Young v. Elgin

• Citation: 27 So. 595
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Mississippi
• Decision Date: 05 March 1900
• Parties: YOUNG v. ELGIN

27 So. 595

YOUNG v. ELGIN

Supreme Court of Mississippi

March 5, 1900

Appeal from chancery court, Alcorn county; E. O. Sykes, Chancellor. Suit by Leta Young against Houston Elgin for the partition of lands. From a judgment for defendant, plaintiff appeals.

Affirmed.

W. H Clifton, for appellant.

J. M Boone and E. S. Candler, Jr., for appellee.

OPINION

TERRAL, J.

The complainant, Mrs. Leta Young, filed her bill against Mrs Houston Elgin and Mrs. Mary Cunningham for the partition of a block of land (block 48 in the city of Corinth), of the alleged value of $ 4,000. Their mother, Mrs. Mitchell, in her lifetime had owned said block of land, upon which she resided at the time of her death, and owned also other lots and parcels of land in Alcorn county, of the value of $ 10,000 or $ 15,000. The parties to this suit were her only heirs. It was agreed among them that all the other parcels of land except block 48 should be sold, and the proceeds equally divided between them, and this agreement leaves block 48 only affected by this controversy. Mrs. Young alleged that her mother had died seised of block 48, and that it was subject to partition; that the so-called deed claimed by Mrs. Elgin to have been executed by her mother to her just before her death was never delivered, and so was inoperative and void, and, if delivered, it was without consideration, and was made as an advancement, and should be brought into hotchpot in the division of the estate. Mrs. Elgin claimed that her mother had made and delivered to her, some months before her death, a deed to said block 48, and, though she had paid nothing therefor, yet it was executed as a gift, and not as an advancement. It appeared from the evidence that in October, 1896, Mrs. Mitchell signed a deed of conveyance of block 48 to her daughter Houston Mitchell, now Mrs. Elgin, for the recited consideration of $ 10 and of love and affection. She also made acknowledgment of its execution before the clerk of the chancery court of Alcorn county, and placed the paper within the wardrobe jointly used by herself and daughter, and within the room occupied by them together, a part of the residence and home situated in block 48. No one knew of the making of the paper except Mrs. Mitchell's brother-in-law, who wrote it, and the chancery clerk, who took the acknowledgment, until about the 3d day of January, 1897. Mrs. Mitchell during the latter part of the year 1896...