151 Ga. 176 | Ga. | 1921
1. A testator bequeathed and devised as follows: “Second, I give and bequeath all the rest, residue, and remainder of my entire estate, both real and personal, to my beloved wife, Emily Harty Slade, to have and to hold to her, my said wife, and to her heirs and assigns forever. . . Fourth. After said indebtedness has been fully paid, I bequeath remainder of said land to remain undivided and under my wife’s control until her death. Should she decide to marry again, I then desire said estate to be divided equally between all the heirs of my body and Emily Harty Slade; she receiving a child’s part in lieu of dower. I hereby revoke all former wills made by me.” Held, that the second item of the will conveyed a fee-simple estate tó the wife of the testator.
2. The general rule is that courts will not by construction reduce an estate once devised absolutely in fee, by limitations contained in subsequent parts of the will, unless the intention to limit the devise is clearly and unmistakably manifest. Thomas v. Owens, 131 Ga. 255 (62 S. E. 218). See Crumley v. Scales, 135 Ga. 300, 308 (69 S. E. 531); Kimbrough v. Smith, 128 Ga. 692 (58 S. E. 23).
3. Subsequent parts of the will do not clearly and unmistakably manifest an intent to limit or cut down to a life-estate the absolute fee-simple estate conveyed in the second item of the will. It follows, therefore, that the father of the plaintiffs in error had no interest in the estate to convey, and the purchaser from him acquired no title thereto, for the reason that the entire estate belonged to the mother, she never having remarried after the death of the testator. The plaintiffs in error, as heirs at law of their deceased father, would take one share per stirpes in the estate of their deceased grandmother. The