212 Mich. 662 | Mich. | 1920
This proceeding is one in ejectment involving certain lands in Clinton county. The case turned on the construction of a certain warranty deed through which both parties claimed title. The trial court took plaintiffs’ view and directed a verdict in their behalf and the defendant assigns error. The controversy grows out of a warranty deed given by Moses Dean to his daughter, Charity Millard, in the year 1846. Moses Dean appears to have been, at that time, a resident of Ionia county and the possessor of considerable property. He had three daughters and one son, and on the 27th day of July, 1846, he conveyed to each of them 160 acres of land. His daughter Charity was married to John A. Millard at that time, and they had five children. After the conveyance five more were born. The 160 acres which passed to her was described as the east half of the southeast quarter and the east half of the northeast quarter of section 31 in Lebanon township, Clinton county. In February, 1877, Charity Millard and her husband conveyed the east half of the southeast quarter to their son, Lester A. Millard, the defendant herein. Later Lester purchased the south 13 acres of the east half of the northeast quarter. This made him the owner of 93 acres, the title to which is involved in this suit.
Charity Millard continued to live on the remaining 67 acres until a short time before her death, which occurred in December, 1918, when she had nearly reached the age of' 104 years. After her death the plaintiffs, who are her grandchildren, claimed title to the 93 acres, which was then in possession of the defendant, their claim being that their grandmother Charity had only a life estate therein, and upon her death they were, entitled to the possession of their respective shares therein as remaindermen. The validity of this claim furnishes the principal issue in the case. The question involves the construction of the
“This indenture made the 27th day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-six, between Moses Dean, of the county of Ionia and State of Michigan, of the first part, and Charity Millard and her children, heirs of her body, of the second part, witnesseth: * * * have granted * * * unto the said parties of the second part, and to their heirs and assigns forever, all that certain piece or parcel of land, etc. * * * To have and to hold, the above-mentioned and described premises, with the appurtenances, and every part and parcel thereof, to the said parties of the second part, their heirs and assigns forever.”
It is the claim of the plaintiffs that in legal effect this was a deed conveying to Charity a life estate, with a vested remainder over in fee to her heirs in esse, subject, however, to be opened up to let in after born children, and that all of the children took a vested interest in the remainder, and that when Charity departed this life these children, or their descendants, were entitled to the possession of their respective shares.
The defendant took the position that an attempt was made by the deed to create an entailed estate, which, under the provisions of our statute, was converted into a fee simple estate in Charity. That if the language of the deed will not admit of this construction then it must be held that Charity Millard and her children in esse at the date of the conveyance took the lands as tenants in common.
It is extremely difficult to understand how an expert or a novice in making conveyances would have used the language contained in this deed if Moses Dean had requested him to draw a deed giving Charity a life estate with remainder over to her children. And it is just as difficult to understand how Moses Dean, a man of business sagacity, would have been content with such a deed after it was made and read to him if it were his intention to give Charity but a life estate. It would seem as if a deed which was supposed to convey a life estate but which made no mention of it would have naturally attracted the attention of even the lay mind of Moses Dean when it was read to him.
Under the claim that the meaning of the grantor was ambiguous, evidence of extrinsic facts was admitted under objection. The question really involved here is the legal effect which should be given to the language used in the deed. Parol evidence is not admissible to vary or contradict the legal effect of a conveyance. Sanborn v. Loud, 150 Mich. 154 (121 Am. St. Rep. 614). But waiving this objection we have been un
We have had many cases Called to our attention in support of plaintiffs’ theory, wherein property had been conveyed to a grantee and his children, or to a grantee and his heirs, and which hold that the first taker took a life estate, with the remainder to his children or heirs. An examination of these cases, however, shows that in many of them a life estate was expressly granted, or was implied from the restrictions placed upon the right of the first taker to deal with the property, or from some other phraseology in the deed which indicated a life estate. In others the estate granted had been declared a fee tail at the common law and thereby converted into a life estate by the force of the statute of the particular State. We have found no case, and none has been called to our attention by either counsel wherein the same language in a granting clause has been interpreted, although the briefs of both counsel show great industry. Being of the opinion that the language of the deed and the ex
A discussion of the numerous authorities brought to our attention in the briefs has been omitted because the wording in all of them differs from the wording of this deed just enough to make them of doubtful value. Our conclusion is that an attempt was made to create an entailed estate and that it was converted by the foregoing statute into an estate in fee simple in Charity, as grantee. With this view the judgment of the trial court must be reversed and a new trial ordered, with costs to the defendant.