16 Ga. 16 | Ga. | 1854
By the Court.
delivering the opinión..
Y/hether the intention of James Hopkins was to give the negroes to his daughter Amelia, as an advancement of so much of her portion in his estate, or as a present over and above that portion, or even as something in compromise of a claim which she set up against Mm, the instrument which he made to her, without the -necessity of having to do much if any violence to the words of it, is capable of subserving that intention. The rela- ■
At the time when James Hopkins made the admissions, he had, it may be true, parted with the “possession” of the negroes ; but if it be true that he had also parted with “all interest” in them, how comes it that his son, the defendant in error, can say that they are any part of the father’s estate, and claim them by inheritance ? The nature of ,the son’s claim, is such ,as to make it indispensable for him to concede that the father, at the time of making the admissions, had not parted with all interest in the negroes.
This being so, the admissions of the father hound the father, as they were against his interest; and what binds the ancestor binds the heir. Smith vs. Smith, (3 Bing. N. C.) And see Dartmouth vs. Roberts, (16 East. 344) Ivat vs. Finch, (1 Taunt. 141.)
^ The effect cf admitting the erNsnce, 4 is conceived, would have been, not to “'set up r v?” — not to make out the instru■•ment to be a will, but to k cut \ ?,.& deed — a conveyance on a valuable csr-sidoiation- — t? ? compromise of a claim'— • a conveyance, therefore, irreuocrbli — a cav;eyance conveying ¡a right in the present — a possession in the tr/oure.