Reports of the Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Tennessee During the Years 1851-[1853] (Volume 2) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1854. Excerpt: ... Walls' adm'r vs. Ward. sequently the instrument can only take effect as a will. We cannot concur in this construction; it is only a difference in words, and not in ideas. The writer of the deed must be taken to have meant by the language used, to convey a present right to the remainder to his children. The right to the property was then given and vested, but not to take effect in possession, nor tn be beneficially enjoyed until his death. This is the plain, common sense meaning of the instrument; the evident intention of the donor; and is not, we think, in conflict with any technical rule of law. The contrary construction would make the deed contradictory and absurd. By it, the deed would be made to give a complete right to the property to the donees, in the body of it, and then reserve the whole property to himself in a subsequent clause. This would make the latter clause void according to the rule of law applying to the construction of deeds; which is, that whercthere is an irreconcileable conflict between a prior and subsequent clause, the latter must fall and the former stand. The maker of a deed will not be allowed to say: "I inserted a clause, or condition, destructive to your supposed title, and you take nothing;" 5 Yerger, 254; 4 Cru. D., 329; Martin's K C. R., 28; 2 Yerger, 584. The case of Wat&ins vs. Dean, 10 Yerger, 321, is a fair illustration of that class of cases to which the doctrine contended for by complainant's counsel, applies. The principle there decided, is, that an instrument which does not purport to convey any property of which the maker was owner at its date, but gives the one hah, aa in that case, or any other proportion, or all the property which he may own at his death, is, although in Walls' adai'r vs. Ward. form, a deed, te...