Contingent Remainder — Power of Court to Sell Land. Civil ActioN, tried at Eall Term, 1876, of Craves Superior Court, before Seymour, J. • The action was brought to obtain an order to sell a certain house and lot in the City of Newbern.
Cited by 2 later decisions — most recently May 1903
¶1
The petition alleges that a sale of the premises and re-investment of the proceeds would greatly promote the interests of the plaintiff's, and this allegation is
*444
admitted by the- demurrer of the defendant, who ' however denies the power Of the Court to'order a sale on the ground that the plaintiffs’ interest in the premises, except the life tenant, is contingent.. The .property was conveyed by deed to the defendant in truét for Mrs. -Justice ' during her life, and then to'be surrendered to her children who “ shall survive her and be living at her decease,” to be equally divided &c. The Court would gladly- aid the petitioners in promoting their interest, but it has not .the-power to do so._ The estate of the plaintiffs is a contingent remainder-and'the contingency arises out of the uncertainty of the persons who-will be able 16 take .'the estate at their mother’s decease. Some of the children now living may die without issue and others may be born before the life estate terminates. No one can
now
tell how these matters may
then
be. This rule has been long and well settled. ■ The leading text books are uniform on the subject. In our State the leading case is
Watson
v.
Watson,
3 Jones Eq. 400, and the last case is
Williams
v. Hassell, 74 N. C. 434; and we can add nothing to the reasoning to be found in those authorities and do not consider it necessary to repeat it .in-this case. The demurrer müst be sustained.
