Fillmore v. Fillmore
| Decision Date | 16 August 1971 |
| Citation | 3 Pack 423,225 Tenn. 423,470 S.W.2d 11 |
| Parties | , 225 Tenn. 423 Susan Tracy FILLMORE v. Leland A. FILLMORE. |
| Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
Billy W. Petty and E. michael Ellis, Child & O'Connor, Knoxville, for complainant-appellant.
Elmer E. Eblen, Eblen & Eblen, Kingston, for defendant-appellee.
Susan Tracy Fillmore, the widow of Oswald L. Fillmore, deceased, filed her bill against Leland A. Fillmore, whom she described as the executor of the estate of her deceased husband and his son, to have decreed void a transfer of $12,000.00 by her deceased husband to the defendant under circumstances on which she relies to establish the transfer as a fraud upon her rights as the widow of Oswald L. Fillmore. She recited that her husband had died testate; that his will had been probated; that she had dissented from the will; and that because of such dissent she had become entitled along with each of these three children to one-fourth of his personal estate. She prayed for a recovery of $3,000.00, one-fourth of the $12,000.00 so transferred, together with interest on that amount and for general relief.
The defendant demurred to the bill, assigning several grounds. The Chancellor by his decree sustaining the demurrer and dismissing the bill gave no reason for his action, but from the briefs and the oral arguments of the solicitors it appears that he sustained the demurrer on the ground that since the estate of Oswald L. Fillmore was being administered in the County Court, the Chancery Court was without jurisdiction.
The purpose of this suit by the widow is to recover her distributive share of the estate which, according to the averments of her bill, includes $3,000.00, or one-fourth of the $12,000.00 she charges her husband fraudulently transferred to Leland A. Fillmore. In addition to this principal amount she prays for a decree for interest and the costs of the cause. This prayer does not take into account to condition of the estate--the costs of administration, possible estate and inheritance taxes, and the indebtedness. These things, as well as the circumstances of the alleged transfer, must be determined in order that an adjudication may be made whether the complainant may recover, and, if so, the amount of her recovery.
Section 31--612, Tennessee Code Annotated, provides:
'Any conveyances made fraudulently to children or others, with an intent to defeat the widow of her dower, or distributive share, shall be voidable, and such widow shall be entitled to dower in the land so fraudulently conveyed, as if no conveyance had been made.'
The words, 'or distributive share', had not been included in...
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Warren v. Compton
...to fraudulent transfers of personalty which deprived a widow of her distributive share. That view was upheld in Fillmore v. Fillmore (1971) 225 Tenn. 423, 470 S.W.2d 11. The statute was further amended by chapter 529, acts of 1976 to read as Any conveyance made fraudulently to children or o......