114 Ga. 135 | Ga. | 1901
These material facts we gather from the record in this case: Mrs. Lillie M. Crouch died, testate, in 1899, her will having been executed a few days prior to her death and written by herself. The portions of it pertinent to the questions presented are: “I . . give, bequeath, and devise my earthly belongings as follows:
A tenant for life has no power to dispose of the' fee ; his power is only over what belongs to him, that is, the life-estate. The only power which James Turner Crouch had to sell the property itself was that conferred by the clauses in the will providing for a sale of the property and a reinvestment of the proceeds thereof in other property for the benefit of the cestuis que trust. The power to sell conferred by these clauses was a power to sell for a specific purpose, and could only he exercised for this purpose. This power as to the house and lot was conferred jointly upon both the trustees, Crouch and Mrs. Crowley, and as to the stock in the drug company, the soda-fountain, etc., it was conferred upon Crouch, trustee, alone. The only purpose for which the power to sell could be exercised being to obtain the proceeds of the property and reinvest them in other property for the benefit of the cestuis que trust, the power of sale could not be exercised for the purpose of converting the property into cash and investing such proceeds in other property for the benefit of Crouch for life and then for the benefit of the cestuis que trust. The testatrix seems to have realized that a sale of the property, under the power conferred by these clauses, would terminate the life-estate of her husband, and, in order to make sure that his life-estate should not be thus destroyed'without his consent, she provided that “ no one [should] have any power to hasten
Judgment reversed.