Walker v. Matthews

• Decision Date: 22 September 1941
• Docket Number: 34529.
• Citation: 3 So.2d 820,191 Miss. 489
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: WALKER et al. v. MATTHEWS et al.

3 So.2d 820

191 Miss. 489

WALKER et al. v. MATTHEWS et al.

No. 34529.

Supreme Court of Mississippi

September 22, 1941

Williamson Riddell & Riddell, H. A. Shotts, and J. C. Floyd, all of Meridian, for appellant.

Graham & Graham, of Meridian, for appellee.

ROBERDS Justice.

On the night of August 19, 1940, George Matthews, a negro, some seventy years of age, died, intestate, at his home five miles northwest of Meridian in Lauderdale County, Mississippi where he lived alone. He had some ten thousand dollars in cash, other personal property of small value, and his home consisting of eighty acres of land.

Immediately there was a scramble for his property. Mack Walker and Harriett Davis, claiming to be second cousins and heirs at law of Matthews, filed a petition in the chancery court of Lauderdale County under sections 359 and 360 of the Code of 1930 to have determined who were his legal heirs. They made parties to this petition a number of persons claiming to be collateral heirs of decedent and also one Mattie Tate Matthews and one Fannie, or Tiney, Collins Matthews, claiming to be widows of decedent, and one Will Matthews, son of Fannie Matthews, claiming to be the lawful son and heir of George Matthews.

The chancellor on the hearing limited the evidence and trial to the questions (1) whether either Mattie or Fannie was the lawful widow of decedent, and, if either, which one, and (2) if Fannie were such widow, whether her son, Will, or Pippen-Cat, as he was usually called, was the legitimate child of George Matthews and entitled to inherit his estate along with his mother Fannie, for if there is a widow or a child entitled to inherit, the collateral heirs are excluded.

After an extended trial, lasting some four days, the chancellor found that Fannie was the common law wife of George Matthews and Will was his legitimate son and that they, Fannie and Will, were his only heirs at law. From that finding and decree this appeal is taken.

The questions, therefore, for decision on this appeal are (1) whether Mattie or Fannie or either is the lawful widow of George Matthews, and, if either, which, and (2) if either is his widow, whether such widow is entitled to inherit his property, and (3) whether Will is his legitimate son and entitled to share in such inheritance.

We will try to weave into the warp of the life of this Lothario the woof of his nuptial and concubinage experiences in an effort to picture the fabric of his earthly existence. He appears to have about lived to the limit of his physical and mental powers. He was a fireman on a railroad, and, like the sailor with a sweetheart in every port, it was his desire to have one at each depot along his route. As he neared the end of life's run we find him returning to the old home, and, as his engine was pulling into the terminal and its fires were burning low, sitting on his front porch, murmuring over and trying to read his Bible. That night the fires went out.

In 1898 he was a young man, living on this same farm with his mother, his father being dead. Already he was the father of an illegitimate child, and, wonder of wonders, the mother of this child, who testified on the hearing, did not claim to be his common law wife. He had already served a term in the Mississippi penitentiary.

His mother died in 1899. He went away for awhile, and when he returned he brought back a girl named Lillie Mason. Just where he met her is not shown. She was born and reared and had lived at Marion Junction, Dallas County, Alabama. He brought her either from Mobile or New Orleans, the witnesses were not sure which place he said. He said he had married her and he introduced her as his wife. He lived with her as his wife at the old home place. He held her out in the community as his wife. It is not shown whether there was a license or a marriage ceremony at any place. He would go away for short times and leave Lillie with Mr. and Mrs. Pearce, neighbors, living about 150 yards from his home. Mr. Pearce operated a store. He testified in the case. At the time of the trial he was mayor of Shuqualak, Mississippi. George told Mr. and Mrs. Pearce to take care of Lillie while he was gone and to let her have from the store what she needed and he would pay for it. This was done. Lillie worked and cooked for Mr. and Mrs. Pearce during the times George was gone and apparently some of the time when George was at home. This situation continued until 1902, when George got a job as a railroad fireman with the Southern Railway Company. His first run was from Selma, Alabama, to Rome, Georgia. Later he fired on a switch engine on the yards at Selma. Selma was a division point on the railroad. It was necessary that George live in Selma to do his railroad work. George carried Lillie to Selma in 1902 and placed her in a house "just across the railroad from the depot". Here they lived together as man and wife, holding themselves out as such, until she died in 1911. George paid all the expenses of her last illness, engaged a nurse for her and buried her at the family cemetery, "Shady Rest", at Masillon, about two miles west of Marion Junction. George and Lillie had no children. The testimony is abundant to prove all the common law elements of a common law marriage between them beginning in 1899 and continuing until the death of Lillie in 1911.

