Pass v. McLendon

Decided April 15, 1885

Mississippi Supreme Court · decided 1885-04-15

Hon. A. T. Bqane, Judge. On the 21st of December, 1881, Mrs. Martha L. McLendon executed to W. N. Pass a deed purporting to convey one hundred and sixty acres of land therein described. Mrs. McLendon only had a life-estate in the property, but Pass was ignorant pf that fact, although the will creating and limiting her estate was on record in the county where the land was situated. On the 1st of September, 1882, Mrs. McLendon died.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1885-04-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently November 1954

5 state decisions

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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Cooper, J.,

¶1delivered the opinion of the court.

¶2There is no error'in the record. Section 2512 of the Code of 1880, allowing to the defendant in ejectment compensation for improvements put upon the land sued for, is applicable only where the plaintiff demands or might demand mesne profits in the action. The improvements put upon the lands by the defendant during the life of the life-tenant passed to the remainder-men by the expiration of the particular estate, not by a failure of the title under which the defendant held. He was under no liability to account to the plaintiffs for rents during the continuance of the life-estate, and because he was not, he cannot be allowed for improvements then made. For all improvements made after the expiration of the particular estate, the defendant was allowed full credit, and this was the extent of his right.

¶3The judgment is affirmed.