRICT NUMBER 3, Appellant-Respondent, v. Annie B. TARRANT, C.C. Alexander, Calbraith Butler Bates, Julia B. Wright, Moses Alexander, Lizzie A. Martin, Kate Alexander; Mary A. Alexander, Frances A. Crosley, Velmah A. Price, Sylvia A. Crosby, Katherine A. Mims, William Tarrant, Nancy Hutto; Fred L. Cartledge, Jr., Doris Cobb, Patsy Goodwin, Beth Leaptrott, Anne Bates Crocker, W.R. Cullum, Thelma Bates Rikard, David Bates, Ann Wilkerson, Genie Brommett, Jacque Chandler, Kate W. Gibson, Frances W. Bissett, Pattie Ruth Bailey, Bill H. Bailey, Jr., Paul Bailey, Katherine Bailey Parsley, Walter L. Martin, Ella Katherine Martin Young, William C. Martin, Ronald E. Martin, Kay S. Martin Hopkins, Pamela A. Martin, M. Joy Martin Glagola, Jonothan Dawson Martin, Jr., Marty J. Martin Anderson, Julia B. Martin Dorsey, Moses A. Martin, Mary V. Martin Taylor, James C. Martin, Robert A. Martin, Andrew D. Martin; and as defendants whose names are unknown, any child or children and heirs at law or distributees of any of the above-named defendants, if deceased, and all persons entitled to claim under or through them, or any of them; also all other persons unknown claiming any right, title, estate, interest in, or lien upon the real estate described in the Complaint herein; any unknown adults being as a class designated as John Doe, and any unknown infants, or persons under legal disability or persons in the military service being as a class designated as Richard Roe, Respondents-Appellants. . Heard |
Robert K. Bouknight and Jeff M. Anderson, Lexington, for appellant-respondent.
Addison G. Wilson and Henry L. Deneen, West Columbia, for respondents-appellants.
This case involves the construction of a deed to School District Number 18 of Saluda County. Respondent Batesburg-Leesville School District Number 3 (the school district), as successor to the original grantee of the deed in question, brought this declaratory judgment action to determine the ownership of the subject property.
The above-named respondents-appellants contend that they are co-tenant reversioners under the deed. The consideration expressed by the deed is "for and in consideration of the use by the hereinafter mentioned grantee of the tract of land herein conveyed for the uses and purposes mentioned by the trustees of School District Number 18 as trustees of School District Number 18 of Saluda County." The granting clause of the deed conveys the property to "School District Number 18 of Saluda County, State of South Carolina, to be used for school purposes." The habendum clause is, "to have and to hold ... the said premises before mentioned unto the said School District Number 18 of Saluda County, State of South Carolina, so long as it is used as a building site on which is erected a School Building." The special warranty of the deed and all renunciations of dower are limited by the same language or essentially the same language as the habendum clause.
The appealed order construed the deed as conveying to the school district a fee simple determinable estate which terminated when the school district ceased to use the property for school purposes and that thereupon the fee to the property reverted to the original grantors or their successors in title. The school district appeals. We affirm.
The school district first contends that the granting clause conveyed a fee simple absolute estate and that the grantors merely stated the purposes for the conveyance and did not restrict or place any condition on the fee simple absolute title conveyed. To support this thesis the school district relies on the familiar rule that once the fee is conveyed by the granting clause, it cannot be cut down by subsequent language in the deed. The school district argues that there is no case law in South Carolina which requires words of inheritance to be in the granting clause or habendum of a deed in order for it to convey fee simple absolute title to a school district. Additionally, the school district quotes Professor David H. Means' article entitled Words of Inheritance and Deeds of Land in South Carolina: A Title Examiner's Guide 5 S.C.L.Q. 313, 326 (1952), in which it is stated, "Words of inheritance or succession are unnecessary in the conveyance by deed of a fee simple estate to the United States or to a State or subdivision thereof." Under this authority the school district asserts the granting clause of the land conveyed a fee simple estate.
For the reasons stated below, we hold that the above rule by Professor Means is not applicable to a situation where a clear intent to the contra is manifested by the deed when read as a whole.
In County of Abbeville v. Knox, 267 S.C. 38, 225 S.E.2d 863 (1976), the court referred to the case of Byars v. Cherokee County, 237 S.C. 548, 118 S.E.2d 324 (1961) and noted that the opinion in Byars did not contain a full record of the granting or habendum clauses of the deed. The court referenced the transcript of record of the Byars case and then held:
In Byars v. Cherokee County, supra, the grant was to Cherokee County without any...
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...conveyed by the deed must be determined from the whole deed including the habendum clause." Batesburg-Leesville Sch. Dist. No. 3 v. Tarrant, 293 S.C. 442, 445, 361 S.E.2d 343, 345 (Ct.App.1987). Luculently, the habendum clause in the Deed is the section beginning "TO HAVE AND TO HOLD The ha......
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