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22 Ga. 472

Bunn v. Bunn

Supreme Court of Georgia

Decided June 15, 1857

Supreme Court of Georgia · decided 1857-06-15

In Equity, in Burke Superior Court. Decision by Judge Holt, at May Term, 1857. This case was heard upon bill and an. wer.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1857-06-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently April 1955

3 state decisions

1018571860187018801890190019101920193019401950decided

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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¶1By the Court.

Benning J.

¶2delivering the opinion.

¶3Was the instrument made by Civility Bunn, a will, or a deed ? The Court below held that it was a will.

¶4We think it was a deed. If it differs in any essential respect from the instrument in the case of Watson vs. Watson, decided at this Term, the difference does not make in favor of its being a will.

¶5It is true, that in that instrument, the last clause was one which contemplated a division of the property in the lifetime of the author, as a possibility; but it is also true, that *476iin this instrument, the last clause is.a clause of warranty;

¶6I. 'a clause of warranty is, perhaps, as incompatible with what is a will, as such a clause as that is.

¶7Then, in this instrument there is a disposition made of land, and the instrument has but two witnesses to it To say that this instrument is a will therefore, is to say that it shall he void so far as this disposition is concerned. And if it be true, that we are at liberty to strain an instrument, when by straining it we can prevent it from being void, how much more true must it be, that we are not at liberty to strain an instrument, when by strainiug it we render it void.

¶8Referring to Watson vs. Watson, decided at this term, we say, that we think, that the Court below erred in holding this - instrument to be a will.

¶9A new trial, therefore, must take place.

¶10Judgment reversed.

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