Shepherd v. Townsend, 42920
| Decision Date | 04 May 1964 |
| Docket Number | No. 42920,42920 |
| Citation | 163 So.2d 746,249 Miss. 383 |
| Parties | William Garland SHEPHERD v. Mrs. Margie TOWNSEND et al. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Johnson, Troutt & Moore, Senatobia, for appellant.
Walker, Franks & Hamberlin, Hernando, Snow, Covington, Shows & Watts, Meridian, A. M. Warwick, Carthage, for appellee.
Our original opinion stated that the executrix could have asked the chancery court to determine the heirs as provided by Mississippi Code 1942, Rec., sections 1270-1272, and thus she would receive the protection of a conclusive decree. Appellant's suggestion of error argues that these statutes would not have been available to the executrix, since, it is said, they apply only where the person has died 'wholly or partially intestate.' This testatrix died leaving a will, which left her personal estate to her nearest of kin according to the laws of descent and distribution. This required the determination of her heirs at law.
Sections 1270-1272 had as their purpose a remedial procedure by which heirs or anyone interested in the property of a deceased could obtain a binding adjudication of the heirs at law of the deceased person. A will which designates as legatees the nearest of kin under the laws of descent and distribution falls within the principal legislative intent of these statutes. Section 1271 must be read along with section 1270, in pari materia. They grant the court power to decree the identity of heirs at law of a decedent.
Construction of remedial and procedural statutes such as these should harmonize them with the general principles of the system to which they belong and with their dominant purpose. Caperton v. Winston County Fair Assn., 169 Miss. 503, 153 So. 801 (1934). We think these considerations warrant interpretation of sections 1270-1272 as applying to the situations not only where a person has died wholly or partially intestate, but also where he has left a will devising or bequeathing in part or entirely his estate to his nearest of kin according to the laws of descent and distribution.
Although the foregoing observations are pertinent to that which was decided, application of sections 1270-1272 is not essential to the decision reached, since the executrix made no effort to proceed either under these statutes or under any general equity jurisdiction. The decision that neither the executrix nor anyone in her behalf exercised ordinary diligence in ascertaining the heirs of testatrix was...
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Dunlap v. First Nat. Bank of Danville
...221 Md. 308, 157 A.2d 418, 419 (1960); Shepherd v. Townsend, 249 Miss. 383, 162 So.2d 878, 883 (1964), sug. of err. overruled, 249 Miss. 383, 163 So.2d 746 (1964); Welch v. Flory, 294 Mass. 138, 200 N.E. 900, 902 (1936). The court in Madden concluded that, if the distribution is made withou......
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Smith By and Through Young v. Estate of King, 07-CA-59300
...of King I, 501 So.2d at 1122; Shepherd v. Townsend, 249 Miss. 383, 392, 162 So.2d 878, 881, 10 A.L.R.3d 538, error overruled 249 Miss. 383, 163 So.2d 746 (1964). The difficulty we have with the chancellor's decision that no fraud was perpetrated on the court is that in this case Mrs. King c......
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In the Matter of The EState Perry v. Perry
...be distributed by the laws of descent and distribution. Miss.Code Ann. §§ 91–1–27 to 91–7–31 (Rev.2004). See Shepherd v. Townsend, 249 Miss. 383, 397, 163 So.2d 746, 747 (1964). Lester died fully testate, with a will covering all his property, including any residuary. His estate passed to h......
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In The Matter Of The Estate Of Lester Perry v. Perry
...be distributed by the lawsof descent and distribution. Miss. Code Ann. §§ 91-1-27 to 91-7-31 (Rev. 2004). See Shepherd v. Townsend, 249 Miss. 383, 397, 163 So. 2d 746, 747 (1964). Lester died fully testate, with a will covering all his property, including any residuary. His estate passed to......