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112 Miss. 344

Simpson v. McGee

Mississippi Supreme Court

Decided October 15, 1916

Mississippi Supreme Court · decided 1916-10-15

Horn Gr. C. TaNN, Chancellor. . Suit by Monk Houston McGee and others against Julia Simpson and others. From a decree for plaintiff, defendant appeals. The facts are fully stated in the opinion of the court. The only question .to he determined by the court in this case is whether or not the instrument on page 16 of the record is a deed or a will. If it he a deed then the case should be affirmed; if a will then it should he reversed. We resp'ectfully submit that it is a will.

Relies on Wall v. Wall · Sartor v. Sartor · Cunningham v. Davis

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1916-10-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently May 1959

10 state decisions

3019161920193019401950decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Smith, C. J.,

¶1delivered the opinion of the court.

¶2On the 5th day of March, 1894, Harriet Houston executed and delivered to Babe, Monk, and Lutie Houston an instrument in writing, in form a deed, conveying certain property, and containing the following provision: “This to take effect only after the death of said Harriet Houston.” On the 17th day of October, 1904, Harriet executed and delivered to Julia Simpson a regular deed to the same property. Both of these instruments were properly acknowledged, and the first was filed for record in the office of the chancery clerk of Newton county on the 9th day of April, 1895, and the second on the 22d day of November, 1904. After the death of Harriet, which occurred in 1905, Babe, Monk, tod Lutie Houston, appellees herein, filed a bill in the *348court below, praying for tbe cancellation of tbe deed' executed by Harriet to Julia, and also of two deeds of trust wbicb Julia bad given on tbe property. Julia,, tbe trustee, and beneficiaries in tbe deeds of trust given by ber, who were made parties defendant to tbis bill,, filed an answer and cross-bill, praying for tbe cancellation of appellees’ claim to tbe property. Tbe decree1 was in accordance with tbe prayer of tbe original bill..

¶3If tbe instrument executed by Harriet, under wbicb appellants claim title to tbe land, is a deed, tbe decree of tbe court below is correct; if it is not a deed, but is testamentary in character, tbe decree is erroneous. It is clear from tbe language hereinbefore quoted from tbis instrument that it was tbe donor’s intention that tbe instrument itself should not take effect, for any purpose, until after ber death; consequently, under tbe rule announced in Wall v. Wall, 30 Miss. 91, 64 Am. Dec. 147, and applied in Sartor v. Sartor, 39 Miss. 760, and Cunningham v. Davis, 62 Miss. 366, it must be held to be testamentary in character, and therefore not a deed.

¶4Reversed, and decree here in accordance with the prayer of appellants’ cross-bill.

¶5Reversed.

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