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137 Mass. 192

Bent v. Rogers

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1884-05-09

Petition, returnable at January term 1883 of the Superior Court, for partition of a parcel of land in that part of Boston formerly Dorchester. The case was submitted to the Superior Court, and, after judgment for the respondent, to this court, on appeal, upon agreed facts, in substance as follows: Alexander Glover died on October 24,1842, seised in fee of the land in question.

Cited in Black's (1910)’s definition of “Official” · Black's (1910)’s definition of “Official act”

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1884-05-09

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently February 1923

6 state decisions

3018841890190019101920decided

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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Morton, C. J.

¶1We are of opinion that the deed of May 31, 1855, conveyed the interest which the petitioner had in the premises of which she seeks partition. There is some ambiguity in the first sentence, caused by the use by the scrivener of different language in regard to Mrs. Bent and Mrs. Pike, whose interests were similar; but, taking the whole deed together, it clearly manifests the intention to convey the interest of Mrs. Bent. At the time the deed was executed, Albert A. Bent owned one eighth of the premises, Mrs. Bent one quarter, Mrs. Pike one quarter, George P. Blake one eighth, and the remaining quarter was owned by the grantee, Alexander Glover. Mrs. Bent joins in the granting clause and in the covenants. If she executed the deed merely to release her right of dower in the part owned by her husband, it would have been so expressed in the in testimonium clause, as was done in the case of Mrs. Blake, who signed merely for that purpose. But the deed contains a clause which decisively shows the intentions of the parties. At the end of the description, it is declared to be “ the intention of this instrument to convey to said Glover three undivided fourth parts of the above-described pieces and lots of land, being all our right and interest therein.”

¶2There is no way to make all parts of the deed consistent, and to carry out the clear intentions of the parties, except to hold that it conveyed the right and interest of Mrs. Bent in the premises. Judgment affirmed.

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