Shepherd v. Anderson

• Decision Date: 20 February 1917
• Docket Number: No. 18415.,18415.
• Parties: SHEPHERD et al. v. ANDERSON et al.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

192 S.W. 952

SHEPHERD et al. v. ANDERSON et al.

No. 18415.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 1.

February 20, 1917.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Lewis County; Chas. D. Stewart, Judge.

Ejectment by William H. Shepherd and others against Charles H. Anderson and others. Judgment for defendants, and plaintiffs appeal. Affirmed.

W. A. Mussetter, of La Grange, Hilbert & Henderson and H. S. Rouse, all of Monticello, and E. R. McKee, of Memphis, for appellants. G. R. Davis, of La Grange, O. C. Clay, of Canton, and Pearson & Pearson, of Louisiana, Mo., for respondents.

BOND, P. J.

I. Ejectment to recover possession of certain real estate in the old town of La Grange, Mo.

On September 21, 1904, one Joseph Shepherd was the owner in fee of lots 72, 73, and the north 20 feet of lot 74, which he conveyed by quitclaim deed to his wife, Alice E. Shepherd. On the same day he also quitclaimed other pieces of real estate to certain nephews and nieces. On September 22, 1904, Joseph Shepherd died intestate, leaving his wife, Alice, but no children.

In September, 1910, six years later, Alice E. Shepherd died testate, and the plaintiffs, as heirs at law of Joseph M. Shepherd, are now seeking to recover from her executor lot No. 73 and the north 20 feet of lot No. 74, resting their right to possession on the following clause of the quitclaim deed from Joseph Shepherd to his wife, Alice:

"With consideration of transfer of this property I hereby state that part of the real estate composed in this property once belonged to my mother's estate and I therefore request my wife Alice E. Shepherd to hold same in trust for her own use until her death and then to be equally divided between my surviving relatives."

On the death of Alice Shepherd her executor turned over to plaintiffs lot 72 mentioned in the above deed as the property coming by inheritance to Joseph Shepherd from his mother's estate; but plaintiffs contend the above clause conveyed to Alice Shepherd only a life estate in all of said property, and sue in ejectment to recover possession of the other lots mentioned.

The court rendered judgment in favor of defendants, holding that the fee was conveyed. Plaintiffs appealed.

II. The sole question presented on this appeal is whether or not the clause of the quitclaim deed made from Shepherd to his wife on the day before his death had the effect of vesting a life estate in her only in lot 72, described in the granting clause of the deed, being the lot which the grantor had inherited from his mother's estate, or also a life estate in the other lot and fraction of a lot described in the granting clause of the quitclaim deed. The theory of the plaintiffs, who are the collateral kin and heirs of Joseph Shepherd, is that the language of the above-quoted clause shows an intention on the part of the maker of the deed to create a...