161 Ga. 859 | Ga. | 1926
Lead Opinion
Mary Baines, her daughter, Leila Slade, and her son William M. Baines owned a tract of land as tenants in common. Three deeds conveying said land were simultaneously executed on November 9, 1918. (1) The daughter and son, in consideration of $14,000, conveyed it by deed of warranty to their mother, thus putting the whole estate therein in her. (2) The mother conveyed it to her daughter to secure the payment of $7000 due to the daughter on the purchase-price of the daughter’s interest. This deed contained a power of sale, authorizing the grantee, her heirs, executors, administrators, or assigns, to sell the land if the mother defaulted in the payment of the debt thereby secured. (3) The mother, in consideration of $1 and of natural love and affection, conveyed the land to her son for and during his natural life (reserving to herself a life-estate therein), with remainder, after the death of the son, to the daughter. The mother failed to pay the debt secured by her deed to her daughter. Both the mother and the daughter died. Thereafter, J. O. Slade, the husband of the
The court erred in holding that the security deed from the mother to the son attached only to her life-estate reserved in her deed to her son, and in not holding that said security deed attached to the whole estate therein. Knowles v. Lawton, 18 Ga. 476 (63 Am. D. 290). As the injunction was granted upon a wrong construction of the instruments involved, the judgment must be reversed. Hill v. Wadley So. Ry. Co., 128 Ga. 705 (57 S. E. 795).
Judgment reversed.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting. It is conceded, where two or more instruments concerning the same parties and relating to a common subject-matter are executed as a part of a single transaction and contemporaneously, that all rights concerning this single subject-matter and between these same parties are to be treated and construed as a single instrument. No proper construction can be reached otherwise; for in such circumstances all the parties are presumed to have a common interest in a reasonable ending touching the subject-matter in which all are interested. As heirs of a deceased husband and father, Mrs. Elizabeth Raines, widow, W. M. Raines, and Mrs. J. 0. Slade, son and daughter of James Raines, deceased, after fully administering upon his estate, were tenants in common in a certain tract of land. The record shows that the value of the land was estimated at $21,000 in the period of high prices in the year 1920. The widow was an old woman unable to labor; the son, a middle-aged man, as appears from the evidence, was also incapable physically to perform the hard manual labor required upon the farm. He had neither wife nor child to inherit his share of the land. The daughter had married a man who owned a tract of
Construing these three instruments as but part of a single contract, and clarifying any apparent ambiguities by the circumstances attending the execution of this three-headed paper, what was the intention of the parties? The cardinal, ever-essential rule which is paramount in the construction of writings making disposition of real property is to ascertain and give effect to the intentions of the parties who made or participated in making them; and there is another rule which has received the sanction of our laws in every court, that when there are two or more parties to a contract, and one of them knows the sense in which another is making a contract and that the view of the latter as to his rights is contrary to his own, the former will be bound by the construction which he knows is placed upon it by this holder of an adverse interest. Taking this view of the case, we think the trial judge correctly decided that when this family gathering was had in the office of the attorney, it was not an assemblage for the making of any stipulations or engagements between any two of the parties
The consideration of a deed is always legitimate subject-matter of inquiry, and the trial judge was amply authorized in the present case to find that this security deed was without consideration. The only evidence introduced as to that point was to the effect that J. 0. Slade, the husband of Mrs. Slade, had made advances, the nature, character, and amount of which is not disclosed, to his mother-in-law, and therefore this debt, if debt it be, was due not to the daughter but to J. 0. Slade, and falls within the rule that transactions between husband and wife are to be closely scanned, enveloped as they are in law in clouds of suspicion which demand proof as to the bona fides of the transaction. It may be
The sister, Mrs. Slade, has long been dead, and death prevents any expression by her as to the purpose of this trilateral contract; but if her purpose was to assure to her children the ultimate ownership of her father’s home place, it will be effectuated by the judgment of the trial judge, whereas it would be defeated by a different decision from that rendered by his honor. The record shows that J. O. Slade, the husband, upon the sale of the land under the security deed as administrator, is now the owner; where