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239 N.C. 534

80 S.E.2d 259

Rhoads v. Hughes

Supreme Court of North Carolina

Decided February 24, 1954

Supreme Court of North Carolina · decided 1954-02-24

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“is clear and has a recognized legal meaning”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Wells v. PLANTERS NATIONAL BANK AND TRUST COMPANY

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1954-02-24

How this case has been cited

Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently October 1985

10 state decisions

401954196019701980decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Per Curiam.

¶1 The jurisdiction of the courts may be invoked to construe a will when, and only when, the language used in the will is so uncertain, vague, ambiguous, or conflicting that it creates a doubt as to the true intent of the testator. If the devise is couched in language which is clear and has a recognized legal meaning, there is no room for construction. The applicable rule of law must control. Such is the case here. The feme plaintiff survived the testator. Manifestly, upon his death she became the owner of the locus in fee, subject to the preceding life estate devised to her mother.

¶2 The judgment entered in the court below is

¶3 Affirmed.

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