We now take up the thread of Fannie Collins. She was reared in Choctaw County, Alabama. Lauderdale County joins Clarke County, Mississippi, on the north; Choctaw County, Alabama, lies immediately to the east of Lauderdale and Clarke Counties; on the east of Choctaw County is Maringo County and on the east of Maringo is Dallas County. Therefore, Choctaw County is between Selma and Meridian. George appears to have met Fannie at Christmas 1902 and Fannie's pleadings say she and George began to live together about January, 1903. There is proof to the effect that George and Fannie then lived together for awhile at Marion Junction, which is twelve miles west of Selma. This was a junction point on the railroad; the trains operated over a "Y" to change their courses to Akron, Meridian and Mobile. Some of the train crews had a meal there; the trains remained there from ten to thirty minutes. It is claimed for Fannie that she and George lived at Marion Junction as man and wife until their son Will was born, October 16, 1903, and there is proof to that effect, although it is far from satisfactory. Fannie then claims, and there is proof to sustain the claim, that she and George went through a ceremonial licensed marriage on April 1, 1904, at the house of her grandmother, Martha Pressley, four miles west of Enterprise, Clarke County. Will was left at Martha's and Fannie and George went back to Marion Junction and continued to live there as man and wife, according to Fannie's proof, until around the first of 1905, when Fannie left George and went back to her mother's in Choctaw County. At any rate, on March 11, 1905, about eleven months after she claims to have married George, we find Fannie going through a statutory, licensed, ceremonial marriage at Butler, county site of Choctaw County, Alabama, with one George Jones, sometimes called Seale or Brewster. In this license she is designated Tiney Collins. Tiney and Jones lived together as man and wife in the neighborhood where they were married until the fall of 1911, when Fannie left Jones and went to Quitman, Clarke County, Mississippi. Some of the witnesses say she went with a man named Brown. She appears to have worked at Quitman for a short time at a hotel, when she went to Louisiana, in which state she seems to have since resided and in which she lived at the time of the trial Tiney and Jones had at least two, and maybe, three, children. It is claimed Will, or Pippen Cat, was their child. Later, after going to Louisiana, Fannie went by the name of Munday and at the time of the trial was known as Marsh. In 1912 Jones was killed near Butler, Alabama.

We go back now and take up another thread. During the last illness of Lillie in 1911 George had procured a nurse for her whose name was Mattie Tate. She lived at Selma and was around 16 years old, about George's favorite age. Shortly after the death of Lillie and in 1912 George brought Mattie to Meridian, and there at Black's Hotel, operated by a negro, he went through a marriage ceremony with Mattie. The record is not specific whether it is claimed a license had been issued, but none is shown to have been issued, although witnesses detail the wedding ceremony. About this time George was transferred from Selma to Mobile, where he fired on a switch engine until he retired on a railroad pension around 1938. He carried Mattie to Mobile and there they lived as man and wife, the exact time not being shown, perhaps from three to five years. Anyway, during that time, whatever its duration, they lived in the same house, held themselves out as man and wife and were known to the public as man and wife.

Sometime later, apparently during the period from 1914 to 1917, the time not being definitely shown, Mattie left George and returned to her old home at Selma, where she had continued to live to the time of the trial. On April 12, 1937, she married one Josh Minter in Dallas County, Alabama, under a statutory license, the application for which, made by Minter, said it was his second and Mattie's first marriage, and gave her name as Mattie Tate. She has two living children by Minter and at the time of the trial they were living together as man and wife at Selma. George and Mattie had no children.

Mattie's departure did not seem to greatly disturb George. We find him next at Hot Springs, Arkansas, at the boarding house of one Susie Cole. He proceeded to marry the landlady's daughter, Jessie. This...