20 Tenn. 1 | Tenn. | 1839
delivered the opinion of the court.
This is a bill filed by the complainant to have dowér assigned her in a tract of land conveyed by the husband in his life time to the defendant, his son, with the purpose and intent, as the complainant alleges, to deprive her of her dower therein, and for an account; and whether said conveyance was fraudulent and void as against the widow’s claim for dower by the provisions of the act 1784, ch. 22, sec. 8, was, aside from the account of profits prayed, the only subject of controversy, for the allegation in the answer of infidelity of the wife is uncoupled with a statement of elopement. The defendant insisted upon the validity of the deed, and resisted the assignment of dower and the cl aim for account. And the whole question, both as respects the validity of the conveyance and the amount of profits if the conveyance as against the complainant should be set aside, were proper for the con-, sideration of a court of equity, and the chancellor might well have decided upon the whole matter. But the chancellor saw proper to call before him and empannel a jury to whom was submitted the whole question, as well touching the matter of account as the validity of the deed. The jury in their Verdict find the deed to be fraudulent as against the complainant, and they assess her damages for the detention of her dower to seven hundred and twelve dollars and forty-one and a fourth cents; this finding formed the basis of the chancellor’s decree. We are satisfied with the decree of the chancellor as to the invalidity of the deed, but as toihem.n-ter of account we are not satisfied with the mode in which it was taken, not being according to the course of a court of chancery, nor are we satisfied with the result in point of amount. The proof in the case makes the annual rent of the entire tract to have been at most one hundred dollars;
Upon the whole we are satisfied that one-third of the amount of the verdict in this case rendered will be a proper sum to allow for the rents and profits; or rather, perhaps, thirty-three and one-third dollars for each year, and interest thereon, which the clerk and master will ascertain and calculate, and thereon make his report.
INTERLOCUTORY DECREE.
This cause came on for hearing this 28th January, 1840, before the supreme court, whereupon it appearing to the court that the verdict of the jury assessing complainant’s damage for the detention of her dower is excessive and not warranted by the evidence in the cause, it is ordered, adjudged and decreed by the court that the decree of the court below be reversed, and that the clerk and master of this court take and state an account of said damages, being one-third of the annual value of said land from the death of John London to, this time, with interest, estimating the yearly value of the whole tract of land at one hundred dollars per year, and allowing the complainant one-third thereof, and until the coming in of said report other matters are reserved.
At a subsequent day of the term the clerk and master, in pursuance of the interlocutory order, reported the sum of two hundred and seventy-five dollars and twenty-five cents in favor pf the complainant, whereupon the following final decree was rendered in the cause,
FINAL DECREE.
This cause came on again for final hearing, upon the report of the clerk and master, made in pursuance of the interlocutory order heretofore made, and the said report is in all things affirmed; and it appearing to the. satisfaction of the