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54 Tex. 72

Carlton v. Cameron

Texas Supreme Court

Decided December 7, 1880

Texas Supreme Court · decided 1880-12-07

Tried below before the Hon. Spencer Ford. Action of trespass to try title and for partition of the southwest half of the northeast half of the Abner Lee, Jr., league, situated in Brazos county; the plaintiff claiming one-half of the same.

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“terms of the instrument, the nature of the reservation, and of the estate to be created”

quoted by 1 later decision, including 366 F. Supp. 3d 818 - Kirwan v. Garber

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1880-12-07

How this case has been cited

Cited by 17 later decisions — most recently February 2019

1 federal appellate · 15 state decisions

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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 →

Gould, Associate Justice.

¶1Although the instrument of July 16, 1836, had the form of a deed, and was placed upon record, it was nevertheless testamentary in its character, and inoperative as a deed, if the intention of the maker appears to have been that it should take effect only on his death. LooMng to the terms of the instrument, the nature of the reservation, and of the estate to be created, and bearing in mind that the court below, acting without a jury, passed upon all questions of fact, we are of opmion that the court did not err in its judgment, if it was based on its opimon that the intention of the maker was that the instrument take effect only on Ms death, and-that it was therefore testamentary in its character. There is ample authority supporting such a construction of similar instruments. Hester v. Young, 2 Kelly, 46; Turner v. Scott, 51 Pa. St., 130; Epperson v. Mills, 19 Tex., 67; Ferguson v. Ferguson, 27 Tex., 344. As we are of opinion that on this ground the judgment is correct, it is not material to pass on other grounds on wMch it is also sought to support it.

¶2The judgment is affirmed.

¶3Affirmed.

¶4[Opimon delivered December 7, 1880.]

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