King v. Stokes

• Decision Date: 22 December 1899
• Citation: 34 S.E. 641,125 N.C. 514
• Parties: KING v. STOKES et ux.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

34 S.E. 641

125 N.C. 514

KING v. STOKES et ux.

Supreme Court of North Carolina

December 22, 1899

Appeal from superior court, Pitt county; Moore, Judge.

Agreed facts submitted without action by R. W. King against M. M Stokes and wife.Judgment for plaintiff, and defendants appeal.Reversed.

A deed which reserved to the grantors a life estate, conveyed "to M., during his natural life, and after his death to his wife * * * and her children," certain land, "to have and to hold the same unto the second parties, their heirs and assigns, forever."Held, that said deed conveyed to M.'s wife and her children a remainder in fee as tenants in common, and not an alienable title in fee to M and wife.

Jarvis & Blow, for appellee.

FAIRCLOTH C.J.

Upon the agreed facts we are asked to construe a deed included in the record.The material parts are that Shadrock Wooten and wife, reserving a life estate, conveyed as follows "Unto Alfred May, during the term of his natural life and after his death to his wife, the said Ida Eugenia, and her children, the following tract of land: *** To have and to hold unto them, the said parties of the second part, their heirs and assigns, forever."The question submitted is, "Did the deed convey to said Alfred and wife a fee-simple title to the land therein described, which they could alien and convey in fee?"The plaintiff claims by mesne conveyances from said Alfred May and his wife.The plaintiff, in his argument by counsel, relies upon the rule in Shelley's Case.Coke stated that rule thus: "That when the ancestor, by any gift or conveyance, taken an estate of freehold, and in the same gift or conveyance an estate is limited, either mediately or immediately, to his heirs, in fee or in tail, 'the heirs' are words of limitation of the estate, and not words of purchase."The case does not come within that rule, because the word "heirs" means "heirs general," and,...