Kennedy v. Kennedy, 390
| Decision Date | 05 November 1952 |
| Docket Number | No. 390,390 |
| Citation | 236 N.C. 419,72 S.E.2d 869 |
| Parties | KENNEDY et al. v. KENNEDY. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Russell J. Lanier, Beulaville, and Grady Mercer, Kenansville, for petitioners appellants.
Henry L. Stevens, III, and E. Walker Stevens, Warsaw, for defendant appellee.
Does the language appearing at the end of the description in each of the three deeds under which Hobart A. Kennedy took title to the lands in question have the effect of creating life estates in the grantors named in said deeds? This question must be answered in the negative.
The recent case of Artis v. Artis, 228 N.C. 754, 47 S.E.2d 228, furnishes abundant authority for the position here taken.
In the deeds now under consideration, the words of the granting clause, the habendum clause, and the warranty are clear and unambiguous and are fully sufficient to pass immediately a fee simple title to Hobart A. Kennedy upon delivery of the deeds. These operative clauses constitute an unrestricted conveyance of the land. Whitley v. Arenson, 219 N.C. 121, 12 S.E.2d 906; Artis v. Artis, supra. It is well established that the granting clause, when clear, specific and unequivocal, will generally prevail over other recitals in the conveyance. 16 AJ 575; Mayberry v. Grimsley, 208 N.C. 64, 179 S.E. 7. This is especially true when, as in the present case, all other operative provisions of the deed are consonant with the granting clause.
In the Artis case [228 N.C. 754, 47 S.E.2d 232], Winborne, J., speaking for the Court, said: 16 Am.Jur., 567. Bryant v. Shields [220 N.C. 628, 18 S.E.2d 157]. And the habendum, in the present case, is in harmony with the granting clause. Therefore, the clause undertaking to divest or limit the fee simple title which had been conveyed unqualifiedly * * * is repugnant to both the granting clause and the habendum. Hence the granting clause will prevail and the repugnant clause will be rejected.' Citing Blackwell v. Blackwell, 124 N.C. 269, 32 S.E. 676; Wilkins v. Norman, 139 N.C. 40, 51 S.E. 797; Bryant v. Shields, supra; McNeill v. Blevins, 222 N.C. 170, 22 S.E.2d 268.
It clearly appears, in the present case, that the language appearing immediately after the description in each deed attempts to cut down or limit the estate conveyed and is therefore inconsistent with and repugnant to all other provisions of the...
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