Foster v. Foster
| Decision Date | 06 October 1954 |
| Docket Number | No. 16917,16917 |
| Citation | 83 S.E.2d 752,226 S.C. 130 |
| Parties | Gertrude Leonard FOSTER, Mary Foster Turner, and Jack D. Foster, Respondents, v. Alton L. FOSTER, Francis Marion Foster and Alton L. Foster, Jr., et al., Appellants. |
| Court | South Carolina Supreme Court |
Jesse W. Boyd, Spartanburg, for appellants.
Lyles & Lyles, Spartanburg, for respondents.
Respondents, plaintiffs below, brought this action for a declaratory judgment with respect to the rights and estates of the parties to this action under the will of John A. Foster. Appellants demurred upon the ground that the complaint did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action. The court below, in its order now under appeal, overruled the demurrer, holding that a cause of action had been stated, but declining to adjudicate the merits of the controversy. We agree.
An action of this kind is specifically authorized under Section 10-2003 of the 1952 Code, which provides that 'any person interested under a deed, will * * * may have determined any question of construction or validity arising under the instrument * * * and obtain a declaration of rights, status, or other legal relations thereunder'.
The complaint here states facts from which it is apparent that a justicable controversy, actual or potential, between respondents on the one hand and appellants on the other, exists as to their respective rights and estates under item four of the will. The existence of such controversy is confirmed by the demurrer, which challenges the construction of this item contended for by the respondents. The question now is not whether the construction advanced by the respondents is correct, but whether they are entitled to have the will construed. Clearly they are. In Cabell v. City of Cottage Grove, 170 Or. 256, 130 P.2d 1013, 1015, 144 A.L.R. 286, the Court said:
Substantially the same view was expressed in Hill v. Wright, 128 Conn. 12, 20 A.2d 388, 390, as follows:
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Hardwick v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 18112
...on numerous occasions that such a complaint is sufficient against demurrer if it sets forth 'a justiciable controversy.' Foster v. Foster, 226 S.C. 130, 83 S.E.2d 752; Plenge v. Russell, 236 S.C. 473, 115 S.E.2d 177; Dantzler v. Callison, 227 S.C. 317, 88 S.E.2d 64. In the last cited case t......
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Notios Corp. v. Hanvey
...action for declaratory judgment if the facts alleged show the existence of a justiciable controversy between the parties. Foster v. Foster, 226 S.C. 130, 83 S.E.2d 752; Dantzler v. Callison, 227 S.C. 317, 88 S.E.2d 64; Plenge v. Russel, 236 S.C. 473, 115 S.E.2d 177; Hardwick v. Liberty Mutu......
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Bank of Augusta v. Satcher Motor Co.
...action for declaratory judgment if the facts alleged show the existence of a justiciable controversy between the parties. Foster v. Foster, 226 S.C. 130, 83 S.E.2d 752; Dantzler v. Callison, 227 S.C. 317, 88 S.E.2d 64; Plenge v. Russell, 236 S.C. 473, 115 S.E.2d 177; Hardwick v. Liberty Mut......
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Plenge v. Russell
...action for declaratory relief need show no more than the existence of a justiciable controversy between the parties. In Foster v. Foster, 226 S.C. 130, 83 S.E.2d 752, 753, appeal was from a circuit decree overruling a demurrer to a complaint that sought a declaratory judgment construing a w......